Dan Levy On Fame, Family & Fronting The Emmy Awards

The Canadian national treasure and host of the 2024 Emmy Awards discusses life, house hunting in London and the power of fabulous fashion.

Whenever I mention to friends that I am interviewing Dan Levy, they gasp with excitement. “I love him!” is the standard response, regardless of gender or geography. Schitt’s Creek was the low-budget, algorithm-free kooky slow burner from Canada that charmed and entertained us through the pandemic and beyond. Its characters were touching and tetchy, funny and fabulous, and it went on to win a record-breaking number of awards as well as a global fan base.

So I am nervous that I might be a tad disappointed when meeting Levy, the star and co-creator of the show, in a photographic studio in south London. When I arrive, the team have just finished photographing Levy, and he is sitting at a small table, being de-groomed by the make-up artist as the photography and styling assistants bustle around packing everything away.

“Hi there,” he waves. “How was your weekend?” Levy’s hair is shorter and more tousled than it was when he played David Rose; his clothes are more low-key – he’s wearing a cream mohair sweater, black jeans and his trademark bold-framed spectacles – and there’s a bushy moustache rising above the rest of his dark stubble.

He has an open, thoughtful and handsome face. I ask him if playing such a funny and lovable character puts pressure on him when meeting people for the first time. Are expectations perhaps unfairly high? “I don’t think it puts the pressure on at all. In fact, in a way, I like it,” says Levy. “As a very self-critical and anxious person I’m trying to appreciate that more.”

Levy is currently house hunting in Britain. Although he was born and brought up in Toronto and his home is in Los Angeles, he’d like to spend a few months a year here. He loves the fact that whereas when you visit a property in LA, the estate agents have dressed all the rooms, laid out food, and created an ambience that they hope will seduce you, here they open the door, tell you to show yourself around, and to mind the dog poo on the hall carpet.

He’s just spent the weekend at Houghton Hall in Norfolk – the very grand home to the 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley, a friend of the Prince of Wales – where an exhibition of work by the ceramicist Magdalene Odundo was being introduced by Levy’s friend, the fashion designer Jonathan Anderson, creative director of Loewe. Is Levy tempted to look for a place in the countryside or does he prefer London? “I love the country, but I need a partner first. The countryside can be lonely, and I already spend enough time alone.”

It’s hard to imagine why someone who is naturally shy and insecure would choose a career that involves standing in front of an audience (he was a presenter on MTV Canada for years), creating and acting in shows and films, and occasionally appearing at high-stakes fashion events such as the Met Gala in New York, dressed in fantastical creations that will be judged on social media. All the things he does professionally seem like the shy person’s nightmare.

“I’m actually having these conversations with a professional to try and understand how you can have a desire to perform and yet still be socially anxious,” Levy confesses. “To want to do something that comes with such exposure. And I know that, culturally, there’s this whole thing where it’s like if you want to get into performance or if you want to be an actor, then you kind of have to want fame. But I don’t agree. Some people like to build a whole famous world for themselves, but I know a lot of others – in fact, most of the people that I spend time with – who have a desire to perform because it makes them feel a certain way.” Does it make you feel a certain way?

“It does. I love the idea of examining a life that is outside of my own. I love the adventure of figuring out who a person is and stepping into their shoes and getting to play them. And then on top of it, I also love creating those worlds and creating those characters not just for myself, but for other people. Then you get the joy of meeting and casting other actors and watching them step into parts that you’ve written.” So you get to create whole worlds? “A little bit.” Like baby Jesus did? “Well, that would be the clickbait headline,” Levy says, laughing. “Yes, exactly like Jesus. I’m like Jesus.”

Levy, 41, says that, for him, the first day on set is the hardest. “You’re showing up [in front of] you know, 100-plus strangers. Often you don’t know the actors you’re about to perform with. And so, with all my self-doubt, I’m trying to show up and not screw things up for people. Usually after that first day, once you get the lay of the land, then the anxiety starts to go away, and you can actually be there for the reasons that you wanted to be there. So in going back to this duality of being an anxious person, but also a performer, it does play into the job.”

Fashion was a huge part of his character, David Rose, in Schitt’s Creek, as well as that of his mother, Moira, played gloriously by Catherine O’Hara, best known for roles in Christopher Guest’s mockumentary films For Your Consideration, A Mighty Wind and Best In Show. While in last year’s Netflix film Good Grief, which Levy wrote, directed and starred in, a key scene takes place in the Loewe store in Paris. Exuberant clothes can make a wonderful distraction or disguise for someone who wants to escape observation. Is he conscious of that?

Levy doesn’t think so: “I have always just loved dressing up. When I was younger my parents were not interested in fashion in any way. I was brought up to have a very practical approach to getting dressed. I would always be complaining about the fact that I wanted more. And now I think it’s a reaction to that, catch-up time.”

His father, Eugene Levy, the Canadian actor who, along with O’Hara, appeared in many of the Christopher Guest films, co-created and co-starred in Schitt’s Creek with his son, while his sister, Sarah, played Twyla Sands in the show. Meanwhile Levy’s mother, Deborah Divine, is a successful television producer. Tonight father and son will share the spotlight once more as they present the Emmy Awards together.

Levy Jr’s love of fashion was undimmed by his parents’ lack of interest. “I remember drawing gowns as a child. My parents, I think, had a suspicion that I was gay from a young age, but there’s just something about fashion that I’ve always loved. My mom tells a story – although I can’t remember this – about when I was in elementary school and I’d head off to class in one outfit, come back at lunchtime and get changed then go back to school in another outfit for the afternoon.” And how did that go down at school?

