{"id":449815,"date":"2026-02-05T04:16:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T04:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/449815\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T04:16:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T04:16:17","slug":"whitney-leavitt-on-chicago-potential-mormon-wives-exit-after-season-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/449815\/","title":{"rendered":"Whitney Leavitt on Chicago, Potential Mormon Wives Exit After Season 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWhitney Leavitt<\/a>\u2019s world is widening.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 32-year-old is best known for Hulu\u2019s \u201cThe Secret Lives of Mormon Wives<\/a>,\u201d the addictive reality TV series she broke out from as the villain in Season 1, though she\u2019s garnered more sympathy over time. But if everything goes Leavitt\u2019s way, the unscripted genre won\u2019t be her main claim to fame a few years from now. Though Season 4 of \u201cMormon Wives\u201d drops on March 12, her focus is elsewhere: Monday marked her Broadway debut as Roxie Hart in the ongoing Broadway revival of \u201cChicago<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis was always the plan. \u201cI have a distinct memory of being in college with my husband while we were dating, and he asked, \u2018What do you want to do?\u2019\u201d Leavitt says, sitting across from me at a Times Square Italian restaurant after a \u201cChicago\u201d rehearsal. \u201cI was like, \u2018I want to be in the movies.\u2019 It was always something I\u2019d thought in my mind, but I had never said it out loud, and I didn\u2019t know how to get there. Like, \u2018Where do people go?\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s strange, at first, to imagine a version of Leavitt who was so reticent to admit her dreams. These days, she\u2019s known for her shameless ambition, and back then, she was a fine arts major with a dance concentration. A career as a performer would have been a logical goal.<\/p>\n

\n\tThen again, despite her coursework and her upbringing as a competitive dancer, Leavitt didn\u2019t come from a culture that expected her to pursue a career at all. She and her husband \u2014 Conner Leavitt, also a fixture on \u201cMormon Wives \u2014 attended Brigham Young University, the Mormon Church\u2019s flagship school. \u201cLooking back, I do wish that I would have ventured out to other universities, because it was very conservative,\u201d she says. In 2019, the year after she graduated, a study<\/a> found that female BYU grads made an average income of $800 per year by age 34. (No, there aren\u2019t any zeroes missing from that stat.) In other words, the world was telling Leavitt to become a full-time homemaker.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd that\u2019s what she was for a number of years. She and Conner had their first baby in 2019.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was starting to lose my sense of self,\u201d she says. \u201cYour time is designated so much to this one human being that even when you have time for yourself, all I could think was, \u2018What did she eat today? I\u2019m gonna have to get up at this time. I didn\u2019t get this at the grocery store.\u2019 That was my life \u2014 and that\u2019s not the life I wanted to live.\u201d So she changed it.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou can like the life you\u2019re livin\u2019 \/ You can live the life you like,\u201d Leavitt was singing on stage just minutes ago, rehearsing \u201cNowadays,\u201d the bittersweet Roxie-Velma duet that leads into the \u201cChicago\u201d finale. As we walk from the Ambassador Theatre to the restaurant, she gasps, wide-eyed and delighted, \u201cWe\u2019re actually getting to eat during this interview? I want carbs!\u201d When we sit down, she apologizes over and over for needing a minute to look at her phone \u2014 \u201cDon\u2019t hate me,\u201d she pleads, and she seems to mean it earnestly \u2014 which she hasn\u2019t checked since her interview on \u201cLive With Kelly and Mark\u201d before rehearsal this morning. We begin tearing into the free bread basket, and she grins, warning me that she likes to bite straight into the butter rather than spreading it onto the bread. We talk about her career at length over meatballs, and then she heads home to Conner and their three children, who are waiting for her in an apartment on the Upper West Side.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThese are the kinds of days she dreamed of back in the throes of early motherhood. During that come-to-Jesus moment when she realized she didn\u2019t like the path she was on, \u201cI was like, \u2018Let\u2019s stop groveling,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201c\u2018Let\u2019s get off our ass and see what we\u2019ve got. I have an iPhone, and I\u2019ve got a free app where I can shake my booty and create funny videos.\u2019\u201d She became a TikToker.<\/p>\n

