The legendary Catherine O’Hara dies aged 71and it is difficult to imagine a world without it. But it’s even harder to imagine a world in which she doesn’t play Moira Rose in “Schitt’s Creek,” the Canadian TV comedy about a wealthy, disgraced American family. Yet, according to “Best Wishes, Warmest Regards: A Schitt’s Creek Farewell” (airing alongside the series finale in 2020), she almost turned down the role.
“It’s so stupid,” O’Hara admitted (via The AV Club). “Really, it’s lame to talk about not wanting to do it at first. How stupid would I have been not to have done it?” As his co-star and longtime collaborator Eugene Levy said, he didn’t want anyone else. “She’s always a first choice,” the elder Levy said. “She was a first choice with the films that [Christopher Guest] and I did it. I mean, name number one. “Let’s go find Catherine. »
Eugene Levy apparently told O’Hara, as he recalls, that it would take “only 15 minutes” to pitch the show. “‘So, even if it sells [without you]I’m not going to bother you about playing the role,” she recalled adding. did sell without her, however, and Eugene Levy and his son Dan Levy, who co-created the series while also playing David and Johnny Rose (Moira’s son and husband, respectively), realized they needed O’Hara to make it all work.
“I said, ‘No, I don’t think so. I’m kind of busy…doing nothing,'” O’Hara recalled, but Dan Levy had a solution. “I said, call her back… We’ll take it one year at a time,” he explained in the documentary. “And if it doesn’t work, it won’t work. And he called her, and she said yes, and the rest is history.”
