My Dad Wrote A Porno - Footnotes: Dan Levy
Episode Date: November 7, 2019Creator and star of 'Schitt's Creek' Dan Levy joins Team Porno to talk the madness of book 5 so far and his experiences of working with his own father, Eugene Levy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priva...cy for more information.
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Hi guys and welcome to My Dad Wrote porn of the footnotes now today we are very very lucky
because we're joined by the creator and star of the biggest tv show on the planet right now
Schitt's Creek it's Dan Levy. Hi Dan. Hi everybody what an honor and a thrill this is for me.
The honor is all ours. I'm gonna preface this by saying i just bought a house and i am for the
first time in my new house and i'm more excited about what we're about to do than actually being
in my new home what a housewarming so are you in america or canada and where do you normally
listen to the podcast i'm currently in los angeles where i have been listening to it nightly
um and it's been a wonderful thing and I will say like an intense binge of these books
is I'm very concerned for my mental health.
Sure.
I mean, you know, I'm sort of in the process
of figuring out what I'm doing next.
And I will say that having this as sort of a companion
in the early stages of developing new ideas
is a wonderful thing for
any writer or creator it really makes you think you have real trust in your own abilities next
to dad you're like i could write anything oh my god the reality the confidence the sheer confidence
exuded in his work is something that we can all learn from totally so yeah let's let's talk about
it because how are you finding book five?
It's getting quite complicated, isn't it? Here's why I talk about it being a sort of intellectual
and psychological challenge, because I don't think I'll ever be able to keep up with just the sheer
complexity of this piece of art. Oh no, Dan, do not call it it art i will say that every time that i am confused you are confused
and that makes me feel comforted okay okay good you know what i mean like it moves at a pace that's
a lot faster than anything i'm used to in my life i'm just barely keeping up well i feel like dad's
finally found plot i mean shit plot but you know the stuff is happening for the for the first time
ever in this book and it's it's happening at a rate of knots you're right it is completely
cinematic at this point and also there is a murder like their people have been murdered
you know what i mean like before it was like office place sex now we're actually dealing
with dead bodies i mean fish is sort of what I would call like an international criminal at this point.
I think when you bomb something,
that's an act of terrorism.
And it sort of went away quite quickly.
Yeah.
And the consequences never really landed.
And then we actually meet the person
who is orchestrating all of this and nobody
decided to really put an end to his life yeah they just kind of let bish go i mean that they
so what they like went for dinner with him and then just escaped themselves it was rubbish but
i feel like to let him live is letting him suffer enough like the man's not well but he lives
that's true i'm not sure we want to be at the vanguard of a new genre of porn, terrorotica.
Terrorotica is absolutely what it is.
And I have learned so many descriptives in the process of listening and reading this book.
I mean, rememberable is a word that I hope to involve in my own work at some point. I mean, I think there's
some really profound contributions to the English language, and I plan on celebrating it. What I
love about the writing is that it can be, on one hand, completely descriptive. We know everything
about a person. And then on the other hand, there's like a lot of use of like, and stuff.
And I'm like, well, wait a minute.
I know literally the fabric that is being unbuttoned on Belinda's shirt.
But I also don't know where they are.
Or when they are.
Or when they are.
Or who's in the room.
The addition of people to a room is also a really great thing.
He struggles.
If this were ever turned into a television show,
the sheer mania of it all,
like it would be like a Twilight Zone episode.
Is that how you would see it, Dan?
Would you see it as a kind of hybrid?
It would be a sort of horror meets,
I mean, is it comedy?
Because some of it's kind of slapstick.
There's definitely some slapstick.
There's definitely some terror, intrigue thriller i could see it living on like fx here in america i don't know whether
there's like an fx version of whatever that would be in the uk we'd have been happy with straight
dvd so yeah sure fx is great it's a vhs tape that you just have to see where do you think it's all going how do you think it's
gonna end where do you think rocky's gonna take the plot from here i mean i know it's hard to
predict but if if you were going to take charge of the direction what would you what would you say
i will say this giselle is one of my favorite characters and i feel like she is, and would be if this were a TV show or a film, would be sort of
who I would lean on in terms of driving a lot of story. Because Belinda, I mean,
what I will say about Belinda that I find to be, I guess, a wonderful attribute is that she's so
even keel that even when she's enthusiastic about something, it still plays as incredibly laissez faire.
