“I had to ask Dan what pansexuality was, I didn’t know at all. Cut to five years later, definitely pan!”
Although her fan-favourite role as sarcastic, deadpan motel manager Stevie Budd on Schitt’s Creek is coming to an end next month, Emily Hampshire doesn’t feel depressed – LIKE THE REST OF US – she feels excited to have been part of history.
Since its 2015 debut, the Canadian series has been hailed as one of the greatest comedies on television thanks to the ensemble cast and numerous viral moments, such as the Grammy-winning dance-pop anthem A Little Bit Alexis and Moira’s future Oscar slash Razzie nominated performance in The Crows Have Eyes 3: The Crowening.
More importantly, the show has received widespread acclaim for its portrayal of pansexual character David, played by creator Dan Levy, as well as for how his sexuality is simply accepted and there are no expressions of homophobia in the storyline.
“From the beginning Dan was like, ‘There will be no homophobia on Schitt’s Creek, it just doesn’t exist there,’” says Emily, who then reveals that she discovered her own pansexuality through the iconic wine scene from the first season.
“I looked at Dan, and I was like ‘What am I?’ I like a person, and I genuinely don’t care what the equipment is as long as we’re happy,” she admits. “And he was like ‘Do you watch the show? You’re pan!’ Cut to five years later, definitely pan!”
We caught up with Emily to discuss the sixth and final season of Schitt’s Creek, how the series is leading the way with authentic LGBTQ+ representation and how we can all be better allies to the trans and gender non-conforming community.
I’ll start off with the most important question: what can you tell me about The Crows Have Eyes 3: The Crowening?
[Laughs] Have you seen the trailer?
I died.
I actually think it is the funniest thing we’ve done on the show, and it’s not even on the show. I love a committed joke… and they made a trailer. I can’t get over it, I watched it a million times.
I can’t decide what my favourite Schitt’s Creek moment is – The Crows Have Eyes 3 or A Little Bit of Alexis.
What I love about the show is iconic moments like that, like A Little Bit Alexis, and the moments that stand alone outside of the show too. I really want Annie [Murphy] to do a music video for that, how great would that be?
It was shafted at the Grammy Awards.
Oh yeah, for real. And Annie wrote that herself with her husband and that makes it even cooler.
I love that. It was one of my most played songs on Spotify last year.
I love it. And Noah’s [Reid] song is on Spotify too! His music tour is selling out like crazy, and Dan [Levy] gave us all music opportunities on the show but Noah was the one who was an actual singer before. But it was so cool to get to do something like that on a show, and get to create it yourself. He let all of us take ownership of our musical numbers on the show. Like for Annie, she was like, ‘Oh, can I try writing it?’ and Noah wanted to do the arrangement for The Best and while I didn’t write or arrange a song, he let me do Maybe This Time in my own weird way. But we all know how lucky we are to have been given that opportunity.
So, Schitt’s Creek is ending at the height of its success. Why do you think the sixth season is the right time to bow out?
It was Dan’s decision and now that I know how it ends, I think we all agree that it was the right decision. It really does end respecting the characters so much, and respecting the audience. Dan always planned to end it the way he did, and this was the story he wanted to tell. The show only became popular in its last season, but what’s great is that usually you don’t get to know when you’re ending a show, you just get cancelled. And so to have the opportunity to go out the right way… that’s a privilege.
We all genuinely like each other a lot so getting to do the tour has been the greatest thing, because I think we all would have been severely depressed to just end it and not be together as a group anymore. So getting to do that has been a good weaning off of our co-dependent relationships. I, and I think everyone, respects the decision, because it’s a hard one, especially when it’s becoming popular. Everyone was offering Dan all kinds of amazing things to keep doing it, and I think it speaks to how much he cares about the characters and audience and wants to do right by them.
How sad was it saying goodbye to Dan, Catherine [O’Hara], Eugene [Levy], Annie and the rest of the cast?
It was weird, and a testament again to how great these characters are. We were so sad when… oh, I almost told you the ending! I need to make sure I don’t. I think what was the most heartbreaking thing was the relationships. When you end a show, there’s an ending to relationships in the storylines, and those require an in-the-world ending, and that was heartbreaking. Of course, while the rest of the cast was crying before we shot our last scene ever, I confidently say, ‘‘I don’t get emotional on the ending of a show, it will hit me when we’re supposed to be starting the next season’ and then two seconds later I was fucking bawling. So it was definitely sad, but I think sad in that way the audience will be when they see how the show winds down, with its big heart that it doesn’t have to sacrifice for its humour, it’s just real and your heart is going to swell and break, all while laughing.
