Eugene Levy talks 'The Reluctant Traveler' Season 2, discovering family history

PASADENA, Calif. – Eugene Levy is ready to hit the road again.

Levy's Apple TV+'s documentary series "The Reluctant Traveler" sends the kvetchy homebody on unexpected (and often unwanted) journeys to exotic places, including an elephant's backside last season in South Africa, where he very reluctantly helped collect a stool sample. In Season 2 (streaming weekly on Fridays), he hits European countries including Scotland, where his mother, Rebecca, was raised before emigrating to Toronto.

The Canadian actor, 77, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last week, and he'll join the Season 4 cast of Hulu's "Only Murders in the Building." But he's best known for his roles in "Schitt's Creek," "American Pie," Christopher Guest mockumentaries including "Best in Show" and the cult classic sketch parody "SCTV," which also starred Catherine O'Hara, John Candy and Martin Short. (Levy's son Dan, 40, was a writer, producer, director and co-star on nine-time Emmy-winning "Schitt's" and the recent Netflix film "Good Grief.")

Levy chats about family secrets, his travel advice and parental pride.

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This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Question: What was the biggest surprise last season?  

Eugene Levy: It was how much fun I had and how comfortable I was with the people that I was meeting and working with, because I'm generally not a conversationalist. One of the things I was nervous about initially was, how am I going to be with people? Because I know you talk to people on these travel shows.

I really enjoyed the Scotland episode of this new season, which became a bit like "Finding Your Roots." Tell me what that experience was like. 

I'd never really had a desire to go to Scotland, even though my mother was from there. The weather's not good, it's kind of blustery and I was still looking at experiences that would be pleasant for me. So the surprising thing for me was the actual connection that I was feeling with the family, with my mother. The stories that she would tell me when I was a kid about growing up there and then being that close to seeing the area. I never heard a negative story from her about where she actually grew up. It wasn't like, "Oh, it was horrible." I was honestly more touched by that than I thought I would be. I would have gone there years ago if I'd known I would have felt that connected. 

Season 1:'Schitt's Creek' star Eugene Levy suffered as 'The Reluctant Traveler,' despite $1,000 hotel rooms

What's the best piece of travel advice that you've learned in making the show?

Don't wear knee-high lace-ups going through security, because that's a drag when you have to take those things off.

I'm a huge "SCTV" fan, and very sad that it's not available to stream anywhere besides YouTube. Whatever happened to the reunion documentary? 

Now it's going back almost five years that Martin Scorsese was directing, and then we were, "Where is it? How's it coming? He just started another movie." So it's now moved on to a different company and he's still involved. I'm hoping it airs while we're still on this earth. It's a well deserved tribute because it was a really good show, and it's amazing how many people in the world of comedy talk about that show and how it influenced them. 

Are you doing any more Christopher Guest work? I know he's working on "Spinal Tap 2." Is there no little role for you there? 

Not so far. Did I do something wrong? That's going to be very interesting, and I'm sure it's going to be hysterical. It's tough being out there now in something you did 40 years ago. It's risky, but if anybody can pull that off and make it seem like 40 years just never happened, it's those guys. 

Do you have a favorite movie of his that you've done? 

I love them all. I think "Waiting for Guffman" was, maybe, because it was the first, and it was my first experience doing something like that. My very first scene was the last scene in the movie, and I said to him, "So where do you want to rehearse?" He said, "We're not." That was an eye opener, but it was so much fun. "Best in Show," love "A Mighty Wind." Those are the standouts. 

You must be very proud of your son, Daniel, after his directorial debut.  

Well, we were stunned at the premiere – that's the first time we saw it – at the brilliance of it, and what he accomplished. It was so beautiful, and it was so beautifully written and just impeccably directed. And his performance as a (dramatic) actor transitioning from "Schitt's Creek." He's an extremely talented young man. We've seen it three times now, my wife, Deb and I, and I'm ready for a fourth.

Did you ever contemplate the acclaim you got for "Schitt's Creek"? 

No, no, no. Honestly, the big goal was getting it on the air and we finally did on CBC in Canada. Nobody wanted it here, we pitched it everywhere. COVID in a bizarre way helped, because people were just home looking for things to watch. And then it paid off in that kind of amazing night (at the Emmys). So it was just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, one right after another. It was a dream you didn't want to wake up from. And I credit my son again because he really took that show to a an amazing (level).  

Speaking of dream, is there one destination you would most want to go on "Reluctant Traveler"?  

Well, here's the bottom line: The reason the show is so aptly titled is I don't have one. I'm not dying to get anywhere. 

Do you have a favorite place you've been?

Finland was still the most fun, and had a lot of laughs. Maybe it's something about the winter setting that made it more Canadian, maybe more like home. And this year it was. Saint Tropez. That wasn't too bad.