How Leanne Morgan & Kristen Johnston Infused New Netflix Show With Heart

Leanne Morgan and Kristen Johnston spoke to ComingSoon about their new sitcom Leanne. The duo discussed the show’s balancing act between serious topics and comedy, their friendship, and more. The sitcom is now streaming on Netflix.

“Leanne’s life takes an unexpected turn when her husband of 33 years leaves her for another woman. Starting over when you’re a grandmother and in menopause isn’t exactly what she had in mind, but with the help of her family, she will navigate this new chapter with grace, dignity, and jello salad,” says the synopsis.

Tyler Treese: Leanne, Chuck Lorre’s show Mom kind of had a similar balancing act, but I wanted to ask you, because your character is showing real pain and has real emotional moments in this show. So, how is it balancing that with laughter and finding comedy and pain without it all seeming like a mockery? Because you do a really good job of threading that needle, but I can’t imagine that’s easy.

Leanne Morgan: Thank you. You angel. Honey, it was hard [laughs]. I did not know what I was doing, and it was my first thing like this. And so I just had to, in my mind, think how would I really feel if this happened to me. If my real husband did this to me, how would I would take to the bed?

I feel like the writers got every bit of how a woman would really feel. How her sister would help her through, how her little mom and daddy would take it, how her children would take it. I mean, there’s balance in the comedy, and I think we’ve got both. Yeah, I think we’ve got both.

Kristen Johnston: You nailed it.

Leanne Morgan: Thank you. You did, you angel. But I wanted it to have heart, it was important for me, and they got that. The writers got that.

Kristen, I loved you so much in 3rd Rock from the Sun, so I’m always excited to see you in anything, especially another sitcom. You’re still as funny as ever. You have such a fun scene partner in this with Leanne. How was it developing that sisterly chemistry with her?

Kristen Johnston: It just was the most natural, it was the only part of the show we didn’t have to work on. It was just there from day one. We trusted it. We trusted each other, especially in the trickier stuff, you know, and it was just pure pleasure, and that never really happens. It doesn’t happen that often in Hollywood, but it really was.

Leanne Morgan: Yeah. We’re really truly close.

Kristen Johnston: Yeah. We had dinner last night.

Leanne, I really like that the show feels very real and there’s an authenticity that is also in your stand-up that can be felt here. And I feel like a lot of entertainment is very coastal just by design of where it’s produced. I’m not from the South, but I’m from a rural area and this just felt like very real to me. How was it bringing your world on screen and showing something that we don’t always see on TV?

Leanne Morgan: Oh, thank you for telling me that, darling. It felt wonderful once I knew that they were really honoring, and Chuck Lorre said to me, “Leanne, I’m not from the South. I need your help.” Then Susan [McMartin] and Nick [Bakay] really tried. They would ask me because they did want it to be authentic. And I think a lot of people think they know how we are in the south, you know, and it’s kind of stereotypes. But I think they really listened to me and collaborated with me, and then they knew that church was a big part of my life and that my family’s a big part of my life, and they just nailed it.

Kristen, something you nailed was the Southern accent. Leanne is from Tennessee, but you’re from DC, though. How is she finding that right voice to complement her?

Kristen Johnston: You know, I really love her daughter Tess, who has the next-gen accent, it’s not quite as serious as Leanne’s, it’s a little softer. So that’s what I went with, or I tried to.

Leanne Morgan: ‘Cause my kids are raised kids in the city. You know, I was raised in a town of 500 people, so my mom and daddy, my sister, everybody sounds like me, but these kids are a little more city fun. Yeah. So she went with that.

Kristen Johnston: I went with that. I didn’t want to compete with that. I’m no idiot.