Up until she was hired to play overbearing mom Beverly Goldberg on “The Goldbergs,” Wendi McLendon-Covey worked a side job in addition to acting in films like “Bridesmaids” and shows like “Reno 911!” That gig, editing a social work journal on the campus of Cal State Long Beach, provided fodder for her newest role: hospital executive director Joyce in the NBC mockumentary sitcom “St. Denis Medical,” premiering Tuesday with two episodes.
“These people aren’t doing it for the money,” says McLendon-Covey on a Zoom call just before heading to the photo shoot for this story. “I mean pay them, pay them what they’re worth. Absolutely. But these people who have such a burden in their hearts for helping people, they work way past their shift time if they need to, they do things that the rest of us do not have the guts to do nor the stomach to perform.”
In the series from creators Justin Spitzer and Eric Ledgin, Joyce is not the one performing surgeries, but she is trying with all her might to keep the Oregon hospital afloat, even if sometimes her plans seem out of reach for the institution. The buttoned-up, pantsuit-wearing former oncologist is not a repeat of the eager “Goldbergs” matriarch, but the character maintains the actor’s knack for playing beleaguered exhaustion for comedic effect.
McLendon-Covey spoke to the Los Angeles Times about what she was looking for in a new part, haunted hospitals, and her love of playing a character with a pathetic personal life. This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
In “St. Denis Medical,” Wendi McLendon-Covey plays former oncologist Joyce, now the executive director of a hospital trying to keep her workplace afloat.
(Ron Batzdorff / NBC)
After doing so many seasons of “The Goldbergs,” how did you think about what you wanted to do next?
Well, I wanted to not play another mom right away, because I exhausted that premise. You know what I mean? I was looking to do the complete opposite. I would love to do the American version of a British show called “Happy Valley.” I wanted to do something that was not warm and cuddly at all. But a couple hours after we got the notice that we were not coming back, I got the script for [“St. Denis Medical”]. I was like, “I don’t know. Let me read it.” And when I read the role of Joyce, I thought, “Oh, I think I could do this. She’s crazy, but she’s not cuddly. It is a departure.” I thought, “Well, let’s just try it. We’ll see. Let’s see if it even gets picked up.” I really enjoy playing Joyce. She’s someone I think I could get into for a while because she’s such an oddball but is seriously good at what she does, just her people skills are lacking.
What does being exhausted by playing the mom feel like?
Bev was such an intense person that the character really kind of wore me out after a while. And any maternal instincts that I ever had, as small as they were, were absolutely sated by this character. I did it. Don’t need to do it in real life, because I did it. I felt all those feelings.
What spoke to you about Joyce?
She reminded me of a couple of women that I knew from other jobs that weren’t in this industry. Someone who really got into the medical profession for the right reasons but has now become so jaded that she’s on autopilot — she’s zooming toward retirement. What’s she going to do now? Quit and find another job? No. This is her baby. She’s going to see this through to the end. But boy, she sure put her personal life on hold for decades, and that I found interesting. Being stuck in your career that you are now really kind of starting to resent because it’s not about healing people all the time, it’s about bureaucracy. There’s a lot of people out there who are going through the same thing. In the case of Joyce, she can put on a bright shiny façade, but at home she is slamming doors and crying into her pillow out of frustration.
Wendi McLendon-Covey says her character Joyce “can put on a bright shiny façade” at work, “but at home she is slamming doors and crying into her pillow out of frustration.”
(Jennifer McCord / For The Times)
On the outside she’s all bureaucracy, but there’s a lot going on underneath. That really comes through in the second episode. How did you think about playing that?
That whole episode talks about work-life balance and how there’s our work face and our home face, and you don’t mix the two. Personal problems do not come to work, but how can they not? That’s so unrealistic. That’s a very old-school, like 1980s way of being at work. Of course your personal life is going to come into your professional life when you’re working more than 60 hours a week. I remember when I worked regular jobs, which I did for a long time up until I got “The Goldbergs,” I had a side job.
Even through “Reno 911!” and “Bridesmaids”?
Yes, 100%. That feeling of, “OK, I’ve got to get this done. And maybe my whole world is falling apart outside of this, but nobody cares. I’ve got to just power through it, I’ve got to play everything close to the vest. I don’t want anyone to see me as weak.” That’s so ridiculous, that we have to keep telling ourselves things like that just to get through the day.
