Name: Dan Levy, 35
Who he is: Actor, writer, producer
Dan may have a famous father in comedic actor Eugene Levy (for our younger readers, stop what you’re doing and go watch Waiting For Guffman), but he was raised away from the Hollywood spotlight, in Toronto.
Still, he’s found his way to stardom with the wild success of his CBC comedy, Schitt’s Creek. He created and stars in the show with his dad. His sister, Sarah, is also in the cast. It’s a real family affair.
What he’s accomplished: The show first aired in 2015 and has picked up a massive following in its five seasons, thanks in no small part to Catherine O’Hara’s star run as “Moira”, the Rose family matriarch. And her wigs; so many wigs.
Audiences first assumed Levy’s character, “David”, to be gay. He later has a romantic connection with a female character, providing one of the few “pansexual coming out scenes” in TV history. And certainly the only one with a wine analogy:
“I do drink red wine, but I also drink white wine, and I’ve been known to sample the occasional rosé, and a couple summers back I tried a Merlot that used to be a Chardonnay,” David explains. “I like the wine and not the label.”
The sixth and final season of Schitt’s Creek will air next year and eventually be available on Netflix.
Why we’re proud: From the get-go, Levy’s take on queer representation in Schitt’s Creek was forward-thinking.
He didn’t make David’s sexuality a big deal because, news flash, a person’s sexuality isn’t a big deal.
Similarly, he consciously ignores homophobia as a plot vehicle.
“I have no patience for homophobia,” he explained at Vulture Festival last year. “As a result, it’s been amazing to take that into the show. We show love and tolerance. If you put something like that out of the equation, you’re saying that doesn’t exist and shouldn’t exist.”
And despite being a screwball fish out of water comedy, the show has handled its more earnest endeavors with the utmost class.
A particularly emotional moment came in a season four episode in which David’s boyfriend, “Patrick”, serenades him with an acoustic cover of Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best.”
We’re not crying, you’re crying:
“As a gay person to tell these stories and to have no questions asked and no notes from network and to feel completely uninhibited in saying, ‘This is a gay couple on TV; they’re going to kiss like any straight couple would’ — it’s amazing. Gay relationships have historically not been treated the same as straight relationships,” Levy told The Star.
“You don’t see the same kind of sexuality, intimacy, kissing, because it’s been considered taboo or headline-grabbing for so long. I love that we’ve been able to just tell a relationship as it is, as it exists, for me, for my friends, for people I know, for people out in the world, that doesn’t come with a lesson to be learned. It’s just two people loving each other.”
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Clay83
Schitts Creek is truly one of the best shows on TV at the moment!
Cam
“Audiences first assumed Levy’s character, “David”, to be gay. He later has a romantic connection with a female character, providing one of the few “pansexual coming out scenes” in TV history.”
Except…no. This is EXACTLY what TV always does. They have a character that is gay and then have him end up with a woman. A quick google search will give you many shows that have done this and you will get articles popping up complaining about shows doing this as far back as the late 1970s with a show called SOAP and on a show called Dynasty. In both cases the gay guy then sleeps with a woman.
This isn’t a “Pansexual coming out” this is the same ole Hollywood bigotry trying to make the LGBT character more acceptable by stuffing them back into the closet. Your presenting it as if it is something new and enlightening is embarrassing.
russdog
Dan Levy is in charge of the show. He writes many of the episodes and created the characters. His “David” character was not closeted to fit “Hollywood” demands. The show is Canadian, by the way. He’s depicting the reality of an individual who finds true love with another man. I remember SOAP, and of course, Dynasty. Those shows had the difficult task of selling gay characters in a hostile marketplace and as network shows, money and ratings were always a priority rather than moving positive representation forward for gay people. How can Schitt’s Creek be bigoted when it never hid David’s queerness? It was nothing but honest in his portrayal, unlike the 70s and 80s shows.
I’m a gold star. I can’t relate to pansexuality or bisexuality, but they exist and Schitt’s Creek is about acceptance of everyone, and love (per the interview with Dan Levy). I’m glad David settled down with Patrick, but that was a natural progression and expression of David’s sexuality, as well.
Cam
@russdog
So your argument is “Even though the show is doing the EXACT same thing that the old bigoted shows did in the 70s and 80s, this time it’s different.
genresavvy
Someone didn’t read the article, and certainly didn’t watch the show.
