“When you’re in a hospital, you don’t think anything’s funny, but I’m sorry, hospitals are hysterical.”
After 10 years of playing Beverly Goldberg on The Goldbergs, Wendi McLendon-Covey was not eager for a break. “I need to go do a job where I can just throw everything at it and then come home totally exhausted.” Luckily for her, NBC‘s St. Denis Medical was waiting. “I loved the premise of the show and I love this character.” McLendon-Covey plays Joyce, a colorful hospital administrator surrounded by stressed-out doctors and nurses at a quirky medical facility in Oregon. “When you’re in a hospital, you don’t think anything’s funny, but, I’m sorry, hospitals are hysterical. They’re not supposed to be, but there’s always something you can look at and say, ‘I’m glad that’s not happening to me.'” Joyce is another hysterical character in a long list of funny people McLendon-Covey has played. One in particular she can’t seem to shake: Deputy Clementine Johnson on Reno 911! The Comedy Central series has had many incarnations since it debuted in 2003. “Listen, crime will never go away. So we’ll always have a reason to get back together.”
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Editor’s Note: This conversation has been edited and condensed for publication.
How excited are you for this new show?
Oh, God, I’m telling you, I am so grateful for this show, because after doing 10 years on The Goldbergs, I thought, “Okay, well, I might lose my mind. I might go into a deep depression, because my family’s gone.” And when I say family, I mean like 200 people that were involved, that I was accustomed to seeing all the time. As weird as this sounds, and this is the truth, but the day that we got notice that the show wasn’t coming back, I got the script for this, like four hours later. It was like, “I don’t know,” but then I read it and I thought, “Well, this is kind of cool.” Because it’s the exact opposite of what I just played and I think I could do this justice. I thought about it for a week or two, and was like, “Yeah, let’s do it.” I’m useless at home. I’m a danger to myself.
Ron Batzdorff/NBC
I think that says a lot about you as a performer. Like the need to work and stay creative.
I feel that too. But I also love working. I love creating. I love being on set with people. I need that. I need to go do a job where I can just throw everything at it and then come home totally exhausted. That, to me, is the best for my mental health. But also, I loved the premise of the show, and I love this character, because she is not Beverly Goldberg.
She’s very different. Not a nurturer.
Which is weird to say about someone in the health care industry. But the thing is, “She was an oncologist and then became an administrator.” So to my mind, she probably said, “Well, I’m sick of insurance companies telling me what to do. I’m going to beat the system from the inside and that’s really how I’m going to make my impact.” And sometimes, as working adults, you check your watch and 25 years have gone by and you’re like, “Oh, shoot, I forgot to have a family. I forgot to have interpersonal relationships.” She can’t keep a plant alive. She just works and pushes this hospital uphill in front of her, trying to get donations. It’s a safety hospital. They’re always chasing money. And this woman has the feeling that, “I’m going to turn this itty-bitty safety hospital in rural Oregon into a destination medical property. Forget Turkey. No, you’re gonna come get your mammograms at St. Denis Medical.”
People are going to be flying from Fort Lauderdale for this mammogram.
Hell yes. And they’re gonna say, “We picked it because they’ve got that Instagrammable koi pond.”
Ron Batzdorff/NBC
I think what makes this character so perfect is that it’s yet another example of how you take characters who should be fairly normal and put your own unique spin on them. Like in a way you make the normal unnormal somehow. It’s such a skill.
Well, first of all, I thank you for that, and I would say that’s probably because I had normal jobs for so long. I’ve worked on set with actors who were like, “I don’t know what people do in an office.” Well, use what’s right in front of you. You see a stapler, start stapling something. But I had my side job all the way up until The Goldbergs. From 2000 to 2013 I had my side job, so think of all the things I did in that time. I was in my dressing room editing manuscripts or doing whatever it was, just a part-time job, but I would notice things like when I went to turn my work in, there’s always some petty nonsense going on. Like a note on the microwave, “Don’t cook Bok choy in here. Stinks up the whole office.” Just the petty stupidity of people’s immediate surroundings, use that. Life is pretty dull. That’s the thing about working full-time, not in the industry, your day is not exciting, usually. There’s stuff you have to put up with. You’re killing time a lot of time. Yeah, yeah. And all that stuff is very on the surface for me. It’s right there, very easily accessible. I have enough in my brain to be able to make a scene work as a working-class person.