McLendon-Covey says she worked a side gig even while working on “Reno 911!” and “Bridesmaids.” “Of course your personal life is going to come into your professional life when you’re working more than 60 hours a week.”
(Jennifer McCord / For The Times)
What did you do for your side job?
Well, I had been editing a social work journal on the campus of Cal State Long Beach from like 2000 to right before “The Goldbergs” started. And it was part-time, it was 20 hours a week, but it gave me structure to my life. I thought it was an important thing to get these social worker stories out there. I really have a soft spot for social workers because they’re not doing it for the money, at all. It was just so funny to switch gears and go into academia and hear just the day-to-day drudgery of being on campus and see the little signs of, “Don’t heat broccoli in the microwave, it stinks up the whole office.” Just dipping into that world every so often and being reminded of how things actually are in a normal workplace.
What was it like stepping into the mockumentary style?
Well, we did it on “Reno 911!” but that was a different thing because we were obviously copying “Cops.” You could see our mics, it wasn’t weird for us to talk to the camera. It was very much like, “We all know what this is.” [“St. Denis Medical” is] a little interesting because I don’t know that I will ever get used to just looking at the camera mid-conversation. At first I had to be reminded that I could do that and should do that. It still feels weird to me. But it works. I like the mockumentary style because sometimes the voice-over doesn’t match what’s being shown on camera. There are other jokes you can mine that aren’t verbal. I like it, but it is hard to get used to.
What was it like getting to know the cast on “St. Denis”?
They used to do things like have chemistry tests and ways for you to get to know your castmates beforehand. We did not have that with this. It was just, “OK, we’re off to the races. We’ve cast everybody. Let’s go.” I feel like we met each other at the first table read. It was pretty crazy. Everything was just like, “Yep, happy to be here. Let’s go. We’re going to make it work.” Luckily everybody is super cool. And David Alan Grier, come on. I’ve only loved him since whenever “In Living Color” started. Allison Tolman, good God, she’s a goddess. Every single cast member is a very specific spice in the spice rack.
What was the hospital set like?
The hospital set is so realistic that it makes me want to not touch anything. And we have amazing medical consultants to help us look like we know what we’re doing when it comes to taking blood or learning the terms of things. Now again, luckily I’m an administrator, so I don’t have to do these things. I talk mostly about insurance and payment, fundraising, but it is extremely important to nail that. But I do look around like, “Ew, what is that in that jar? Ew.” We did film the pilot in a real hospital. Actually, it’s shut down. And haunted.
And haunted, you said?
Yeah, I said that. The St. Vincent hospital in downtown L.A. [Note: St. Vincent is owned by Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong.] It’s been closed down, but everything was left there, like all the equipment and all the beds and all of these things. They re-created that perfectly on a soundstage.
“St. Denis Medical” features an ensemble cast. “Every single cast member is a very specific spice in the spice rack,” McLendon-Covey says.
(Ron Batzdorff / NBC)
When you were shooting at St. Vincent, did you feel like it was haunted?
I did, because I watch a lot of TikToks about abandoned hospitals. But the site rep said, “Don’t go wandering off. I didn’t believe in spirits until I started babysitting this place, and yeah, I hear voices all the time when I’m the only one here.”
Joyce could be framed as the villain of the show, but she’s not. What’s your take on that?
She is the penny pincher, and she’s the motivator for keeping everybody’s spirits up, sort of. And she is annoying. So yeah, she could absolutely be a villain. I’m not saying that she isn’t. She ends up being the scapegoat sometimes because people who are in charge are just going to be the scapegoat. She has to deliver unpleasant news a lot of the time to the staff. So that does feel weird sometimes, that Joyce is moving through the world knowing that a lot of people don’t like her. But I think the way they don’t like her is maybe an annoying family member that you’re like, “OK, you bug me, but you’re ours.”
Why do you love playing people whose personal lives are sad?
I love watching those people. I think we all do. That’s why reality television is so popular. For some reason, there’s something in me that loves playing characters who make you scream at the television saying, “Why did you do that?” I don’t know. I guess it’s a character flaw on my part. There’s something wrong with me.