David has sex with a woman after they get high together and the wine scene occurs the next day. Later he and same woman are attracted to the same man and start dating him together. Later a (male) ex visits and shenanigans ensue. After that, David meets another man whom he is now engaged to as the series moves towards its final season (the one the article talks about serenading him).
David is VERY much a queer character nowhere near a closet. Most of his relationships depicted on the show have been queer and the best/healthiest/Endgame one is similarly queer. His pansexuality is specifically mentioned by name multiple times in the show.
russdog
Cam, I don’t know if you read the article or even my comment. My argument is that the show is doing the exact opposite of the backwards 70s and 80s shows. I’m not sure how how can read anything else into that. David is not confused about his sexuality (like Steven from Dynasty), nor is the show reacting to public pressure by suddenly making him straight (like Jody from SOAP). Dan Levy himself says in the article that you didn’t read that he appreciates being allowed to develop the show in the absence of corporate interference. Perhaps you’re still insecure about being gay and feel betrayed by seeing a male queer character with a woman. I don’t know. I can’t understand pan/bi-sexuality because it is not who I am nor is it my experience, but I don’t need fictional characters to reflect my own life in order to feel OK with myself. David is who he is and I’m just glad he’s happy with a wonderful man. It sends a great message that it’s OK to be who you are and embrace life as if ‘phobes didn’t exist.
Cam
@genresavvy
Translation: Any excuse that can be found to make sure he sleeps with women.
My comment isn’t that the character isn’t “Pan”, my comment is that this is the exact same thing over and over….if there is a character like him, the producers will ALWAYS make sure to make him sleep with a woman. It’s the same pattern over and over and nothing different than the characters in the 70s.
MrKnowItAll
Love the show, but I must agree with Cam. The portrayal of what it means to be gay is twisted again and again in Hollywood. Anyone watch Bonding? The sex scene between the very gay lead and his female high school friend after the prom is a perfect example.
I have yet to see the same example used on a straight male role (please correct me if I am wrong). Imagine a male lead being “confused” so he just has sex with another man to help figure it out. Never gonna happen.
AxelDC
Seems morel like the homophobic Hollywood trope that there’s no such thing as real gay people. Billy Crystal on Soap, Paul Rudd in The Object of My Affection, Stephen Carrington on Dynasty were all gay men who ended up sleeping with women after coming out as gay.
This isn’t some novel dawning of “pansexuality”, this is sliding back into the idea that a real man sleeps with women. To twist bisexuals’ term, it’s gay erasure.
russdog
The character is engaged to another man. Maybe he doesn’t label himself, but do you need a loving, same-sex male couple to declare that they’re gay as opposed to pan or bi in order to feel better? They exist and we can see it regardless of how they self-identify. We each get to identify ourselves in the way in which best makes us feel we’re present our real selves to the world. Nothing is stopping us from doing that.
chrispy33
Best show on TV for many reasons; Dan Levy being a big one. It’s too bad next season will be their last. My only hope is Dan will continue writing, acting and/or producing for a very long time to come.
Aztec Warrior DNA
Love, love, love David and Moira, lol. They’ll be missed. Here’s to many more years of success for both actors.
GeorgeMTL
Man, some people just gotta bitch or they’ll explode. The world is not the same as it was 1, 2 and 3 decades ago — in real life and on TV.
Characters being fluid and open and exploring… these are VALID portrayals of real people. I don’t know how insecure you have to be in your own sexuality to start hating on an actor—a comfortably out actor—playing an character that doesn’t have rigid lines in their own feelings and behaviours.
Not sure why that should provoke such bitterness and jealously perhaps? It was harder when I was young and exploring, learning about myself and maybe it feels unfair that people can do this type of exploration unashamedly and without any self-doubt and self-limitation.
Just enjoy the damn show—cause it’s great—or don’t watch it and shut up. Why do some people feel that what the readers of the web REALLY need is some gratuitous barfed-up nastiness?
Trust me.. .we really don’t. It is nice to read a positive story without being dragged back into the mire of so much of the world today.
Cam
You said the world is different than it was. Really? Then why do we keep getting the same story over and over on media? If there is an LGBTQ character, they MUST have a heterosexual experience to make them palatable to the audience.