Yeah, she doesn't really have extremes of emotion.
No, which essentially like when I listen to it in my mind, I'm picturing sort of like a lifeless rag doll that sort of gets tossed about and maybe smiles from time to time, but is okay generally with it.
Yeah, she's sort of like driftwood, pretty driftwood.
Exactly.
You can sort of like place her anywhere and she'd be fine.
People will be shouting with their headphones in
that they feel like she's a much more developed,
well-rounded, you know, feminist icon of a character.
I mean, I would obviously shout over them and tell them they were wrong.
But Dan, you're not necessarily making friends for yourself here.
No, I know.
And just don't get me wrong.
I am not saying that she isn't completely complicated and that someone in some sort
of academic facility should be writing a dissertation on her and what she represents.
Sure.
I just feel like I'm really fascinated by the Giselle of the whole situation because
I do feel like they are polar opposites that sort of create the magnetic energy of the show.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, Mark of a Declots versus Blumenthal is going to be one of those discussions that
will carry on for years.
The fact that these names are the most unmemorable, memorable names.
It's like if you were pitching a TV show and you came in with these names,
some network executive would be like, well, nobody would be able to figure this out.
Yeah.
I am still unclear on Giselle's last name.
Don't know how to spell it.
Still difficult to say.
Mark of the world, the world, the world.
Did that help? I rest my case. Yeah, exactly. Still difficult to say. Mars charge de la declasse.
Did that help?
I rest my case.
Yeah, exactly.
We've never proven a point so accurately ever.
It is truly a masterpiece.
It's a combination.
I mean, you know, you're selling out arenas at this point, so I don't need to tell you why it works.
You guys do live shows as well, right? We do, yeah. And don't need to tell you why it works you guys do uh live shows
as well right we do yeah and there's don't you have so much fun yes they're mad they're so mad
we start our second world tour next year we can't wait i know well i have to come to one of the
dates yeah you're coming to los angeles yeah of course okay well then i will be there in the
audience watching come to helsinki and helsinki not selling so well.
I'll fly to New Zealand.
I'll go wherever you are.
I'll do a full roadie band tour
and just slowly have you hire someone to keep me away.
Yeah, to test your fandom.
We're like, LA would be way too easy.
I'll just document the journey to Helsinki.
I never actually made it there
but I heard the show was great
We might not make it there either to be honest
No we will Helsinki
There's always one that's nicer to have more intimate
isn't it
So if Giselle's your favourite character
who would you play
obviously there's been a lot of talk about the movie
version of Belinda Blink
Get on your knees start begging who would you like to play if nothing then just a
physical descriptor i guess thick rimmed glasses oh as soon as that descriptor came up i was like
well this is me and then i guess it was a very flattering depiction of my body if that were the
case thick rimmed by name thickrimmed by nature Dan exactly my question
to you is when is this movie actually happening well that is the question I mean we are having
you know Spielberg's interested Cameron's interested he said after Avatar he's gonna
do Belinda Blink you know James Andias that is you have a cast of actors that would, you would have funding for this movie in a heartbeat.
So we'll talk after this is all done,
but I really want to help this get made.
But who would write the screenplay?
Like Rocky would have to adapt his own book to the screen,
like E.L. James did, I guess, with Fifty Shades.
And that worked so well.
So, you know, history can just repeat itself, right?
How about this though?
I'm throwing something out there.
I feel like Rocky and David Lynch.
Oh, yeah.
Writing something together.
I feel like David Lynch's films exist in that strange space of like, what is happening?
What did I just look at?
It would be artful if we like brought in a David Lynch type figure to really help.
How do I describe this?
Refine maybe some of the rougher edges of Rocky's writing and really sort of raise the bar in terms of what we could actually do or stay with it.
I would just love to be a fly on the wall in that room where Rocky and David Lynch are brainstorming.
Yeah, that's the documentary that's sort where Rocky and David Lynch are brainstorming. Yeah.
That's the documentary that's sort of supplementary content for all of this.
Oh my God, yeah.
David Lynch is like, Rocky, we need to be more mainstream.
Has there been sort of a common actress that people have pitched for Belinda that is sort of at the forefront of our casting search?
That's the one role we really struggle with. No one wants to play Belinda. I don't know why.
