Actor Eugene Levy thought he was up against the real "Schitt's Creek" when he was offered his latest job. The producers at AppleTV+ wanted him to host a travel show. There was one minor problem: Levy doesn't like traveling.
"It's not that I hated traveling," he insists. "I just didn't love traveling. I never loved traveling. I don't love the airport experience. I'm not a fan of sightseeing generally. So, when I get there, it's just like a long trip with much too much planned in a day, and it didn't really mean that much to me. So, I'm not a great traveler. I don't have a great sense of adventure. I'm not curious by nature. I'm not proud of any of this, but it's just a fact," he shrugs.
"So, I always thought I was the wrong person for this job when it was originally pitched to me. I thought there were people who probably could handle a travel show better than I because I don't have the attributes it takes to front a travel show."
It was his intractable unwillingness that convinced producers David Brindley and Alison Kirkham of the series "The Reluctant Traveler" that he was definitely the guy for the job.
Levy, known for his comic improvisations on "SCTV" and films like "Armed and Dangerous" and "A Mighty Wind," really struck pay dirt when he co-wrote, co-starred and co-produced the series "Schitt's Creek," which first aired on PopTV and glided over to Netflix.
There the show harvested a cornucopia of attention, earning two Screen Actors Guild Awards and 19 prime-time Emmy nominations among other kudos. The Canada-born Levy had finished "Schitt's Creek" when he was approached about the travel series. "When the first phone call came in about fronting this show I said, 'They have the wrong person.'
"I said, 'I mean it sounds like an exciting show for somebody, but this is not the person, so please (he told his agent) say no.' And then I get a call back saying, 'Well, they want to have a conversation with you.' And I kept thinking, 'OK, well then what's the point? I've already said no.' I said, 'OK, I'll talk to them and then I'll explain to them myself.'
"So I get on the phone with (producers) David and Alison from Apple TV+, and I went through a list of reasons why I'm not the person who should be doing this. I'm sure there's somebody better who could be doing a show about luxury hotels around the world. And I tried to keep it light," he recalls.
"So I was getting laughs. Every reason I was saying, 'I'm not the person,' I'd get a laugh on the other end of the phone and I'm thinking, 'Well good, this is working. Because I'm getting my point across and it's all being — it's all light. There's nothing heavy about the conversation, so that's good.'"
"And then what I didn't know until later was that after that call, David and Alison got on the phone and I think David's the one who said, 'That's the show! Somebody who is not fond of traveling doing the traveling. That's the onus of the show.'"
The different format was pitched to Levy, who says he finally cottoned to the idea. "I said, 'OK, all right. I get that.' I get that because I just didn't think I was the qualified person to front a travel show in any capacity or regard, and now I get it. This is about a person who doesn't like to travel, traveling. So yeah, that I get.'"
Even so, Levy, 76, who is known for spooling out a panoply of comic personalities, found it difficult to be himself. "I've spent my life doing character work as a comedic character actor," he says.
"Very comfortable being in character in front of a camera. But being myself is something that always made me a little nervous. So, that was a big factor in doing this as well. ... If there was a reason I didn't want to go to a particular place around the world, to me, it was a legitimate reason. It's just not worth the trip to do that. I probably wouldn't have that much fun or enjoy it that much. Obviously, when you travel with other people, family or friends or whatever, you do things because everybody's doing it — but in my heart — is it truly an exciting venture? No!"
The series helped change his mind. "This show is actually getting me involved in things that I'm finding are truly interesting and exciting — things that I would never have done if I was traveling on my own," he admits.
The show, which begins streaming Friday, also taught him something about himself. "I'm actually revealing more of myself than I ever have in my life," he confesses. "I'm a very kind of private person. But, I've been kind of opening up and revealing my inner thoughts on this show, something I rarely have done in my life."