Yahoo Canada: Eh Listers – Sarah Chalke (Savion Washington/WireImage & Disney/Darko Sikman)
Sarah Chalke’s infectious, engaging, and electric on-screen presence makes her one of Canada’s most admired and cherished actors. She makes us laugh in Scrubs, How I Met Your Mother, Cougar Town and Rick and Morty, but also made us incredibly emotional in projects like Firefly Lane.
Born in Ottawa and raised in Vancouver, Chalke’s journey began at a young age. Specifically, in a musical theatre class she took with her older sister, Natasha.
“We loved it. … I can’t describe it,” Chalke told Yahoo Canada.
“I was a kid who … just wanted to be on a sports team. I tried out for every single team, … basketball, volleyball, track and field, [and] couldn’t make one team. A Team, B Team, C Team, nothing. And I remember getting to this musical theatre class, and we were singing and dancing, and I still remember the feeling now of doing that for the first time and going, ‘Oh, this is it. I love this.'”
That musical theatre class turned into a performing group with auditions to participate. Chalke didn’t make the cut, but her sister did, and Natasha actually scored the lead role.
“So [Natasha] said, ‘OK, then I don’t want to do it.’ And they called back five minutes later, and they were like, ‘We really want you to be the lead of this, so we’re going to take the sister as well,'” Chalke recalled. “I remember my sister had the lead role, and she had all this dialogue, and I was wearing all black with two other people with tiger masks. And we were in our tiger masks, moving side to side with our tiger paws, and I was in heaven. I was like, oh my god, we’re performing. We’re doing it. And I loved it.”
While that’s when Chalke fell in love with performing, it wasn’t until after she was on Roseanne, and then going into Scrubs, that she really thought she would make a career out of acting.
Yahoo Canada’s Eh Listers is an interview series with women and non-binary Canadians in film and television, looking back on their careers with unfiltered stories about their greatest projects.
UNITED STATES – MARCH 04: ROSEANNE- “Gallery” 1991 Sarah Chalke, Sara Gilbert (Photo by ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
Roseanne — 1993 to 1997 & 2018
When Chalke joined the cast of Roseanne, she was in a unique position: Auditioning for a role that was being recast, Becky, the oldest daughter of the Connors, originally played by Lecy Goranson.
“My entire body of work was working on some movies of the week where I would answer the phone and be like ‘Mom, phone!'” Chalke recalled, being 16 at the time of her audition. “Then when I got the audition for [Roseanne], I just put it on tape and sent … a VHS tape in an envelope, … and ended up getting the job.”
“I was in Grade 12, and it was the most fish out of water experience ever. I had absolutely no business being there. [It was] just a group of the most talented comedians and just watching John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf and Sarah Gilbert and Johnny Galecki, … Fred Willard and Martin Mull, and Roseanne [Barr], just take a script from a Monday morning table read, and how they would work with it and change it by the Thursday night. And I just remember watching all of them and being quite in awe.”
Reflecting on joining that show, Chalke, who was on the show from ages 17 to 21, sees that naivety she had at the time as an asset, given the circumstances of her role.
“I knew it was an incredible opportunity, but I don’t think I fully grasped just all of the expectations that would be put on someone taking over someone’s character, because that added a whole other element to it,” Chalke said. “And I just remember thinking it was unlike any other experience I’ve had, because I had never done anything in front of an audience.”
“That felt much more like a play. That part was really, really fun. And you get so much energy and adrenaline from the audience. But the whole experience of being on that set, it felt very new.”
LOS ANGELES – SEPTEMBER 19: “Shelter Island” — After Stella (Sarah Chalke) and Ted (Josh Radnor) make the spontaneous decision to get married in three days, the presence of their exes destroys what was to be the “happiest day of their lives,” on HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, Monday, Oct. 20 (8:30-9:00 PM, ET) on the CBS Television Network. (Photo by Monty Brinton/CBS via Getty Images)
How I Met Your Mother — 2008 to 2009 & 2014
While Chalke went to Scrubs after Roseanne, there was actually a period of time when she was coordinating the filming of Scrubs and playing Stella Zinman on How I Met Your Mother at the same time. We met Stella as a dermatologist who removed Ted Mosby’s (Josh Radnor) butterfly tattoo at a clinic where the receptionist was played by Britney Spears. As their romance started, they got engaged, but Stella left Ted at the altar.
