Judy Reyes Says She’s ‘a Magnet’ for Playing Nurses as She Takes on ‘Secrets of Mercy Hospital’ Role

At this point, Judy Reyes knows her way around a hospital.   

The actress has often been cast to play a medical professional, including appearing as an ICU nurse in Martin Scorsese's 1999 drama Bringing Out the Dead and starring as Nurse Carla Espinosa on sitcom Scrubs, currently in the second season of its revival after nine seasons on ABC in the 2000s. However, when the time came for her to play battle-hardened Army nurse Kendra Williams in the juicy new Lifetime drama Secrets of Mercy Hospital, she was immediately intrigued.  

“I'm a magnet for nurses based on Carla, which is both the blessing and the curse? I wish it weren't that many nurses, but they've paid my bills,” Reyes, 58, tells My Lifetime, adding of Kendra, “the burden of proof is on me to make her a different person. The opportunity for that is a challenge as an actor as your career evolves.”   

The upcoming film follows Kendra as she gets caught up in a roadside emergency delivery, leading to her being tapped to assist the understaffed maternity and neonatal units at Mercy Hospital. While there, Kendra is forced to face a damning secret that has been hidden for years.   

Reyes, who shares a teenage son with her long-term partner George Valencia, also served as an executive producer on the project.  

“I was adamant about the shape of Kendra and her journey and [how it] affects everybody else,” she explains. “There were some things that I just needed to insist upon. The choices that I made in terms of performance on behalf of the character were really important to me. I'm really happy with it.”  

Lifetime’s Secrets of Mercy Hospital premieres Saturday, October 24, 2026, at 8:00 p.m. ET. Ahead of its debut, read on to find out what Reyes had to say about her new project, “riding the wave” of the Scrubs revival and representing midlife women like her.   

Secrets of Mercy Hospital isn’t your first project with Lifetime, as you’ve also appeared in Devious Maids and The Pregnancy Project. What about Lifetime keeps you coming back? 

I think they have very, very, juicy roles for women of a certain age, for women of color. And, they tell our stories, however dramatic or heavy or funny or ridiculous or absurd they can be.  

This film feels like a soap opera, where each layer you peel back, more drama emerges. Is that part of what drew you to this project? 

It was a great opportunity to be the No. 1 on a film that had so many twists and turns, ups and downs, and lefts and rights. The challenge as an actor, or as an executive producer, which was also the opportunity that drew me to the project, is to add the colors and add the waves and add your personal experience or your personal take to see if it flows with the tone of the film. I felt really valuable and responsible for such a thing in this one and excited to keep trying different things. Nursing doesn't get the props that doctors do. Nurses do all the work. I think that's the story here with this opportunity. 

Kendra is hiding a lot of secrets of her own. What was it like getting into the mind of this character and better understanding why she would want to harbor so much inside?  

I don't know that getting in her mind was as challenging as really connecting to the fact that this happens, because it's familiar. It's familiar from where I come from, where I grew up. It's very familiar now [with] what's happening [in the world]. What would someone do when they're little and they're in a situation where they're rejected by a parent because of something they did or a mistake that happened? How do you feel forgiven or redeemed? I think women really relate to that. You can't really make a mistake. You don't want to disappoint your boyfriend or your mother. You just want to go away to start all over again from somewhere new. But eventually, you have to confront it. I think the fact that she came back for her mother's funeral felt like she could come in without that burden, but there were so many other things that were affected by her choices.   

There’s the saying, “a woman is entitled to her secrets.” Kendra held on to her secrets for years upon years. Are you as good at keeping secrets as Kendra? 

F--- yes. I'm a first-generation American. My parents are from the Dominican Republic. So similarly, there was a pressure to be a good girl—a good, religious girl. It was almost a bit of a gaslight. You're kind of paralyzed in the idea of goodness or behavior. So, you keep a lot of things to yourself. Once I left my home environment, I was able to become myself enough to where those secrets didn't matter anymore.  

There are a lot of intense moments in the film, from the bathroom delivery to the confrontation between Kendra and Vaughn. What was the hardest scene you shot, physically or emotionally? 

The one that comes to mind immediately was when Kendra sees the baby's name on the wall and she thought it was gone, and how horrible she feels about that. It takes her to the person that she was then, instead of the person that she became—that person who's still punishing herself for not knowing how much of those secrets aren't things that she's hiding, but other people as well.   

What did the process of producing teach you about filmmaking? 

That even in the abundance of the opportunity, there are a lot of limitations—limitations depending on budget, where you are, what time you have to make, what you have available to you and your willingness to be part of making it work with what you have and what you're willing to insist on and fight on.  It requires some substantial preparation as well.  

Do you feel like your role in Scrubs better prepares you for one like this? 

I think so, but more in perception than anything. The burden of proof is on me to say that—even though I'm playing another nurse—it's a different person completely. You either want to live in the safety of playing the same thing, or, you want to take a chance and do something else. You see me the whole time [in Secrets of Mercy Hospital], so, what do I do with this? What layers can I put in it? What can I try? What risks can I take?  

[Being] surrounded by really talented actors always helps with Tahmoh [Penikett] and Suleka Mathew. He and I have great chemistry together. Suleka is one of my dearest friends. So to be able to work with her [is] just a safe space.  

Do you think about the longevity of Scrubs this go-round or are you just kind of riding the wave?  

I'm riding the wave, enjoying it as it goes. I'm taking advantage of it to set the tone for my future and my opportunity and ability to tell any kind of story. But, the reality of this business is the same. We don’t know what's going to happen, and even more so now because of technology and AI. Just embrace it, take advantage for however long it exists, and keep it moving.  

At this stage in your career, what’s most important to you about the roles you now decide to take on?  

Representation is mattering [most to me right now]. Telling the stories from my world, from people that look like me, that are like me: Latin people, middle-aged people, parents of queer kids, wives, menopausal. That is the world of everyone that's dear to me. It matters. This work feels more like a platform to be able to deliver on that..  

I’m doing a fundraiser at the Wilshire Ebell [Theatre] here [in Los Angeles] on November 6 called Freestyle. Freestyle music was born in the Bronx; it's urban Latino music, urban hip-hop. I was born in the Bronx. That music was huge, and it kind of faded away and gentrified into pop and mainstream music. But it's always sampled nowadays. It's been adopted by the indie indie rock scene in the '90s in Europe. We wanted to celebrate that moment in musical history, so we're telling a cool love story, and we're using it to benefit the women's soccer team that we own that is also all Latina..  

Lastly, as someone who has long worked with Lifetime, what do you think makes for a good Lifetime film? And, how does Secrets of Mercy Hospital carve out a lane for itself and stand out amid a continuous cycle of made-for-TV features? 

What makes a good Lifetime movie is messy women. You get to be messy because life is messy. You get to make mistakes and be flawed. You get to be forgiven and redeem yourself. You get to have love. You get to surpass pain and heartache and just get to be you at wherever you are in your life. All in one movie. Women respond to that; the audiences respond to that.