Of course, Canadian actor, writer and producer Dan Levy will forever be inextricably linked to the mega-smash Canadian sitcom
Schitt’s Creek. But before you knew him as the sassy but loveable David (and probably after you knew him solely as Eugene Levy’s son), he made a name for himself on
MTV Canada as the co-host of
The Hills: The After Show, a show that aired in the oughts directly after the wildly popular reality TV show
The Hills (stream now on CTV.ca and the CTV app) in order to break down each episode and add context. Dan and co-host Jessi Cruickshank loved chatting about the show, speaking with viewers, and interviewing stars. But now he’s admitting that the grind of reality TV actually turned him off the brilliant genre altogether.“Before I did the show [
Schitt's Creek]
, I was working on MTV with
The Hills for a long time, a show that some people might know,” he told Jimmy Fallon on
The Tonight Show (weeknights at 11:30 p.m. ET on CTV) last night via video-chat. “I was doing
The After Show for
The Hills, and when you work so closely with a reality television show – and I love
The Hills – it kinda takes the magic out of the experience of watching reality television ‘cause you kinda end up knowing too much about how it works. So I had to take like a long hiatus.”
*checks watch* Uh Dan?
The After Show went off the air in 2010. You took a decade-long hiatus from reality TV?! That’s like 90
Bachelor seasons.“And then quarantine happened,” he continued, “and I had quite literally watched every show on television, and so I finally just resolved myself to just accepting the fact that I only have reality TV left.” Ah welcome back, Dan. Saying that he went from loving
The Real Housewives of Atlanta, to graduating to
Below Deck Mediterranean, him and Jimmy now have plans to fly to Australia to learn how to be skippers on a Yacht. Ya gotta have realistic goals, fam.Though it's a shame it took him so long to come back to one of our favourite genres of television, Dan has actually shared previously that his work with
The Hills production and cast was actually a subconscious inspiration for the Rose family. He
told Patrick Gomez on
Entertainment Weekly's
BINGE podcast last year that after seeing the lives of the rich and famous, he wondered, "What would it look like if we played on that, took the money away, and examined what the family dynamic would be like without the money?" Enter, the Roses.[video_embed id='2079336']RELATED: Dan Levy makes 'Sexiest Man Alive' list [/video_embed]Dan, who is still (understandably) gushing about his historic Emmy win for
Schitt’s Creek (“It was like the greatest night of my life!”) also had a lot to celebrate this week as
he was just listed in
People’s Sexiest Man Alive issue.“The best part about this,” he said with a giggle, “Is sure, it’s Sexiest Man Alive, but I get the ‘In quarantine’ part! There’s like
Michael B. Jordan, which is much deserved, and then I’m kind of the one that’s like peeking my head out of the house, being like, ‘I’ve been in here for 67 straight days!’”He and Jimmy also broke down his new film that’s being released just in time for the festive season,
Happiest Season, which co-stars the one and only Kristen Stewart.“It’s the first studio lesbian rom-com!” he gushed as Jimmy clapped. “So round of applause to Clea DuVall [the director] who got that one off the ground. It’s about two women who are falling in love and Mackenzie Davis’ character invites Kristen Stewart’s character home for the holidays. And then just as they’re pulling into the driveway, we realize that Mackenzie has not come out to her family. And that Kristen will sort of have to go along with, or not go along with this idea that they’re now going to play into something that her parents don’t know about. And I play Kristen’s best friend who is NOT having any of this mayhem.”That sounds like a role written with Dan in mind, tbh.Watch
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon weeknights at 11:30 p.m. ET on CTV.[video_embed id='2079125']BEFORE YOU GO: Rockefeller Christmas tree getting mixed reaction [/video_embed]