Chalke was at a Pinkberry with her friend, MADtv icon Nicole Sullivan, when she got a text asking if she wanted to be on an episode of How I Met Your Mother, but she had to drive over right away.
“They shoot a hybrid comedy, where you rehearse Monday, Tuesday, and then you shoot Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and it was already Tuesday, and the person that was supposed to play the part had dropped out. … And so they needed someone right away,” Chalke shared. “I was like, ‘Yeah, I’d love to, of course, I’m on my way.’ And they’re like, OK, Britney Spears is going to be playing another part. And I was like, ‘Amazing.'”
“I remember getting there, and obviously, you come new onto a show, and there are so many different vibes that are possible, and I’ve experienced all of them, and this was the warmest group. They were amazing and so welcoming. And it was so fun to do. … It was just supposed to be one episode, and then they called and said, ‘Can you come back and do more?’ But I was going back to Scrubs the next week. And so [creator and showrunner Bill Lawrence] was really generous. He was like, yeah, we can schedule around it. We’ll make it work. So I [was] kind of doing Scrubs and How I Met Your Mother at the same time. So I didn’t sleep very much.”
So I [was] kind of doing Scrubs and How I Met Your Mother at the same time. So I didn’t sleep very much.
Firefly Lane — 2021 to 2023
The storytelling in Firefly Lane spanned just two seasons, but the Netflix series had a significant impact on fans. Based on Kristin Hannah’s book, Chalke played Kate Mularkey, starring alongside Katherine Heigl as Tully Hart.
Jumping back and forth between different decades, the show looks at this 30-year friendship, including Kate going through breast cancer, as two friends repair their rift. In an emotional ending, Kate dies peacefully while spending time with Tully.
For Chalke, the fact that the series was filming in Vancouver was a big draw of the project.
“I had moved back to Vancouver. I really wanted to work in Vancouver. … Katie Heigl and I have a mutual friend, and they called me and said, Katherine’s coming up to do this 10-episode Netflix series, and can I put you guys in touch so you can chat about schools and you could help her kind of get situated,” Chalke recalled. “So we chatted on the phone. We totally hit it off. We had a great time. And I was telling her about Vancouver. And I had no knowledge of what the project was she was going to be doing. And then completely separately, I was away on a trip maybe six weeks later, and I got this script in my inbox, and I read it, and I loved it.”
“I love this story of these two female best friends, and I thought it was telling a female friendship story unlike anything I’d seen. I really connected to it. And I got a call from my agents the next day, and they’re like, do you want to do it? They’re just going to offer it to you, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m in 100 per cent.'”
As Chalke described, Firefly Lane was a unique experience because it balances funny beats, fun elements from different decades, and really emotional moments.
“It was a job that was never dull, because in one week you’d be wearing leg warmers and dressing up as Madonna, and then also having to do scenes where you’re dying of cancer,” Chalke said.
But the part of Firefly Lane that did make Chalke “a bit nervous” was navigating Kate’s cancer diagnosis, and she said leaving her character behind after this show felt different from Chalke’s other work.
“We had lost my aunt to cancer in a way that was really challenging, because there wasn’t a lot of time. And so there was a piece of playing this part that I wasn’t sure how it was going to go,” Chalke said. “Everybody’s life is touched by cancer, and crew members came up to me throughout the experience, and a lot towards the end, and shared their experiences of it. And so I remember there were takes when they would cut and literally all of us would just be bawling.”
“I think in a situation like that, and for a show like that, you don’t always know, until you’re in editing, how you’re going to want to cut it together. You want to have the right amount of emotion. And so sometimes the director or I would be like, well, let’s have it both ways, just to be on the safe side, which was great in concept. But in practice, … I would be like, OK we’re going to get this shot, not crying, welling up, crying, sobbing, and so some days I’d go to work and have to cry like six times a day. So it was challenging, but it was really one of my favourite experiences.”