\n\tThough Conner always supported her, others in Leavitt\u2019s life were wary of her fledgling social media hustle. \u201cTelling my family and friends, it was just such a joke to them. \u2018Why do you want to do that?\u2019 \u2018Wow. Good luck,\u2019\u201d she recalls. \u201cAnd I knew it was crazy. Like, I\u2019m a mom! But they thought it was this childish thing, while I felt like I needed a platform to put myself out there.\u201d And even when the content was silly \u2014 dancing, lipsyncing, joking about parenting \u2014 it carried meaning for her. During some of those difficult postpartum days, scrolling on TikTok \u201cwas an outlet for me,\u201d she says. \u201cI was like, \u2018I just want to think of nothing! I just want to look at my phone.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tWhitney and Conner Leavitt, holding one of their children in an episode of \u201cThe Secret Lives of Mormon Wives\u201d Season 2.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDisney\/Fred Hayes<\/p>\n

\n\tBeing in movies was still the plan, and Leavitt felt sure that she could get herself there. But in the meantime, she focused on finding any way she could to make money entertaining people. For years, she posted three to five videos per day to figure out what would stick. In the process, she found other Mormon moms on TikTok who were not only building sustainable incomes but outearning their husbands, becoming the rare female breadwinners in their community. As they befriended each other and began posting content together, their audiences grew. The group became known as #MomTok, and their videos evolved into a sensation.<\/p>\n

