Schitt’s Creek star Dan Levy was offered a Ken role in the Golden Globe-winning blockbuster Barbie, but he had to turn it down. The situation ‘haunts’ him to this day.
Levy was chosen to play one of the many Ken dolls in the Greta Gerwig film. Had he been able to, he would have shared the character with A-listers such as Ryan Gosling, Simu Liu, Scott Evans, Michael Cena, and more.
Unfortunately, the offer came after Levy had already accepted another role, and due to scheduling conflicts, he had to say “no.”
“[I] Logistically could not make it work despite desperately trying to,” he told PEOPLE. “So, yeah, I guess I was technically unavailable to do that.”
Dan Levy Has Great Respect for ‘Barbie’ Director Greta Gerwig
It wasn’t just the buzz around Barbie that made Dan Levy miserable over his chance to star in the movie. He also has great respect for Gerwig, and he would have loved the chance to work under her direction.
“I think Greta had such a like wonderfully bizarre and magical aesthetic idea of what that movie was,” he continued. “I would have loved to play in her world; I think she is one of the great, young auteurs of our time.”
Having to walk away left him with lingering regret.
“Does it haunt me when I sleep at night? Sometimes. It’s not like it isn’t like one of the biggest movies of all time. That was a tough day,” admitted Levy.
While the 40-year-old didn’t say which project kept him away from the dream role, he did film his newest movie, Good Grief, around that time. The Netflix original has the lead role in the story about a brokenhearted artist who is mourning the death of his husband. To help re-center his life, his two best friends take him on a trip to Paris. And he finds solace in those relationships.
Levy not only stars in the movie, but he also wrote and directed it.
“As someone who’s single a lot, your friends are the loves of your life.” he shared. “The friends I have are lifers. I love them dearly, to the point where I wrote a movie about that love and how it can save us in the hardest of times.”