Some days I’d go to work and have to cry like six times a day. So it was challenging, but it was really one of my favourite experiences.
Scrubs — 2001 to 2010, 2026
This was a great year for Scrubs fans, as the show’s revival premiered and it’s just as joyous as the original concept from 2001.
Reflecting on initially booking Scrubs, Chalke recalled that after Roseanne, she moved back to Vancouver and attended University of British Columbia (UBC), and her plan was to go back down to Los Angeles for pilot season, which was from January to March.
“I rented a salsa dance teacher’s apartment, and she would teach salsa there during the day, and I would sleep there at night, and it was this one little studio with a bed, a fully mirrored wall and it was at a time when you didn’t get scripts by email, you’d drive to your agency, you’d pick up the script, you’d drive all the way home, you’d start to prepare,” Chalke said. “I had tested for seven things, and testing is when you go through a period of like six auditions, you get to the end, you sign the contract, it’s down to two of you, and you ride this emotional rollercoaster every time.”
“And I came back at the end of pilot season, and I hadn’t gotten one of the jobs, and I was not quite sure what to do. And my best friend, who had gone to film school at UBC, wanted to produce, and I wanted to act, and we found a six-month sublet. We just packed up her truck and drove down. And I don’t know that I would have come back and done it if we hadn’t gone together. … We had plans to go to a concert, and I had two auditions the next day, and I was like, I’m not cancelling our plans. I’m going to the concert. I’ll read them when I get back. … And I remember getting home, and there was an envelope that said Scrubs, and [another envelope], I didn’t even open it, because I opened the Scrubs one, and I started reading it, and I was like, this is the best thing I’ve ever read and it’s midnight at my audition’s at 9 a.m. … I read it and I was laughing out loud, and I was like, oh, this is so different, and it’s so unique. And it’s doing things that other comedies aren’t doing, and I just wanted to be a part of it so badly. … I got Scrubs, and stayed 17 years.”
Chalke said Scrubs has been her favourite creative experience, and it was also the job that really solidified that acting is what she wanted to do with her life, from the moment she got on set and everyone was singing songs from the musical Les Misérables.
“The juxtaposition of … then doing Scrubs after [Roseanne] was totally different, because I felt like I got to create a character with Bill [Lawrence],” Chalke said. “He had created Elliot, and I loved the writing so much. And then he is someone who really takes pieces of you and your life and your personality, and then stirs it into the pot, and then makes that all part of the character.
“Elliot was never a klutzy person who was hurting herself all the time, until they were like, oh this is Chalke, let’s put all that in there.”
Part of Scrubs’ legacy is that it was praised as the most accurate medical show, particularly for its depiction of the emotional toll and culture of hospital work.
“I feel like it was really neat how it was embraced by the medical community. We would have doctors coming up to us saying, even though it’s a comedy, it’s the most medically accurate show on television because it captures what it actually feels like to go through all these things, and to be an intern and to be young and to be trying your best. And the way that it approached grief and loss, and didn’t sugarcoat any of it,” Chalke highlighted. “It was a comedy, but it would hit you with a gut punch and really try and deal with what that felt like for the doctors to lose a patient, for the families to lose a family member.”
“It was really cool hearing back from the medical community, especially during and after the pandemic. I think, as a society, we know that doctors are heroes and are doing this because they care, and they’re choosing this helping profession. And then obviously the pandemic shone such a light on that, on how brave, how incredible all the doctors were that whole time. And we had doctors reach out to us, saying that they were rewatching and it was helping them get through the hard times. And I feel like that is one of my favourite parts about TV, is when it can be an escape for people in tough times. And so I feel like that’s kind of when it feels the most special. … I recently talked to someone, they were like, I was in the hospital for a year, and I just rewatched Scrubs on a loop. And so, if it can provide people with some laughter and some comfort, especially with everything that’s happening in the world right now, I feel like everybody needs to laugh.”