\n\tYet Leavitt felt conflicted about the rise of #MomTok. \u201cThe brand deals were nice. They were fun,\u201d she says. (And they brought in a lot of money<\/a>.) \u201cBut my goal wasn\u2019t to be an influencer, right? And that\u2019s what I was becoming.\u201d Still, she figured that staying the course would pay off. \u201cI would get together with these other women who didn\u2019t necessarily have the same goal in mind, because I think that most of them enjoy being an influencer, and there\u2019s nothing wrong with that,\u201d she says. \u201cI enjoyed it because, for one, I loved the camaraderie, but also putting myself out there in avenues where you\u2019re gonna see more of me. Then the reality show presented itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe thought \u201cThe Secret Lives of Mormon Wives\u201d would be her big break, and it has been. The show premiered on Hulu in September 2024 and immediately surpassed \u201cThe Kardashians\u201d to become the streamer\u2019s most-watched reality premiere of the year. But that success has come at a cost. \u201cWe were just excited to get a bigger platform, and that\u2019s also how it\u2019s presented to us. \u2018Look at this diamond. So shiny and cute!\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018It is! Give it to me!\u2019\u201d Leavitt says. All of a sudden, the interpersonal dramas that she normally would have resolved in a group chat or over the dirty sodas the show made famous were streaming on Hulu for the world to see \u2014 and to tear her apart.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe early episodes of \u201cMormon Wives\u201d establish Leavitt as the foil to Taylor Frankie Paul, who founded #MomTok. Paul made headlines in 2022 for revealing that she and her husband were divorcing after she cheated on him with one of their friends \u2014 and that the friend was one of many with whom they\u2019d been \u201csoft swinging.\u201d The news snowballed, with Paul\u2019s online audience assuming that other members of #MomTok had also been sexually involved with Paul and her husband. (Every \u201cMormon Wives\u201d cast member denies this, with the exception of Miranda and Chase McWhorter, who joined in Season 2.) But it also got Hulu\u2019s attention, landing the women of #MomTok their own TV show. If Paul was the show\u2019s scandal-wracked but goodhearted star, Leavitt was its holier-than-thou villain who hated to share the limelight. The other women often met her passive aggression with direct confrontation, leaving her in tears. That pattern didn\u2019t go over well with \u201cMormon Wives\u201d fans, who have often criticized her for having a \u201cvictim mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLeavitt knows she\u2019s made her share of mistakes on \u201cMormon Wives.\u201d Her sins against her castmates in Season 1 included skipping Paul\u2019s baby shower, giving Demi Engemann an embarrassing gag gift related to her sexual history, leaving the #MomTok group chat, unfollowing everyone on social media, skipping Mayci Neeley\u2019s business launch event and showing up uninvited to Mikayla Matthews\u2019 birthday party to apologize to Neeley. The kinds of offenses that can feel nuclear and even relationship-ending within the context of a friend group \u2014 but that don\u2019t typically earn you death threats. Unless you\u2019re on camera.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI didn\u2019t watch reality TV. I still don\u2019t. So I went into it very naive,\u201d Leavitt says. \u201cAnd people forget that before you film, people are talking to you like, \u2018You\u2019re about to have this conversation with so-and-so, and she\u2019s pissed.\u2019 It gives me so much anxiety. I\u2019m like, \u2018What do you mean she\u2019s pissed? What? Now I\u2019m scared!\u2019 Like with Mikayla\u2019s birthday party, I was bawling my eyes out before walking in those doors. But nobody would have known that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs online hate poured in after the release of Season 1, Leavitt was inconsolable. But now she laughs at herself for the same thing her critics jabbed her for. \u201cSometimes, when something bad happens to you, you only think of yourself,\u201d she says. \u201c\u2018Woe is me. Me, me, me, me, me. This is why I\u2019m the victim.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNow an Emmy-nominated hit with a massive following, \u201cMormon Wives\u201d films at a breakneck pace; the March release of Season 4 comes only 18 months after the series launched. So Leavitt was angsty and exhausted by the time contract renegotiations rolled around after Season 2, and when she didn\u2019t get what she wanted, she quit. As revealed in one of the show\u2019s signature fourth-wall breaks in the Season 3 premiere last fall, she had asked Hulu for a role on a scripted series and was turned down. She decided that if being a reality TV star wasn\u2019t going to offer a more concrete path toward her artistic goals, the emotional cost had become too high. Leavitt bought a house in Southern Utah, five hours away from production in Provo, and moved her family there. Then producers called to say that \u201cDancing With the Stars\u201d wanted some \u201cMormon Wives\u201d to audition, but she\u2019d have to rejoin the show if she wanted a shot.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI had a really long conversation with Conner. Like, \u2018I don\u2019t know how to feel like myself and do this experience,\u2019\u201d she says. When Leavitt watched her own actions on the show, she saw a woman in crisis, responding to artificial pressures instead of acting on her true instincts. But \u201cDancing With the Stars\u201d was exactly the kind of opportunity she\u2019d hoped to nab when she first got on TikTok. After a long week of mulling it over, Leavitt decided to confront the anxieties that made her feel like a victim in Seasons 1 and 2. \u201cI was like, \u2018You know what? Fuck that.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tLeavitt returned to \u201cMormon Wives\u201d with a new attitude. She\u2019d been absent for the first four episodes, and when grilled by her castmates about why she\u2019d come back in Episode 5, aptly titled \u201cThe Book of Resurrection,\u201d she was transparent about prioritizing the \u201cDancing With the Stars\u201d audition over her #MomTok friendships.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI always knew what I wanted. I\u2019ve never been ashamed of it,\u201d Leavitt says. \u201cI\u2019ve learned as I\u2019ve grown up that that\u2019s sometimes a turn-off for people, but that\u2019s just a part of who I am. And the women knew that. They knew I\u2019d always had this goal in mind. It was a matter of: Give me that one shot. I want to show everyone how much I love doing this and put art out there, so hopefully it leads to more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tObviously, her admission caused more drama among #MomTok. But that no longer wounded her the way it used to.<\/p>\n