I will say this. The character spaces from the artwork on the books, at least from
the ones that you can purchase in America, it is... I'm not going to lie. There's a lot
of people in Los Angeles that look like those characters.
You can find many Belindas in the city of Los Angeles, not so shockingly.
Be honest.
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Dan, it would be remiss to get you on and not ask you, for Jamie's benefit really,
how you deal with the father-son dynamic, because obviously you work with your dad.
In ways it's quite similar and in ways it's quite different. I don't really have to deal with the reality of, you know, my dad describing the inner folds of a woman's vagina.
Not for a living anyway, no.
You are lucky there, Daniel.
So in my mind, I have the sort of safety and security of just pretending like that doesn't exist to him.
Although you say that, he was in maybe the most iconic scene about a father and a son kind of having a sexual moment in
american pie i mean was that how old were you when that came out i was right in high school
so key demographic so you basically could have been jason biggs in that movie i mean there was
a chapter of my life growing up where people used to ask me whether the show was a biography of my
life and i would say i was killed to have had an interesting life like that
i was not fucking pies uh unfortunately after the movie came out i would i'm sure it was an
epidemic of just people fucking pies uh that was not me he did not walk in on me having sex with
the pie the movie was not about my life sadly dan stop saying it we get it it wasn't you
i also heard dan that you were doing a sex scene on schitt's creek in season one
that your dad was present for
my dad has become very sort of proud of me and my sister because my sister's on the show as well
and really likes to the in all the
scenes that he's not in he really likes to sort of cheer from the sidelines and there was a scene
in season one where I was in bed with the character of Stevie and I got to a point where I was like
can someone just tell my dad to leave I don't think he needs to be here for this I don't think
it's benefiting him it's definitely not benefiting me and like i
i don't need the stage dad happening right now i love the idea of someone being like um
eugene uh there's just something that's required of you in hair and makeup right now we could just
borrow you some squeaky voice intern coming up being like oh mr lovey can you come with me for
a second please the actors have asked if you wouldn't stare i have an overarching question
for you okay i have tried and i've thought about it and i've made notes about it belinda blinking
is there more to it does she blink at a particular moment in her life is there any connective tissue
to why and when she blinks there's no connective tissue between her ears dan
no i think there is i think she always blinks when she's surprised yes and when something hasn't gone
the way that she perceived it to interesting okay because rocky is so good at keeping track of
characters and throwing them in the mix when you least expect them i feel like there has to be some
sort of order to when he
selects to write belinda blinked because also other people blink don't they as well and that
always seems to be pertinent exactly yeah usually it's also at an end of the chapter so it might
just be like a narrative device a flourish but i was curious to know whether there was something
deeper there yeah there are some fan theories right that when she blinks it's something to do it's something temporal it's something to do with time travel
wow yeah i think it was rachel bloom who said that every time she blinks she takes a mental
photograph that is then sent to rocky in the past or future oh i can't remember well rachel thought
that she was from the future she was like an alien right i think that's what rachel right right right
that would explain a lot yeah because the other thing is she
doesn't do it very often which would suggest she's not human because she blinks like once a day or
something like that so which is odd very dry eyes her eyes are sort of robotically self-lubricating
she just is able to see but what an incredible humanoid if she is because she's lubricated in
other departments
that's true maybe it's all channeled to one area so it's maybe it's just there's only one hose
listen these sex robots are getting more and more evolved it is a whole new industry who's to say
yeah we've seen ex machina they can do terrible and wonderful things oh my god what if everyone
in belinda blinked is in an alternate use of universe where they're all sex robots and that's why their emotions are weird and their dad did go on
holiday to tokyo in 2014 oh no it's no i'm joking i'm buying into this theory it sounds very good
yeah it does you're kind of selling us on it it explains why there's so much sex i mean she once had sex like what eight
times in one day and granted that day was felt like a full year but it was multiple partners
which you know live your life but you know it would explain the like constant yeah need and uh
and and finding herself in these precarious situations where she just sort of
slips into a sexual
scenario. It's a conveyor belt of sex, yeah.
Yeah. Dan, you've said
who you would like to play potentially.
Do you feel like
Belinda Blink is accidentally
maybe the most contemporary
and sort of feminist
pornography ever?
I don't want to put words in your mouth.
Like, short answer, absolutely.
Because, you know, I feel like we're conditioned
in today's society to be so aware of consent
and when there's not consent.