Considering how good you are with improv, what is it like working on a set with people who maybe are more tied to the script? Is there still improv?
They’re pretty good about letting us have our fun runs. They’re pretty gracious, like when we just can’t help ourselves, if you see something in the moment and you just have to take a leap, they’ll let you do that, because that’s the great thing from a comedy standpoint. But when you’re in a hospital, you don’t think anything’s funny, but I’m sorry, hospitals are hysterical. They’re not supposed to be, but there’s always something you can look at and say, “Oh, I’m going to get the church giggles.” “Yes, I’m glad that’s not happening to me, but this is funny.” And the great thing about St. Denis, and props to our set decorators and our props department and all our consultants that come in make us look like we know what we’re doing, but it’s scarily realistic, like you almost don’t want to touch anything because you don’t want to make anything unsterile, but you can. It’s props. But that’s how good everything looks.
How do you find that balance between when you are allowed to play and people who want to stick to the script?
Well, you got to take it set by set, because sometimes it is encouraged and other times it’s just not. And they’ll let you know right away. So, depending on what your role is, if you’re a day player on something, just stick to the script. Maybe ask the director, if we got it, is it okay if I try something? If you’re good with the scripted version, can I have one more take? Usually, they’ll give it to you.
Ron Batzdorff/NBC
Your voice is so specific to you. How have you honed your own voice over the years?
Wow, I’m not sure I can answer that. I guess the only thing I can say is I try to just tell the truth of the situation, and I try not to embellish, just tell the truth, because, oddly, that’s where the funny comes. Trying to make something go right after it went sideways. So the frustration of trying to right the ship is where things get funny, you don’t have to do a lot of embellishment. You just have to play that reality and that frustration and all the mental tricks your character would come up with to make things right.
Considering you’re so well known for comedy, do you ever want to expand from that into drama?
Well, I have done a couple of dramatic things. Yes, and I do love it. I don’t know that people have seen enough of me doing that, so I would love to do more. I just like working, yeah, yeah. And listen, I’m open to those opportunities, but also, it’s the story that’s the most important thing. I just want to tell the story. I want to be whatever part of the story is good. I don’t care if I play waitress number four, I just want to be a part of that process. I love it.
Are you amazed that people are still loving and talking about Reno 911!?
Yes, I can’t get over it. It’s never really been off the air ever. And the fact that we got to, right before the [COVID] shutdown, get together and do more episodes for Quibi, as short-lived as that was, and we squeezed out two more movies. Come on! Incredible. So that just goes to show you, you don’t know what’s gonna happen. You just don’t. This business is not linear. It goes up and back, there’s highs and lows. You just never know where it’s going to go. And what an honor, because that was my first big job. I’m thrilled that people resonate with it. I mean, I can’t tell you how many times though I have been sent that drunk driving stop. Oh my God. People saying, “Have you seen this?” Have I seen it? I lived it. And that was the first thing I filmed for them. I’m really proud of the stuff we did on that, and I just can’t believe I got to be a part of it. I still am blown away that it resonates with people. But listen, crime will never go away. It’s always going to be a story. So we’ll always have a reason to get back together. If it comes up again, of course we’ll be involved.
I know this is unlikely, but I just need you to know how much we, as fans, need another Bridesmaids. Need! Would you want that to happen?
I mean, of course, of course, that would be so much fun. I don’t see that happening. But listen, in the realm of what is possible, they just did another Beetlejuice after 40 years, so who knows? We could be a bunch of old bridesmaids, celebrating someone’s fifth marriage. Who knows! Bridesmaids 2 comes out when we’re in our 70s.
And I’ll be there day one with popcorn.
I think we should do it then. I mean, of course I would, we would all come back for that. I just don’t think it’s going to happen.