Conversation with Eugene Levy takes a while to settle into. His deadpan delivery, buoyant trademark eyebrows and earnestness are all too familiar. They are all too Johnny Rose — the Schitt’s Creek patriarch and a character Levy has described as being “as close to me [in real life] than anything I’ve done in my career.” It’s hard to separate the man from the fictional motel mogul.
Schitt’s Creek is perhaps the most perfect TV show to have ever been created. In September 2020, during its sixth and final season, the life-affirming Canadian sitcom made history by sweeping up nine Emmy Awards — the most ever for a comedy in a single year. “I’ve definitely been on a comedown, though we were riding that high for quite a bit,” he tells me. “It was one of the most amazing nights in our lives, let alone our careers. It was truly a record-breaking night and it’s nice to have that under your belt.”
Levy co-created the show with his son Daniel Levy — his daughter Sarah also plays cafe owner Twyla in the show and his longtime collaborator Catherine O’Hara stars as his wife Moira Rose. A simple premise — the endlessly endearing show follows the pretentious and wealthy Rose family as they go bankrupt, lose everything and are forced to live in a motel in an arse-end of nowhere town. “It was nice to have that experience, doing a show like Schitt’s Creek, at this point in my life,” he says. “It’s nice to have that towards the end of your career.”
At 76, although he has no formal plans to retire, Levy feels like he’s “in semi-retirement.” He continues, “The only jobs I consider taking are the jobs I truly want to do. The idea of waking up and having nothing on the agenda is a good day for me. If I can find a day where deciding where to have lunch is the main thing, that’s heaven to me. I don’t need the work to stay stimulated.”
His new show, The Reluctant Traveller with Eugene Levy, should be a dream gig then: travel the world, stay in five-star hotels — bliss. But no. He is, by his own admission, interminably incurious and unadventurous. Like Johnny Rose, he also likes the finer things in life and his idea of a great holiday is a fly-and-flop resort in the Caribbean. “When my kids were small we would end up going to resorts in the Caribbean — to a place where there is a pool and a beach. Ultimately, the vacations that I truly found relaxing were those vacations where you’re just sitting in a pool, you’ve got a lovely piña colada, you know, maybe work in a round of golf and then look for a good meal.”
Fast forward then to Levy ice-floating in Finland, refereeing a sumo wrestling match in Japan and putting his hand up an elephant’s arse in South Africa (“one of my all-time worst experiences”) — all with a ‘this is the last thing on Earth I want to be doing’ air about him. Levy’s curmudgeonliness — for better or worse — has become part of his schtick. “You know, you get stuck in your ways and you just say, ‘Well, that’s who I am’. And sometimes you end up saying ‘no’ more than ‘okay.’”
In his eighth decade, the eight-part Apple TV+ series has finally challenged his world view, he says. “I have regrets. I see it now. I think this show has done really wonderful things for me personally. It’s definitely made me, overall, I guess, a better person. Maybe a more enlightened person than I was and, you know, before the show, I was almost proud of the fact that I was who I was, in saying ‘no’ to things. I think looking back, that wasn’t a terrifically admirable quality. You just think that’s who you are and you can get quite comfortable in that. Just telling people, ‘leave me alone, that’s what I do and that’s who I am.’ You can easily fall into that. I did.”
Levy isn’t exactly roughing it though. He stays in some of the finest — and most expensive hotels in the world, like Amangiri in Utah, a favourite with the Kardashian-Jenners, where rooms cost $3,000 per night. He’s unapologetic. “If you’re going to get me there, get me a good hotel. It’s not Naked and Afraid — we’re not doing that show. I don’t need to overly rough it to try and prove a point. The day I have to spend a night in a yurt is the day the show ends for me.”
So a Hollywood actor hosting a travel show. Sounds familiar. “I’m not coming for Stanley Tucci’s travel crown,” laughs Levy. “I love Stanley Tucci, I’m a fan of Stanley Tucci and I love watching his show. [But] I think, and I’m certainly hoping, the show is as good a travel show as any travel show that’s on the air. I think it’s good, I think our production values are really terrific, our team put together a truly great show with great production.”
Leaving the safety net of Schitt’s Creek, he says, was “frightening, frightening.”
“We did the TCAs (Television Critics Association) for The Reluctant Traveller — the press are in the audience, there’s a big stage and they put a big banner with the name of your show behind it. I’ve gone to that the past six years with Schitt’s Creek on a panel with three or four other people. [This time] it was just me. One chair in the centre of the stage and that’s when I realised, ‘Oh my god, it’s just you.’ It’s something I’ve never done.”
His 50-year career has seen him appear regularly in Hollywood classics like American Pie, Father of the Bride II, Bringing Down the House and Cheaper by the Dozen 2. He’s also worked with O’Hara, 68, on-and-off for years (they even once dated briefly). In short, he has always been surrounded by the familiar. “Being a character actor I’m very comfortable getting my laughs through character. This is just me and I’m not that kind of person. I don’t want to be at the front of the room doing the interview.”
His new series is unscripted — yet another source of anxiety for Levy. “A lot of [the fear] was about how I could handle myself hosting a show like this and that was scary because I’ve really never done that before. Also, to make it truly work it had to be more revealing for me — I had to reveal my inner thoughts, how my mind is working and basically my phobias and everything had to come out to make the show make sense.” You can feel his palpable panic jumping through the screen during one particularly funny scene in which he’s forced to have a session with a forest therapist.
Although long a reliable presence in Hollywood, critical acclaim and this particular level of household name success has come later in life for Levy. Much like it has for another of his former co-stars from American Pie and Best in Show: one Jennifer Coolidge, who has captured a new generation — and won every award going this season — with her delightfully unhinged performance as Tanya in The White Lotus.
“She is having a great renaissance and deserves every part of it,” he says. “I think part of it is that she had a vehicle for it. She’s friends with Mike White who created The White Lotus and he wrote an amazing part for her — because he knew what it was about her that made her click and made her an individual. Because there’s nobody right now that does what she does, which is kind of like a structured insanity. The things that come out of her mouth that seem so wacky are really based in truth in a way.
“More power to her. It’s about time. We certainly got a sense of that when we were doing Best in Show twenty-three years ago. But The White Lotus was the star-making vehicle that she needed to get her out there.”
And what of a Schitt’s Creek reunion? “We’ve both said, Daniel certainly has said, that of course we’d love to do it and get back together with this group again but there would have to be an idea that’s strong enough. Whatever it is would have to elevate itself from where we left off Schitt’s Creek. We’d love to work with everybody again. It really depends on coming up with the idea that seems to make sense.
“Right now, there is nothing being planned but we’re certainly open to it.”
