Dan Levy defends nepo babies as having to work ‘three times as hard.’
The Schitt’s Creek star has told how he distanced himself from his famous father Eugene Levy for five years at the start of his career.
“I never went to my dad for anything,” he said. “When you're in those situations, you almost have to do triple the work, justifiably so.”
He wanted to avoid accusations that his dad was the reason behind his own success, he told an audience at 92NY in New York on Monday night.
“I had gone through high school life, to college, into MTV and they didn't know who my dad was when I auditioned for MTV, and they didn't know for five years.”
It was only when Dan felt as though he’d forged a career in his own right that he talked publicly about his dad being the famous American Pie star.
“When I felt I had established my own relationship with the audience and had a successful television show, I felt like I had earned a place in the conversation, and that's when I brought him into it,” he said.
The dad and son duo went on co-create and star in the award winning show Schitt’s Creek that aired between 2015 and 2020.
The comedy was nominated for 19 Emmy awards with Dan winning gongs for Outstanding Comedy Series, Writing, and Directing for a Comedy Series, in 2020.
"It was only when I had done the work, came up with the idea for Schitt's Creek, that I knew I had what it took to carry my weight,” he said.