And I'm always, every time I listen,
she is consensually engaged in all of these scenarios.
Yeah.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
No, she is absolutely.
Very empowered woman. And that is, I think, you know, a necessary message to send out there. I
mean, she is never in a compromised situation. And she's not opening herself up, so to speak,
to people that she does not want. No, and she's in control of every single sexual
liaison she has, I think. And we've talked a lot about there being no shame in Belinda Blink about
wanting lots of sex and who you want sex with there's no discussion about labels about you know
am I gay am I bisexual it's just like I want to have sex with who I want to have sex with
that's really freeing and on another note like everyone just loves having sex I mean it's it's
promoting something in a safe and free and lovely space.
And I'm not going to lie.
I felt empowered and inspired by way of it.
Dan, is this getting you horny?
Yeah.
I'm saying I need to have sex more, basically.
You're honestly the only person we found that this turns on.
I'm sure there's more people that share my sentiment.
I agree.
A worrying amount of couples listen to this show in bed.
To go to sleep.
They're trying things.
They're doing role play.
Absolutely.
The amount of role play that this has inspired,
I'm sure is culture defining.
There are couples all over the world that it's like,
right, we're listening to the episode
and whatever Belinda does, we have to do tonight.
Oh, that's a fun game. Oh, that's a fun day.
I think that's a great game.
It is a good game.
What a Russian roulette of sexy time.
It could be anything.
It could be Mr. Sweet Juice with all that cream.
And the ham.
The ham.
Because your character in Schitt's Creek is pansexual, yes?
Yes.
We have a very similar approach on our show.
You know, we don't discuss really sexuality and it's not a conversation.
It's how it should be. Sleep with whoever you want to sleep with. No questions asked, no shame
attached. And ultimately, we're all better for it. I mean, the more open and free we can be with each
other and the less shame that's attached, the better and safer we'll be. So thank you, Belinda
Blank. The only exception to that rule dan i would say
is doing it in a conference room at work just off reception
well who's to say really well i'm gonna say i'm gonna say don't location shame
um there's a worrying amount of similarities between your show and Belinda Blink's, Dan, and they're growing by the second.
We are often compared to Belinda Blink, and to me, that is the greatest compliment I could get.
We have to say, the show has done phenomenally well. It's massive.
Thanks. Considering it's a very small sort of show that we make up in Canada,
we're stunned. And we know, we were all at the
Emmys this year and looking around sort of like deer caught in the headlights. None of us quite
knew why we were there or how we got there. But we were really, really pumped to be to be there,
probably more than anyone else. Because everyone plays it really cool at those things.
Well, I think you're I mean, you're gonna win next year, right? For the final season. It's
kind of a done deal. So by you saying that mean, you're going to win next year, right? For the final season. It's kind of a done deal.
So by you saying that,
that sort of means that it's happening, right?
Yeah, for sure.
Okay, then yes, we are.
As long as Phoebe Waller-Bridge doesn't write something.
It's like, Phoebe, stay out of this.
I will say this.
I have never been more happy to lose to anyone
or anything in my life than that show and her.
No, it's a good one.
It's a good one to bow to.
So what are you doing for your, like,
you're obviously coming to the end of your show how how are you ending it can you give us any exclusive little tidbits um you know it was really sad we shot the last episode in june at the end of
june and we've all been really close and i think when you go through something as life-changing
as this with a group of people that you really love, it's always sad to say goodbye.
But fortunately, we've done something,
as you all have, that's made people smile.
And that's quite an amazing thing
and a rare sort of privilege.
So we're just excited about it.
I think the show is going to give the fans what they want.
I think the last season is really, you know,
a marriage between servicing our characters, which I can't say on this podcast, servicing our characters.
You know, giving the characters what they want and giving the fans what they want. And
it was the hardest season to write, obviously, because the expectations are high.
But I think we did a really nice job of wrapping it all up and hopefully people enjoy it. And it's
coming out in January and, you know, we see oh i can't wait do you think you'll stay in touch with like your dad
and your sister or will it be like once it's done it's done oh oh god no no no no no no no we're
we're good you've got what you needed out of them yeah it's through i understand exactly
the contract was a seven-year deal and we're oh well dan it's been so so great having you on the
show and thanks for being such a belinker you're really outing yourself as a uber fan here well thank
you so much for having me and uh carry on and i'll see you on tour yes see you in la
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