Remembering Catherine O’Hara: A Tribute to a Comedy Legend
During the pandemic, when the prospect of interviewing people in person was an impossibility, I frequently thought to myself that if I never got to do that again, my interview over a long lunch with Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy for a “Schitt’s Creek” cover was the perfect way to go out. I met them on Friday, Feb. 28, 2020 at the Huntley Hotel in Santa Monica, which has a restaurant in its penthouse — within two weeks, the world shut down.
With “Schitt’s Creek” as our stated focus, we discussed how O’Hara had embraced the role of Moira Rose, which Eugene Levy and Dan Levy, who’d created the show, had conceived for her. Eugene told the story of being tasked to call her to ask her to join them, saying they’d gotten an order from CBC, which excited her. And that they were going to shoot the show in the summer, which… did not. “Eugene,” O’Hara said, telling the story, and sounding stern, “do you even know me?” She reminded him that, as many Canadians do, she has a cottage that she likes to go to with her family in the summer. He said he’d get back to her. Imitating Levy in his next call, O’Hara said, “OK! We’re going to shoot in the spring.”
Thinking about that day now that O’Hara has died, I feel so lucky to have had this experience. Her death is a devastating, shocking loss: for comedy, for the entertainment industry and for everyone who ever met her. To have had a conversation with O’Hara — and with Levy, her creative partner over many decades — about work she loved doing, about a character she adored, feels like a privilege of this job. And I knew it at the time too, and was smiling (and laughing, probably too hard) throughout the hours-long lunch, which they kept going long after all my questions were answered.
O’Hara had a strong vision for who Moira was — what she looked like, and how she would sound. She’d gone to the initial meeting with the Levys with visual aids, armed with photos of the socialite Daphne Guinness. Eugene, sounding proud of his son, as he did throughout the lunch, said, “Daniel couldn’t write stuff down fast enough.” Moira’s voice and accent were less tangible, though, and O’Hara said she tried (and failed) to tell them what she was thinking … over email. “I was giving you nothing!” she exclaimed to Levy, describing the process. But then they heard it for the first time. “Unreal,” Levy said, marveling. As O’Hara put it, “You have to work with lovely, smart, talented people who allow you to sound like an alien.”
