The actor Catherine O’Hara owed her career to: “Don’t tell him, I owe him big-time”
Most actors would have done anything for the kind of comedic chops that Catherine O’Hara had throughout her career.
She was never afraid to work in whatever scenario was thrown her way, and even if she may have been playing the straight character in many of her favourite roles, her sense of chemistry in everything from Beetlejuice to Home Alone felt like it was from a true comedy veteran. But that’s only because there were so many people helping her become the comedy legend that she turned into.
No one gets the gig in one of the greatest Christmas movies of all time by accident, and looking through her humble beginnings, SCTV was the perfect way for her to get her foot in the door. It might not have been the same kind of masterclass for comedy that you might get out of Chicago or even New York, but there’s no one on this Earth who could possibly stand next to someone like John Candy without picking up on a few tricks.
But even if Candy was on hand during some of her breakout roles, her work in movies like A Mighty Wind and Best in Show were where she could flex her chops a bit more. There’s no way that anyone could have possibly done a bad job with a Christopher Guest movie, but if O’Hara was electric, Eugene Levy was her partner in crime whenever she came onscreen.
Which probably explains why their material on Schitt’s Creek ended up feeling so natural and sparked the series into gear. No one really expected the show to become the massive touchstone that it ultimately became, but even if Levy and his son, Dan, were joined at the hip, you can tell that O’Hara was completely comfortable playing the over-the-top mother in every single episode.
She may have received an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her time on the show, but she would be the first to say that none of that would have happened without the help of Levy, saying during his Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony, “I believe every single thing I’ve been offered since [Schitt’s Creek] is a direct result of that show. Don’t tell him, I owe him big-time. It’s true. Even in the silliest sketches, Eugene’s characters were real, they were grounded, and more often than not, they held the scene together.”
If you look at what Levy was doing all the way up until Schitt’s Creek, though, a lot of his comedy was a lot more subtle in its delivery. He snuck his way into being one of the most hilarious cast members of American Pie, but even when he didn’t have pages of dialogue, his stern presence in the single most embarrassing scenarios a father could have with his son is absolute comedy gold.
To be fair, though, O’Hara was always one to match him perfectly whenever she worked off of him. That brand of awkward comedy is insanely hard to do if there isn’t some sort of understanding between your scene partner, but on no other show were you going to find anyone else that was able to be as hilariously odd as they were.
And despite O’Hara no longer being a part of the Schitt’s Creek in physical form, those old episodes will always be a reminder of what her so special. Levy may have helped create the show, and he did have a lot of heavy lifting to do, but there was no way any other actor could have played his wife with as much brilliant comedic timing.
