If you’re a Schitt’s Creek fan like me—it’s one of the only things that made me laugh during the early months of the pandemic—you know and love Annie Murphy, who stole our hearts through the TV screen as Alexis Rose. Now, the Canadian actress is teaming up with a company called Phexxi, a new hormone-free birth control, and helping to destigmatize the conversation surrounding women’s intimate health. I caught up with the comedienne on Zoom this week to hear all about the new campaign, her beauty must-haves and her upcoming projects we can look forward to over the next year.
First, I have to ask: How did Schitt’s Creek change your life, and was your goal always to do comedy?
“It changed my life 110 percent! But actually no, my goal was to be a theater actor and be in an off-broadway play one day, which is a goal I have not achieved yet by the way (laughs). I never really had these huge aspirations to do comedy, but I always loved to goof around and do little bits here and there. But it was a fight—I had to really to ask my agents to send me out for comedy, and it was a bit of an uphill battle for a while. Schitt’s Creek really was one of the first comedies I auditioned for, so I’m so glad it worked out the way it did because I feel like I really found my sweet spot with that.”
Tell me more about your partnership with Phexxi.
“This product is genuinely something I feel so passionate about having had a not-so-great experience on hormonal birth control. I started it when I was 16 and had really, really bad mood swings, and then I moved from that to the ring, and felt better about that because it was just a localized hormone. And then a couple years later, I was like wait, I’m still putting hormones in my body for most of the month, so I stopped that, and just stopped birth control altogether and just sort of crossed my fingers, which is not a great way to go about it either. When I found out about Phexxi, and I met the CEO, who is so driven and so passionate about the product, I knew I had so many women in my life who I love and want to be happy and healthy, so I really wanted to be a part of this conversation.”
Aside from being hormone-free, what else sets it apart from other birth control options?
“What’s so great about it is that you use it per time you have sex, so if you’re not having sex for 10 days, you don’t use anything. You administer it up to an hour before you have sex—or in the heat of the moment—and it’s basically like a tampon applicator, so it’s a gel you put in. It’s safe, it’s on your terms, it’s easy to use, and the number of ingredients in the gel are so few compared to what’s in other products out there.”
How can we help remove the some of the stigma that still surrounds birth control and women’s intimate health?
“I think sex, female reproduction and mental health are all such stigmatized things that are so incredibly avoided, even in this day and age. I think it’s so, so important to destigmatize these very common, very natural things, so that’s why I want to push that as much as possible and open up as many conversations about them as possible because I think that’s the only way to get to a point of normalizing them.”
I just watched the Phexxi commercial, and it’s so cheeky and fun! Is that going to be a social campaign or will it be on TV too?
“It’s going to be ALL over the TV!”
Let’s switch gears to beauty. What does your skin-care routine look like these days?
“My skin-care routine is very bare-bones and simple as possible, but I love the Weleda line of moisturizers—Skin Food is nuts, and I use that all the time. I also use the Sand & Sky Mask and exfoliant scrub. I also love the Burt’s Bees Radiance Body Lotion because it has little tiny pieces of mica in it so it sparkles without being like, OK ma’am, you’re wearing sparkles on your body. And then I was recently introduced to the ZIIP microcurrent device, and I’ve been neglecting my ZIIPing lately, but I was very committed for a while and I was like, ‘Oh, this is good, this is working,’ so I need to get back to it.”
Are you good at doing your own hair and makeup?
(Laughs) “No. My talents in beauty are putting on mascara and lip balm. I’m very good at both of those things—everything else is a challenge. Actually, my friend who did my hair today, I asked him to show me how to do a beachy wave, and he walked me through me it, but in five seconds, I was tangled up in my own hair with the curling iron at a terrible angle. I have a lot of work to do on that, but I’d just rather get outside and get on with my day.”
Are there any beauty trends you’ve tried lately that you loved?
“No, but I’ve been very intrigued because a couple of my friends have gone the Botox route, and one of them got a lip flip, and I was like, ‘Ooh that looks really good.’ I feel like if it’s done tastefully, you’re like, ‘Oh damn, you look really lovely.’ So I’ve been flirting with that idea, but I think I’m going to have hold off for a little while because I need to be able to properly move my face. We’ve already established a wrinkled-brow character in my new show, so for continuity sake, I have to hold off. But never say never.”
What do you do for fun when you’re not working?
“Actually, after making so much fun of my friends for their Peloton obsession, I have been sucked into that world and I love it. It’s the one form of exercise that I hate while it’s happening, but then when it’s done, I’m like, ’That was good and I’m glad I did it.’ So that’s been fun. It takes out the hassle of having to leave the house and go the gym—it’s not really a hassle, that’s just an excuse—but if the bike is just sitting there looking at me, and all I have to do is walk to it, I have no excuse.”
Do you have a favorite Peloton trainer?
“Cody Rigsby! [Laughs] I can’t get behind the trainers who are like, ‘You can do it babe, stretch up toward the stars!’ I need Cody to be like, ‘You know what I hate, summer bangs.’ I need that kind of distraction. I need him to talk about spaghetti and meatballs while I’m huffing and puffing. It makes the time go by faster.”
What new projects do you have coming up?
“We just found out that we got a second season of Kevin Can F**K Himself, which is super exciting. So I’m going back to that in January. I’m also really excited that I’m working on a movie now with two of my dear, dear buds from Schitt’s Creek—Rupinder Gill and David West Read—and we’re probably going to shoot sometime next summer. It’s just very goofy and very light, and it’s made us giggle a lot, so I’m really looking forward to that.”
