In season two of St. Denis Medical, Joyce Henderson (Wendi McLendon-Covey) is doing her very best to keep the hospital afloat as its executive director, but she’s constantly facing issues that really shouldn’t be eating up her time and almost always invite far too personal an investment on her part as she tries to scramble to turn makeshift solutions into lasting ones.
Awards Buzz spoke with McLendon-Covey about whether she enjoys it when Joyce is embarrassing herself and her favorite moments of physical comedy:
“Oh, I love it so much when she’s embarrassing herself because that just feels very true to me. She tries so hard, and when you try too hard, it never goes. I just think that’s very true, so it’s a lot more fun for me to play her when she’s embarrassing herself. I have to really give props to my stunt woman because the fall she took off of that stage during the opening of the birthing center, I still don’t understand how she got up and walked away from that after doing it over and over and over. Just the grandiosity of Joyce’s vision, she’s not a stupid person, but I think, again, she’s trying too hard and it’s clouding her judgment. But she does have a good heart and she does care about her staff.”
Her experience playing a doctor – or, more accurately, a hospital administrator – on TV may not make her a competent medical professional in the real world:
“I think I could get on the phone with an insurance company and really read them the riot act. But as far as the medical stuff, I never have to do that, so, no. We had a scene recently where Ron and Bruce are trying to give blood and Bruce is a total wimp about the whole thing and then you pan over to see that David’s character just took his own blood and is ready to get out of there. Oh, how that will never be me. Everybody out there right now is injecting peptides not knowing what they’re doing: that will never be me injecting myself with anything.”
Watch the video above to hear how realistic the set feels and what she’d like to see in terms of Joyce and Ron’s shared backstory.
Seasons one and two of St. Denis Medical is streaming on Peacock, and season one is also available to watch on Netflix.
