- Eugene Levy initially turned down his iconic part as Jim's dad in "American Pie."
- The actor, 76, said the raunchy script and his character are why he nearly said no to the role.
"American Pie" may have never starred Eugene Levy in the iconic role of Jim's dad.
Appearing on the BBC's "The Graham Norton Show" on Friday, Levy said he was initially thinking about turning down the offer to star in the 1999 comedy. "American Pie" was followed by three sequels – "American Pie 2," released in 2001, "American Wedding," released two years later, and 2012's "American Reunion."
Fellow "American Pie" alumni include Jason Biggs, Natasha Lyonne, and "The White Lotus" star Jennifer Coolidge.
But despite the later success of the franchise, Levy, 76, said he was left unimpressed after reading the script for the first film.
"I said no initially," Levy said. "Reading the script, you get to, you know, page four, and somebody is masturbating into a glass of beer and then somebody else unknowingly picks up the beer and kind of drinks it."
"Two pages later there's somebody performing oral sex on a," Levy said, before being cut off by Norton who jokingly apologized to fellow guests Michael B. Jordan, Dame Judi Dench, and Hugh Jackman for the graphic chat.
"I'm building up to a point here," Levy said, as the audience and the other guests burst into laughter.
As well as being unimpressed by the film's sexual content, Levy was also not a fan of his character.
"I didn't even like the part, the way it was written," he said. Levy didn't like how Jim's dad was made to look like the ironic "hip dad" who wanted to be friends with his son.
"I don't want to play that," he added. "I think a dad should be the kind of dad that nobody wants to hang around with when they're a kid – just a square dad trying to do the right thing."
Levy was told he could improvise all of his scenes before he committed to the part. "And then I liked the way the improvisations were going, it was kind of turning out the way I wanted it to, so I said ok," he added.
It isn't the first time Levy has admitted to reworking his "American Pie" character.
In 2015, the "Schitt's Creek" star told the Huffington Post that he found the script version of his character "a little creepy" at first.
But when he voiced his concerns to director Paul Weitz and writer Adam Herz, they invited Levy to improvise all of his scenes with Biggs a week before shooting began. "I've got a big soft spot for that movie – it was great fun, had a great improvisational feel to it," Levy said.
"American Pie" took more than $100 million at the US box office, according to Screen Rant.