Eugene Levy has worked with Catherine O’Hara for decades, but even he has admitted that her transformation into Moira Rose was something extraordinary.
Before Schitt’s Creek became a global comedy phenomenon, O’Hara was unsure about playing the fallen soap opera star. The role could have easily become a simple rich-woman caricature. But O’Hara saw something stranger, sharper, and far more unforgettable. She did not want Moira Rose to sound, dress, or move like anyone viewers had seen before.
According to Levy’s recollection, O’Hara made her creative line clear early in the process: “I cannot sound like a normal person.” That decision became the foundation of Moira Rose’s entire identity.
Her unusual accent, impossible to place and constantly shifting, became one of the show’s most recognizable features. It sounded theatrical, aristocratic, invented, and deeply ridiculous all at once. Instead of grounding Moira in realism, O’Hara pushed her further into fantasy. The result was a character who felt both absurd and strangely human.
Then came the wigs.
O’Hara reportedly wanted Moira’s wardrobe and hair to be treated as part of the character’s emotional language. Across the show’s 80 episodes, Moira’s wigs became more than accessories. They were armor, mood indicators, and comedy weapons. Whether she was panicking, performing, grieving, or manipulating a situation, the wig often told the audience exactly where Moira’s mind was before she even spoke.
Levy understood that giving O’Hara that freedom was risky. A smaller comedy might have been pressured to keep things simple and relatable. But O’Hara’s instincts turned out to be exactly what the series needed. Moira’s exaggerated style made the Rose family’s downfall funnier, but it also made her vulnerability more surprising.
Behind the strange vowels, dramatic outfits, and endless wigs was a woman desperately trying to survive humiliation without losing her sense of self. O’Hara never played Moira as merely foolish. She played her as someone who had built an entire identity out of performance—and then had to learn how to love people without hiding behind it.
That creative gamble helped Schitt’s Creek evolve from a modest Canadian sitcom into one of the most celebrated comedies of its era. By the time the series swept the Emmys, Moira Rose had become a pop culture icon.
Levy’s admiration for O’Hara comes down to one thing: she trusted the weirdness before anyone else fully understood it. And because she refused to make Moira Rose “normal,” she made her unforgettable.