See all the photos from Entertainment Weekly's cover shoot with St. Denis Medical star Wendi McLendon-Covey

Movin' on up

“She's a former oncologist, so she thought, ‘I'm going to change things from the inside. I'm going to help out that way,’” McLendon-Covey explains of her character, Joyce, who brought in the documentary crew that follows the emergency room staff of the rural Oregon medical center. “Now she's kind of stuck in a position where all she does is beg for money all day, trying to find donors, trying to keep this place running, trying to keep morale up, trying to keep her own morale up. And it's very hard.”

All by myself

Work has also become a large part of Joyce’s identity, perhaps to her detriment. While she might have a sunny exterior, it’s all a facade for the benefit of those she leads. “This is her life. She will die alone. She's not a fun lady,” the actress says, laughing. “She's super efficient, very good at her job, but being good at that job means she probably doesn't have a lot of friends.”

Character work

McLendon-Covey received the script for St. Denis the same day she found out The Goldbergs was canceled. With her matriarchal days coming to a close, she knew her next role had to be “something completely different.”

“I didn't want to play another mom right away. I did that, and I was going to be closely associated with that,” admits the Bridesmaids and Reno 911 alum. “[Joyce] is a woman that cannot nurture anything. She cannot keep a plant alive. She has stuffed animals all around her office, but she could not mother a thing.”

A strange cat

When Joyce isn't at work, she has a few hobbies, one of which involves playing the marimba. Audiences will also learn about some of Joyce’s other “solitary pursuits,” as McLendon-Covey describes them. “Yeah, she is a bit of a weirdo,” the actress wholeheartedly concedes. “Would she call herself that? No, but I would.” 

In honor of

“I hope they feel seen and respected because they've gone through a lot in the past few years as well,” McLendon-Covey says of the real-life nurses and doctors who the show honors. “I think this is a journey that people will relate to because, listen, we don't want to, but we're all going to end up in a hospital at some point.”

Boss lady

Creator Eric Ledgin admits he and Justin Spitzer initially imagined Joyce as “a little more sputtering, maybe a little more outwardly insecure.” But “Wendi brings a strength that's just there no matter what. And that strength manifests itself in different ways,” Ledgin explains. “What she brought was way more active and interesting than maybe what I was picturing.” 

Adds Spitzer: “The fact that [Wendi] brought this boss energy is something that I'm grateful that we have, even though it may not have exactly been what I was picturing originally.”