Sarah Levy: From Schitt's Creek to Galway Bay with her father Eugene
Sarah Levy her dad Eugene Levy in Ireland for The Reluctant Traveler, now streaming on Apple TV+.
When Canadian actor Eugene Levy was first approached with the idea of presenting a travel show, he shuddered at the concept. Three seasons in, has proved a hit with audiences - and the actor is now off to the west of Ireland with his daughter Sarah.
For star Sarah, who has strong Irish roots on the side of her mother, Deborah Devine, it gave her an opportunity to connect with her heritage. In one touching scene, an Irish genealogist traces the grave of the last relative to be buried here. It gave her, says Sarah, a strong sense of time and place, which had started with her mother’s interest in family ancestry.
“I knew there was a James Devine way back, and I'd heard about her grandfather and great grandfather. My grandfather, my mom's dad, was full redhead, freckles. You knew that Ireland is where you're half from, but to be able to see that physically, being in Ireland, and then meeting Irish people and exploring the country, it was kind of an amalgamation of everything all at once.
“To see their names written down, and then to see James Devine on a tombstone of a name that I had heard in the past. It was incredibly powerful to see.”
The series tends to eschew the most obvious places for the quirky. Though father and daughter end up celebrating St Patrick’s Day in Galway, their home before that is a cottage among a small community in Flaggy Shore in Co Clare.
Local people feature widely, including singers and guides and farmers. An 82-year-old woman meets them in the pub to compare her childhood memories of St Patrick’s Day in Ireland with how it has changed over the years. The Levys cook dinner sourced from an honesty shed located on a remote farm. Among the seaweed baths and music sessions, Clare and Galway glow in the sunshine in the stuff made of Tourism Ireland dreams.
It was a bonding experience for father and daughter, says Sarah Levy. “Most of the time when you're an adult, you're traveling by yourself, or you're traveling with your own family - your husband, wife, partner, and kids. So to be able to explore my family history with one of my parents was an incredible experience. You appreciate who came before you.
"Generations ago, people you've never met, people that just feel like people in pictures, but in reality, they're why I'm here today. I think that was an incredible thing for him, too.”
Even Eugene Levy is surprised at his own embrace of reluctant travel in his late seventies. “I’m a living example of better late than never,” he says in the show.
He’s taken on recent adventures including a new-found love of travel. “I’ve challenged myself to complete my own bucket list before actually kicking the bucket.”
But it’s the fact that the series engages with and celebrates local people that is part of its enduring appeal, she feels. “There are so many shows out there that are only about hotels or only about food or only about drink. I think at the core of what the show is, beyond it being so beautiful and the places are really interesting, it’s the connection to the people that he's meeting that I think has been the best part about it.
"There's such humanity within the show, and you feel like you get to connect with the people in the place truly deeply. You get to meet their families, you get to experience what they do or what their history is.”
It’s not the first time Levy has worked on a successful project with her father (and brother Dan). She shone as the comedic waitress Twyla Sands in a show that took off in their native Canada before becoming a global hit. Over six seasons, it follows the wealthy Rose family who lose their fortune and relocate to the location of their only remaining asset.
“I don't think anybody had any idea what it would become,” she says now. “It was successful in Canada, but that was about it, and then to watch it make its way to the rest of North America, to make its way overseas. I was blown away by just even being in Ireland, the number of people that commented on You don't realise until you're so far from home, and it's still reaching, what an incredible impact it had.”
In what ways does she think the success of the show changed her life and her career path? “I think it changed it exponentially. I think it was one of those shows that you kind of hope happens to you as an actor, where it becomes a success at some point, whether it's immediate or whether it's later. You want to ideally be on a show that is successful. Especially as it wrapped, built its audience year after year after year.
"By the time we wrapped, I think everyone had so much opportunity at the end of it that no one was expecting to have, which was really wonderful, and it gives you a jumping off point to then move further into your career doing other things.”
- Eugene and Sarah Levy’s Ireland edition of is now on Apple TV+. New episodes of will premiere weekly until the finale on October 31
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