'Schitt’s Creek’ Star Annie Murphy Details Crippling Depression Battle

“Schitt’s Creek” breakout star, Annie Murphy, who portrayed Alexis Rose on the Canadian comedy turned quarantine-binge series is getting candid about her crippling battle with depression.

The Zoe Report recently caught up with the Canadian actress to talk all things ‘Schitt’s’ and her new TV series, “Kevin Can F... Himself.”

Murphy’s new role is a complete 180 from Alexis, which fans should be intrigued to see. While most viewers only know her as Alexis, this new dark role couldn’t be further from her former character.

‘Kevin’ is about a working-class housewife (Murphy) who finds out her husband Kevin has spent most of their life savings leading her to begin a season-long plot to kill him as a means of escaping her dead-end life.

The world came to know and love Murphy for her portrayal of Alexis and her signature catchphrase, "Ew, David."

While she will forever be indebted to ‘Schitt’s’ for making her a household name, Murphy felt the need to do something very different in her next job as to not be pigeonholed.

“It was very clear that people wanted to see me as Alexis, or they’d say, ‘Oh, it's definitely not Alexis. She has brown hair this time,’” Murphy told the outlet. “It was really, really important to me to do something as far away from Alexis as possible, even as just a challenge for myself to see if I could do something else after doing one very specific thing and succeeding.”

‘Schitt’s’ ended its six-season run in 2020.

While the entire cast was flying high after its major success and multiple Emmy wins, Murphy was propelled into a dark place.

The end of “Schitt’s Creek” meant a return to job insecurity and her first LA pilot season in six years.

Prior to getting her break on ‘SC,’ the struggling actress had just three dollars in her bank account.

“Even though I was coming off the huge and mind-bending success of Schitt's Creek, I still had the very vivid memory of my life before Schitt's Creek, when I wasn't getting any work at all,” Murphy revealed.

Rather than feeling a little bit ‘A, la, la, la, la, la, la’ during the ‘Schitt’s’ live farewell tour in January 2020, Murphy was feeling a little bit, scratch that, very depressed.

She recalled to The Zoe Report barely even being able to perform. She relied heavily on her co-star Noah Reid, who played Patrick, to help her put on a “brave face.”

After shooting, Murphy would go home and cry 12 times a day.

“My mom was like, ‘You're crying 12 times a day hysterically, to the point where your teeth are chattering. That's not normal,’” Murphy admitted.

The ‘Kevin’ star ended up going to see a therapist where they diagnosed her with depression.

“I was like, ‘Damn it, I'm depressed,’” she says. “Ugh.”

Now, Murphy realizes that this confession could lead to backlash.

“A lot of people are going to think that I sound like I'm playing a tiny violin for myself,” she says. “‘Oh, you're rich and famous. Why the f*** are you sad? You have nothing to be sad about.’ But I'm not going to post photos of me covered in my own snot, lying on the floor, unable to get up. I don't want people to have to see that. And as excited as I was to get this huge part on ‘Kevin,’ I do not think if I had gone to work when I was supposed to go to work, I would have been able to do my job.”

Fortunately for Murphy the medication she is on for her depression is helping a ton! She is no longer on the floor crying 12 times a day, and she is able to focus on other things in her life!

“Kevin Can F... Himself” is available to watch now on AMC+.