Catherine O’Hara didn’t just have notes for the writers of “Schitt’s Creek” — she would rewrite entire scenes “from top to tail,” according to Dan Levy.
O’Hara died on Jan. 30 in her Los Angeles home after a brief illness. She was 71. On Monday’s episode of podcast “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend,” Levy recalled working with his friend and co-star on the award-winning sitcom
O’Brien told Levy, “I remembered thinking it was such a nice thing for Catherine to have that role during that last decade of her life, where she was playing someone who was beloved, because people love the character and they’re really getting to see yet another way that she’s really funny. … It was such a nice thing for her that you made happen.”
Levy responded: “She made it happen. I just made sure that I was prepared. That’s really what it came down to. Like so much of Moira Rose was Catherine.” He recalled Seth Rogen once telling him that O’Hara would send emails the night before a shoot that said “Gentlemen, some thoughts about the scenes we’re shooting tomorrow,” and “it would be a full top-to-tail rewrite.”
“And as soon as he said it, it was like: I got those emails. The ‘gentleman’ — it always started with ‘gentlemen, some thoughts’ — and then it was an unbelievable rewrite of the scene. And that is what the amazing, all the great Catherine roles were when she found collaborators that wanted to give her that platform,” Levy said.
Levy continued, “You know, because she had so much to offer, and she was so, the way that she thinks is so on another level that as a writer, you can’t get into her head. So all you can really do is set the table, wait for the email, ‘gentlemen, some thoughts,’ read the scene and say, ‘Fuck yeah.’ You know, and like, just be prepared.”
Levy also revealed that he often stops and watches clips of O’Hara from the show when he sees them online.
“The crazy thing about it is that I’m still like, you know, I go on Instagram and her face is there and Moira’s clips from the show are all over the place,” Levy said. “And I, every time I see her — even though I wrote the thing — I stop and I watch, and I’m watching not for anything that I did, but I’m watching because she is impossible not to watch. And she’s impossible not to love and she’s, it’s impossible not to laugh with her in anything she does. And it’s, it is like an unimaginable loss. She was just an irreplaceable talent and an irreplaceable person.”
On the podcast, O’Brien asked Levy if he owns the costumes from “Schitt’s Creek,” noting that Sarah Jessica Parker owns the dresses from “Sex and the City.”
Levy responded: “Are you fucking crazy? Do you understand how little that show cost? We had to sell every piece of clothing to pay off the debts that the show had, even in our sixth season. We got no cash. It was like slim pickings from the very beginning, and then incremental sort of, I think it’s like a standard 15%, whatever it is, that your budget can increase, but 15% on like a pile of shells and a feather is not giving you much.”
Although they had to sell most of the “Schitt’s Creek” wardrobe, Levy said, he kept four “looks” from his character, as well as O’Hara’s Moria Rose and Annie Murphy’s Alexis. “Unfortunately, my dad’s suits, we can just buy in a store. So I have some,” Levy said. “The retrospective will be small, but I do have some of the looks.” Said O’Brien, “So the museum is going to be like a little nook in a mall.” To which Levy replied, “It’ll be a corner.”
O’Hara starred in “Schitt’s Creek” alongside Dan Levy, Eugene Levy and Annie Murphy. The show followed a wealthy family who became penniless overnight after falling victim to fraud. “Schitt’s Creek” premiered on Canadian broadcaster CBC in 2015 and ran for six seasons until 2020. In the U.S., the series is available to stream on HBO Max.
Dan Levy had previously said he was considering a “Schitt’s Creek” sequel series before O’Hara’s death.
Watch Levy’s appearance on SiriusXM’s “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” at this link.
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