Abby Elliott (Chris Elliott's daughter) played Alexis in the Schitt's Creek pilot; however, after the show was being shopped around, she was no longer available for the role, Murphy told Vulture. "I auditioned for Alexis and I got a call from Dan [Levy] after my first audition, asking me to also audition for Stevie," she said. "So I ended up testing for both of those ladies."
Eugene had a hard time envisioning Murphy as Alexis because of Murphy being a natural brunette. "Eugene was having a really, really hard time wrapping his head around the fact that Alexis is blonde and Annie Murphy is brunette," Murphy told Vulture. "He couldn't quite get there, so Dan had to tape pictures of blonde hair on my picture. It finally got through to him, thank goodness."