\n\tLeavitt instituted a pre-game ritual for every \u201cMormon Wives\u201d filming session. It\u2019s not exactly prayer \u2014 Leavitt still considers herself a Mormon despite that she\u2019s \u201cdefinitely not as active as I used to be\u201d \u2014 but it works for her. \u201cI take a big fucking deep breath,\u201d she says, laughing, \u201cand I have a song I listen to.\u201d (She alternates between \u201cCould Have Been Me\u201d by The Struts and \u201cGolden\u201d from \u201cKPop Demon Hunters.\u201d) \u201cI envision myself at peace. \u2018Let me reground myself because I know shit\u2019s about to hit the fan, and I want to be as authentic as I possibly can.\u2019\u201d She stopped trying to avoid the drama \u2014 which would be an unreasonable goal on reality TV \u2014 and instead focuses on showing up to the drama as her truest self. It makes for good television without wrecking her mental health.<\/p>\n

\n\tLeavitt doesn\u2019t spend much time anymore thinking about the way her scenes are edited.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cReality TV is hard, because you have to be willing to understand that there\u2019s a story we\u2019re telling, and you can\u2019t keep everything. We signed up for that,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cDid I know that in the beginning? No. But I know it now. It\u2019s a story they created \u2014\u201d she corrects herself \u2014 \u201cSorry, not created. It\u2019s a story they put together. So sure, there were parts left out where I was like, \u2018Maybe I would have gotten more grace if that was kept in.\u2019 But it\u2019s entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEven when she knows she\u2019s at fault, Leavitt is less concerned about viewers\u2019 opinions. \u201cI think the important thing is recognizing it, trying your best not to do it again, but then also being like, \u2018Well, I\u2019m a human being, and you don\u2019t have to like me.\u2019\u201d She pauses, then blurts, \u201cBecause I also probably wouldn\u2019t like you!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThere are still hiccups. \u201cI\u2019d be lying if I didn\u2019t say on-camera emotions are naturally heightened. I\u2019ve had conversations where I\u2019m like, \u2018That was way over the top,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cSomething happened in Season 4 and I messaged one of the women \u2014 which everyone\u2019s gonna see, because I lost my shit \u2014 like, \u2018Bro, I\u2019m so sorry. That was completely out of line.\u2019 When there\u2019s a camera in front of me, I feel an unspoken pressure to perform. I\u2019ve talked about it with some of the women, and a lot of them agree. We\u2019re like, \u2018What is that? I would have never freaked out that much, but I did, and it\u2019s not like anybody told me to. I just did.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLittle by little, she\u2019s working on healing her #MomTok relationships. When asked how she\u2019s doing with the other women today, she quips, \u201cI would say, \u2018great\u2019! And then \u2018good\u2019 for some of them. And then \u2018OK.\u2019 But no bad.\u201d The geographical distance between her and the rest of the cast has helped. Portions of Season 4 were shot while Leavitt was in L.A. competing on \u201cDancing With the Stars\u201d \u2014 because, of course, she did end up getting cast, as did her castmate Jen Affleck.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tWhitney Leavitt and Jen Affleck after learning they were cast on \u201cDancing With the Stars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDisney\/Fred Hayes<\/p>\n

\n\tLeavitt\u2019s opportunism was paying off. Early into her run on \u201cDancing With the Stars,\u201d she found out she\u2019d been cast in her first feature film: a Christmas rom-com called \u201cAll for Love.\u201d Then, just a day after she\u2019d privately told her dance partner Mark Ballas that Roxie Hart would be a dream role, the producers of \u201cChicago\u201d reached out to ask if she\u2019d like to audition. \u201cI was like, first of all, fuck yes. Secondly, I need to learn how to sing right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLeavitt started taking vocal lessons and learning monologues. Though she was never asked to do a dance audition, she and Ballas planted a covert one on national television when they competed with \u201cCell Block Tango,\u201d one of the most iconic numbers in \u201cChicago.\u201d They made it to the semifinals of \u201cDancing With the Stars\u201d before they were eliminated, with many online speculating that the timing of \u201cMormon Wives\u201d Season 3 and the reveal of her unabashed pursuit of the audition pushed viewers to vote against her. Still, the cards were stacked in her favor: She was widely being discussed as the most skilled dancer on her season, and her in-person \u201cChicago\u201d audition was approaching.<\/p>\n

