After “Schitt’s Creek” ended, Dan Levy knew it was going to be a few years before he made another TV show, noting that he needed a break after the all-consuming role of being a showrunner/star/writer/executive producer.
Beyond the creative respite, Levy wanted to give “Schitt’s Creek,” which he created alongside his father, Eugene Levy, some room to breath, explaining, “I was just so aware of how much people loved ‘Schitt’s,’ you can’t just jump right into something else and expect people to see you as a different person for another six seasons of a show.”
“I knew that if I was going to commit to another series, I needed the time to really think about what was going to get me excited,” Levy told TheWrap. “‘Schitt’s’ was such a warm hug of an experience, and we all had such a great time, and it was so emotional to say goodbye to that show that I knew I would be comparing whatever comes next to that show if I didn’t give it some space.”
Levy didn’t step away from film and TV entirely, though, instead flexing a more dramatic muscle by writing, directing and starring in the Netflix film “Good Grief,” which he notes helped him work out some heartbreak, as well as his confusion surrounding the pandemic. He also produced the documentary “Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery” and executive produced and starred in the brunch competition series “The Big Brunch,” building a catalog of projects that Levy said “genuinely made [him] happy” and contributed to a freedom he felt to explore.
“It was about following my gut,” Levy said, “I didn’t want to make a wrong move, and I don’t think you can ever really make a wrong move if you only do things that you really believe in — it’s sort of fail safe.”
After Levy closed the chapter of “Good Grief,” it felt like the right time to come back into the scripted comedy front, and when he thought about what would excite him for multiple seasons, crime dawned on him as a promising center piece. “I’m fascinated by it. I’m terrified of it, I would make a terrible criminal,” Levy joked. “I thought there could be something very funny about watching everyday people try to navigate the world of organized crime. I think for the most part, not to assume, but I do think most of us would not fare very well.”
Naturally, Levy positioned the crime aspects of the series in the midst of what he knows best: messy yet hilarious family dynamics. “I find it endlessly entertaining. It’s hysterically funny — families in crisis,” Levy said. “I wanted this to be another book on the same shelf that you could put beside ‘Schitt’s,’ a completely different adventure with a completely different family.”
As he geared up to craft what this family might look like, Levy called up “I Love L.A.” creator Rachel Sennott, with whom he had worked with briefly on Sam Levinson’s “The Idol.” “We just meshed comedically, and I just knew, having watched her work, that she had this really singular comedic sensibility that I wanted to tap into,” Levy said. “We’re very different people, and yet, in certain respects, we’re very, very similar. We’re both, I think, not capable of handling the stress of crime.”
Sennott was on board and after sufficient prep, the pair wrote the pilot in a day.
Levy also dove into more unfamiliar territory as he wrote his character, Nicky, as a priest, an identity he admits is quite distant from his own practices. “I would call myself a spiritual person, but I’ve never really considered myself to be in any way religious,” Levy said, joking that his character is a “much better person.” “I’ve been very fascinated by people’s relationships to faith, particularly gay or queer people who have found themselves leading congregations, what that means to them, why they were drawn to that. And I like the fact that he’s a good person who just finds himself in a very bad situation.”
Much like how Levy didn’t want the town of Schitt’s Creek to be the butt of the joke, he made sure the church didn’t become the punchline nor for his faith to be satirized, consulting a gay pastor who went to through the scripts and “made sure that they reflected a very truthful experience.” “I don’t think you can tackle that subject matter lightly — I think you really have to take it seriously and honor it and I think a richer character comes out of that,” Levy said.
With Sennott similarly showrunning, writing and starring in HBO’s “I Love L.A.,” the duo knew she couldn’t star alongside Levy, but he quickly found Taylor Ortega to play Morgan, Nicky’s sister. “I just hadn’t found the person yet, and we had seen some incredible people, but it’s all a chemistry thing, right?” Levy said. “Somehow her tape made it back across my desk at just the right time. We met in person, and it was like magic. I felt very like our camaraderie was really easy. The improv was really easy.”
Laurie Metcalf as Nicky and Morgan’s mom was also an easy sell, with Levy noting “her personification of that anxious mother is both so specific, but so broadly so many of our moms,” likening the experience of working with Metcalf as working alongside the late Catherine O’Hara in “Schitt’s Creek.”
“I love just setting the table for brilliant actresses to sit down and go to town — it’s my favorite thing,” Levy said. “Both of these women are just geniuses at finding a way into a character that is so human and so funny and so them … No one can swap in for Laurie Metcalf; no one can swap in for Catherine O’Hara. They are one of one, and I count myself very, very lucky to have worked with both.”
“Big Mistakes” begins streaming Thursday on Netflix.
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