”It couldn’t have been that bad because I don’t remember being particularly bullied for it. But my parents always tell these stories,” he laughs. “Apparently I would give them both an approval check each time they left the house. They were going out for dinner or something and I would look at what they were wearing and give them a yes or a no.

“And my dad tells the story of how he was leaving to go on a trip once and he was wearing jeans and a shirt with a tie and a blazer. Apparently – I was like six or something – I told him, ‘From the waist up, great. From the waist down, gross!’ Even at that age I felt there was something inappropriate about wearing denim with a shirt and tie and a blazer.”

He had a point. Did his father change the trousers? “No, I don’t think he did.” I suggest he is now able to use his love of clothes as a form of story­telling; his passion for fashion informs the characters he creates. “Yes. I feel as a storyteller you can say so much through how someone chooses to dress. And Schitt’s Creek was obviously the greatest gift.

“I got to find pieces from collections I’d loved in the past to dress Catherine or Annie in,” he says, referring to Annie Murphy, who played his sister, Alexis.

“I got to touch and feel clothes that when I was younger I had admired from afar. We had no budget when we started, so I was on Grailed and eBay. Everything came from some kind of designer consignment site. I would search all year round. And then I would bring all the clothes into our costume department, we would unpack them, and then myself and Debra Hanson, the costume designer on the show, would take the clothes that I had bought and style them. It was the same with Good Grief. I wanted people to feel a level of aspiration to the clothes; I needed them to say something without being overwhelming.”

Good Grief, which was warmly received by critics, was a story about secrets, grief and a road trip to Paris. But what it also explored was the importance of friendship. Friendship groups for some – especially perhaps in the gay community – are like a second family. Is this how Levy looks upon his own social circle?

“Yes. Always. I’ve been single more than I’ve been in a relationship. And I think when you’re single and an adult, the relationships with your friends get deeper. As you live a life, the stakes get higher, the feelings get more complicated. The wisdom is there, but the wisdom is coupled with experience. So the stakes are very different. And to have a group of friends understand that, and be there in a way that is not family, is so important. I’m close with my family, but the kinds of conversations that I’m having with my friends are different. I wrote Good Grief to celebrate the friendships in my life.”

What he’s also achieved is to portray gay characters and lifestyles in a positive and enjoyable way without preaching. Was that intentional? “I don’t think you can ever actively intend to impact someone’s life, because that feels a little disingenuous,” he replies. “But with Schitt’s Creek I had the opportunity to tell a story, and nobody interfered in any way. The show started out on a tiny network and there were no corporate agendas. And that is generally what ends up softening the edges or changing the stories when it comes to gay people. And I knew that I had this window opening to me and I thought that if I didn’t do something special with it, when would I ever get that opportunity again? And so what was special about it was simply the ability to tell the life of a gay man, and eventually a love story, too.”

Although it’s done through humour and warmth, Levy’s been brave with the stories and characters he’s created. “Well, I know my slice of whatever this community is, and I try to write to that and to show it as much as I can. I ultimately want to write the kind of people I know, and if it connects with people, that’s great. And I don’t know whether this is because I’m a gay person in the entertainment community, and I know that we don’t get the same opportunities as other people, and I know that the opportunities that do come are very rare...”

Is that still the case today? “Oh, yeah. Absolutely. So I think that there’s an element of seizing the day; to do something that speaks to your life before you find yourself in a situation where someone’s asking you to put on a lisp and run around in a kaftan.”

Levy is shortly off to Boston for a few weeks to film a new drama alongside Amy Adams and Murray Bartlett (Armond in The White Lotus) and then plans to start writing again. Meanwhile, he’s house hunting, hanging with friends. These include Jonathan Anderson, for whom he’s appeared in numerous Loewe advertising campaigns and even directed a short film featuring himself and Aubrey Plaza explaining how to pronounce the Spanish label’s name (Lowayvay, for the uninitiated). I ask him how they became friends.

“I’d always been a fan of his clothes, right from when I could only afford a pair of his Campo boots, and then years later he posted something nice on Instagram about Schitt’s Creek. I love fashion, but there is a small handful of people within fashion who I really look to as people I want to meet. I messaged him and we started a conversation and became friends. And now I feel very lucky to be in and around the Loewe family and collaborating with them,” he says, having been the face of its campaign this year, shot by Juergen Teller, alongside Lesley Manville.

Before we finish, I put to him a round of five quick-fire questions that he only need answer with a word or two. First up: biggest love? “This is a very political one. Well, I guess my family. And the biggest love outside of my family was my dog, Redmond.”

Biggest fear? “Moths. I have a full phobia of winged insects. You don’t know where they’re going, they tend to come out of nowhere. Flying bugs. And being buried alive. Close second to a moth.” Biggest regret? (I tell him this interview doesn’t count.) “Being too chicken to audition for theatre school. I went into film school instead [he attended the North Toronto Collegiate Institute]. I always wonder in the Sliding Doors of my life, what would have happened if I’d had the confidence to audition for theatre school.”

Biggest hope? “That the world rights itself.” And finally the best thing about you? “Everything that I’m coming up with is extraneous to who I am. I was going to say ‘my friends’. Is that sad? Please contextualise with ‘not in a sad way’. And I think I have an OK sense of humour. Yeah, I have an OK sense of humour ... I think.”

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