\n\tThen came the whirlwind of Leavitt\u2019s life. She flew from L.A. to New York for her audition two days after her \u201cDancing With the Stars\u201d elimination on Nov. 18. The official offer to play Roxie came the next day. The day after that, she found out that ABC had arranged for her and Ballas to professionally tape the freestyle they\u2019d hoped to perform as \u201cDancing With the Stars\u201d finalists \u2014 set to a mashup of Frank Sinatra\u2019s \u201cMy Way\u201d and the \u201cMormon Wives\u201d theme song \u2014 paired with a lengthy interview on Alex Cooper\u2019s popular podcast \u201cCall Her Daddy.\u201d Leavitt then spent two weeks shooting \u201cAll for Love,\u201d headed back to Utah to get her family packed for the winter and moved to New York to start \u201cChicago\u201d rehearsals a few days before Christmas. In the six weeks since, while learning all her lines, songs and choreography, she has been intermittently followed by camerapeople documenting her \u201cChicago\u201d experience for Season 5 of \u201cMormon Wives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s a lot. And it doesn\u2019t seem to be stopping anytime soon. When I ask Leavitt whether she\u2019s in talks for any unannounced projects, she bats her eyelashes and takes a nibble of the Nutella focaccia pizza she\u2019s ordered for us to share. \u201cMaybe,\u201d she says. \u201cMaybe another movie. Not a rom-com. A thriller.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHer dreams are getting more specific now. \u201cWe need another \u2018Step Up,\u2019\u201d she tells me. \u201cIt needs to be a limited series. But can we mix it with a bit of \u2018American Horror Story\u2019? A little more edgy, and not so campy.\u201d A Ryan Murphy project is at the top of her wishlist, she says more than once, and she saw him when she attended the premiere of \u201cThe Beauty,\u201d but her gut told her it wasn\u2019t the right time to introduce herself. \u201cBut I said hi to Ashton [Kutcher],\u201d she says, \u201cwho thought I was a different Mormon wife. That\u2019s OK. We all kind of look alike.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMark Ballas and Whitney Leavitt during the \u201cDancing With the Stars\u201d Season 34 semifinals.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDisney\/Eric McCandless<\/p>\n

\n\tThe experience of shooting \u201cMormon Wives\u201d Season 5 in New York away from her castmates has been \u201cvery lonely,\u201d Leavitt says, \u201cbut they\u2019re all gonna come to opening night. I\u2019m excited to see everyone. But then I gotta get up the next day and do the show again. Am I even gonna be able to get together with them before my next show?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIf it\u2019s this tricky for Leavitt to schedule a hang \u2014 and crucially, a filming session \u2014 with #MomTok even when they\u2019ve traveled across the country to see her, her future on \u201cMormon Wives\u201d looks murky. \u201cThey\u2019re following me while I\u2019m in New York, but I don\u2019t know how that would look for future seasons. It wouldn\u2019t make sense. People want to see the group together,\u201d she says. \u201cPart of me is like, \u2018I can\u2019t do both,\u2019 because both are so time-demanding. Even filming Season 5 has been really hard.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnd I need to crush this role,\u201d she continues. \u201cI want producers to come. I want writers and directors to come. And I want them to be inspired, to be like, \u2018Let\u2019s create things together.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo I ask: Besides her friendships with her castmates, which she could theoretically maintain even if she left \u201cMormon Wives\u201d \u2014 \u201cAnd I would,\u201d she cuts in \u2014 what does she gain from staying now that she\u2019s booking the roles she always dreamed of?<\/p>\n

