Glamour has an interview with Leanne Morgan of Netflix’s hit series Leanne. (This came out a little while ago but it’s new to me.) Leanne plays a grandmother in her 50s going through a divorce. I wasn’t familiar with Leanne Morgan before reading Kismet’s story about Kristen Johnston so I saw her standup special and started watching the show. I was surprised at how funny and heartwarming it is! It doesn’t hurt that I’m a woman of a certain age, also living in the south, and that the people seemed familiar to me. I’ve read that Leanne is conservative-coded but apart from the church-going I haven’t noticed too much (I’m in Virginia, though, take that for what it is). I’m only about halfway through the series.

In Glamour, Leanne describes how she was approached by Chuck Lorre (The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men) with his idea for the show. She’d already had two other television series attempts which were non-starters. Unlike her character, Leanne is still married and she’ll tell you about it in her standup. She said her character is confusing to some people, particularly her 90-year-old dad, who thought she was getting a divorce. Here are some excerpts from this excellent interview, with more at the source.

On people thinking she’s getting a divorce
“When the show was first announced, people would go, ‘I knew he couldn’t handle her success. Chuck can’t handle her making money,’” she tells me over Zoom from her home base in Knoxville, Tennessee. “And even though my Chuck Morgan doesn’t have a personal Facebook page, he does for his business, so he sees what’s out there. He’ll say, ‘Leanne, people think we’re getting a divorce. You need to get on there and tell them otherwise.’ Even a little old man that lives in our town, 90-something years old, called my daddy and said, ‘I’m so sorry that Leanne and Chuck are getting a divorce.’ And I go, ‘Daddy, Beverly Hillbillies wasn’t true either. It’s not true.’”

“People are going to say what they’re going to say,” she says. But even so, “I’ll probably start reiterating on stage that I’m still married to Chuck Morgan.”

If anything, Morgan jokes that she plans to be more intimate with her husband now, especially if Leanne gets renewed for a second season. “I didn’t know how to kiss Tim Daly,” Morgan says of her love interest on the show. “I kissed his bottom teeth by accident! And it was because I don’t make out enough with Chuck Morgan. We’ve been married for a hundred years. So I need to make out with Chuck Morgan more…”

Even if women are not going through a divorce, it’s important to know it’s never too late for anything. This character pulls her bootstraps up and moves on and her life isn’t over and she’s desirable.”

On bonding with Kristen Johnston
“We had instant chemistry, and she’s like family to me now. She coached me and encouraged me and lifted me up every day. She would say, “Leanne, you’re a natural.” I needed to hear that, honey. It was intimidating [starring in your own sitcom]. It was a lot to learn. She was so helpful to me and wanted to see me win.”

On how hard it was to make the show
“There was a lot of tears at first. I was very overwhelmed. I thought, Can I do this? I had to be my inner cheerleader and go, Yeah, you can do it—Netflix believes in you, Chuck Lorre believes in you. But it was a big learning curve. It’s different than stand-up. This camera blocking and how things move so quickly—it was very intimidating. But when I would get in front of that studio audience on Friday night, that would give me energy.

“For the first three weeks I was like, ‘Pack up your stuff. Maybe I’ve made a mistake. I don’t even know what I’m doing.’ And my daughter was like, ‘Mom!’ She had to almost slap me, like in a movie. And then, I just had to listen to Kristen. Thank goodness I had so much help. Everybody was so precious.Pixie, my hairdresser, who has been on every show Chuck’s ever done, was like, ‘You got it, Leanne. You got this’ Everybody just cheered me on, and I just had to go, ‘Okay, I’ve made a commitment. This is what I’ve always wanted.’

The journalist complimented her on how vulnerable she is on screen
“Thank you, honey. I’m in menopause, or on the other side of it. And let me tell you, I feel nothing. But you probably don’t want to put that in Glamour.”

On her second television deal falling through years ago
“I think that taught me that. I look back now, and that was not the time for me to get a television show. I had three children that were in elementary and middle school. I would’ve lived apart from my family, and I couldn’t have done that with little children. I was their mom. That was the most important job for me. Now I know when something doesn’t happen, that is God’s protection over me and that’s not what’s supposed to happen. If I know something is not meant for me, I can let it go. And this time, with Chuck Lorre, it moved so quickly and everything fell into place and went so well. It was meant to be.”

[From Glamour.com]

I’m not a fan of Chuck Lorre’s other shows, but Leanne has heart. No wonder Lorre wanted to work with her, she’s so likeable and funny. She’s also grateful to everyone who helped her, and you can see on screen that she has strong chemistry with her costars, particularly Kristen Johnston. I like her perspective about how earlier television deals fell through at a time when she had young children. I don’t know if I believe that everything happens for a reason, but I often think of the saying she mentioned that “man’s rejection is God’s protection.” I’m not religious, but it helps take the sting out of things. Maybe my friends in Virginia have rubbed off on me more than I’d like to admit.

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Photos credit: Joey Andrew/startraksphoto.com, Netflix via Netflix Press and Instagram