SCRUBS – “My Best Friend’s Barbecue” – While J.D. is upset to not be invited to Turk and Carla’s annual barbecue, he takes the opportunity to nurture his friendship with Carla at work. Turk teaches the surgical interns how to deliver bad news. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1 (8:00-8:30 p.m. EDT) on ABC. (Disney/Darko Sikman) ZACH BRAFF, SARAH CHALKE, DONALD FAISON, JUDY REYES (Photo by Darko Sikman/Disney via Getty Images)
That’s not to say that fans weren’t cautiously optimistic when it was announced that there would be a Scrubs revival. But what the first season of the revival has done incredibly well is stay true to the series’ core elements while still updating this world for a 2026 audience, with a great new cast of characters in the hospital.
“There are so many different ways you could choose to find a way back into the show, and I feel like the writers did such an amazing job of threading the needle, of figuring out … the balance between the old and then bringing it into 2026,” Chalke said. “We really wanted to recapture the grounded feeling of Season 1 and 2 of Scrubs. I think over the seasons, it got more and more broad, and in doing this version, I think Bill Lawrence and Zach [Braff] and Aseem Batra, who’s our showrunner, all wanted to really bring it back to that grounded feeling. … And if we wanted to do anything broader, that’s when we go into the actual fantasy sequences.”
“But there was the balance of grounding it in reality, and then the acting challenge of that too. … Overall, it felt like we all just slid right back into the characters. And the one challenge was that piece, how to bring it into 2026, and ground it.”
Christa Miller, who stars in Scrubs and is also in another project from her husband, Bill Lawrence, Shrinking, told Yahoo Canada that Zach Braff is one of her favourite directors in both shows. Chalke echoed her comments about the episodes Braff directed for Scrubs, the original seasons and the revival.
“Zach, when he directed episodes of our OG Scrubs, they were some of the best episodes that we had, and it was so great that he directed the pilot of the revival,” Chalke said. “He’s such a good director, and he obviously knows all of us so well, and it was really a pivotal episode, because we were figuring out what the tone was going to be of this new round.”
Chalke said she would love to move into directing in the future, but it’s more of a “bandwidth issue” at the moment, and she wants to observe how other directors work a little bit more.
“I’ve been so lucky to work with the directors that I’ve gotten to work with, so I’ll always ask them questions and kind of sit by the monitor and watch, and try and understand more,” Chalke said. “When I read a scene, I feel like I can see the blocking immediately, but I want to learn more.”
“I’ve got a nine-year-old and a 16-year-old, and we were back to work full-time, and so I didn’t have the time to do as much shadowing as I wanted to. But if we’re lucky enough to do it again, I would love to do more of that.”
But it sounds like Chalke’s daughter is a director or producer in the making.
With the Scrubs revival film in Vancouver, the hospital setting was impressively built in the Canadian city, following Chalke’s decision to raise her family there.
“Vancouver’s really the place where I wanted to raise my kids. We grew up so lucky, … getting to go skiing with our friends after school at the local mountain, … then you’ve got the ocean right there. … I wanted them to have that. … And also, just to be raised in Canada and raised in Vancouver and raised around family,” Chalke said.
“In terms of working there, the crews in Vancouver are so fantastic, and that was such a crazy left turn that it took with the Scrubs revival. Because when we started to chat about that, and I was hearing that it might happen, and then it got more real. … It feels like the biggest gift.”
Chalke has also loved having her children and nieces and nephew on set, with Chalke’s daughter being particularly interested in what was happening when the show was being filmed.
“My daughter loved it. She’d sit at video village with the producers and the director wearing the comtech, and she had a clipboard, and she would give Zach [Braff] and Donald [Faison] and I notes after every take,” Chalke said. “She’s like, ‘Mom, mom, too many facial expressions. Donald, I thought it was rude when you said that to that patient.’ And Zach will be like, well that’s a script note, and it’s a little too late for script notes, Frankie.'”
Looking ahead to Scrubs’ future, Chalke is interested in learning more about the backstories of the show’s new characters. She also supports the idea of having J.D. (Braff) and her character, Elliot, be divorced in the reboot, because the actor thinks it provides “much more room for comedy, and for drama” as they navigate what this new chapter of their relationship looks like.
“Elliot has become a very competent, great doctor. She’s still a disaster in some other areas of her life, but that piece of it, she’s really good at,” Chalke said.