\n\tFor the first and only time during our nearly two-hour interview, Leavitt falls silent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter a full 10 seconds, during which I assume we\u2019re both picturing headlines about her exiting \u201cMormon Wives\u201d to join the Murphy-verse, she answers truthfully: \u201cI don\u2019t know. Because this is what I wanted, and I wasn\u2019t shy about sharing that. So at what point do you move on to the next journey?\u201d She and Conner \u201ckeep going back and forth,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s where it all started, so it\u2019s kind of sad. But maybe that\u2019s the best thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis time away from Utah has also given Leavitt some much-needed space from her \u201cdevout, exact obedience\u201d to the Mormon faith she grew up with. \u201cI still have those same core values and standards,\u201d she says, but \u201cmy 30s have been the first time I\u2019ve questioned things.\u201d Her oldest child is six \u2014 two years away from the age of baptism in the Mormon Church. Leavitt still wants to go through with that tradition, but she also wants to raise her kids to think for themselves. \u201cThey may grow up and be like, \u2018Well, what do you mean?\u2019 I don\u2019t drink alcohol, right? But they might be like, \u2018Well, I want to drink.\u2019 And I\u2019d be like, \u2018OK.\u2019 That\u2019s the journey I\u2019m on right now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe journey has also led Leavitt to consider how \u2014 and whether \u2014\u00a0politics should factor into her life as a public figure. \u201cOf course I have opinions. Of course I hate what\u2019s going on right now. It\u2019s really sad and it\u2019s disturbing, and it makes me angry,\u201d she says, referring to ICE\u2019s ongoing raids in Minneapolis and nationwide. \u201cI do want to use my platform for good. I just don\u2019t know what that looks like. I don\u2019t know if posting on my Instagram story [helps]. I feel like I actually need to do more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tWhitney Leavitt as Roxie Hart<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEmilio Madrid<\/p>\n

\n\tBack at the theater, where I watched Leavitt chatting and getting feedback from her \u201cChicago\u201d castmates and choreographers, she seemed just like the no-holds-barred version of herself she debuted in \u201cMormon Wives\u201d Season 3 \u2014 but warmer, happier. It\u2019s easier to be your best self in a production that depends on your success than it is in one that zooms in on your darkest moments. And that sounds obvious, but it\u2019s something Leavitt has had to learn in real time.<\/p>\n

\n\tEven now that the pain of becoming a reality villain has subsided, it hasn\u2019t stopped feeling bizarre. \u201cI don\u2019t feel like I did anything that bad. You would think I had brutally killed someone from the commentary you hear online,\u201d she says, laughing. That\u2019s part of what makes Roxie, who does brutally kill someone at the beginning of \u201cChicago,\u201d such a delicious alter ego for Leavitt.<\/p>\n

\n\tLeavitt may not be a murderer, but she sees herself in Roxie\u2019s ambition. \u201cSometimes when I\u2019m playing her, I\u2019m like, \u2018This hits a little too close to home.\u2019 She\u2019s like, \u2018Please, no pictures!\u2019 But \u2026\u201d In character, Leavitt shimmies one shoulder and gives a sly grin, like she\u2019s posing for a photo anyway. \u201cWe might share that in common.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat has Roxie \u2014 whose crime turns her into a celebrity until a new murderess steals the spotlight \u2014 taught Leavitt about fame? \u201cIt\u2019s not something that you can rely on,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s true, Roxie\u2019s star status is fleeting. But as her story ends, her career on the stage presses forward. (And \u201cChicago\u201d itself is the longest-running American show in Broadway history.)<\/p>\n

\n\tSo Leavitt has also gleaned a few lessons about endurance. \u201cRoxie\u2019s always known what she wants, and she was never afraid to say what it is,\u201d she continues. \u201cShe\u2019s curious. \u2018Oh, you did it that way? I\u2019m gonna try too.\u2019 I can relate, because I\u2019m still learning in this industry. I\u2019m like, \u2018OK, that\u2019s who I need to suck up to? Great. I can do that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYou can see the gears turning in Leavitt\u2019s mind as she says of Roxie: \u201cShe\u2019s a villain, but she gets to be a hero. She took circumstances that were out of her control and was like, \u2018How do I keep this going?\u2019\u201d Listening to her speak \u2014 a Broadway lead who two years ago was just a TikToker in Utah \u2014 it isn\u2019t hard to believe that Leavitt will keep going too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whitney Leavitt\u2019s world is widening. The 32-year-old is best known for Hulu\u2019s \u201cThe Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[157,88,13285,105206],"class_list":["post-449815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-chicago","tag-entertainment","tag-the-secret-lives-of-mormon-wives","tag-whitney-leavitt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}