Emily Hampshire on Her Huge ‘Schitt’s Creek’ Moment: “I Got My Dream in the Best Way Possible”

Stevie stole the show. If you watched the Schitt’s Creek Season 5 finale, you’re probably still catching your breath after that performance Emily Hampshire delivered during Stevie’s starring role as Sally Bowles in the town’s production of Cabaret. She sang her heart out, brought tears to Moira’s (Catherine O’Hara) eyes and rightfully forced the audience to their feet. “That’s my friend,” David (Dan Levy) proudly tells those sitting nearby.

The performance was emotional and triumphant, and it turns out, a long time coming. Decider spoke to Hampshire ahead of the episode airing in both Canada and the US this week and learned the role of Sally Bowles is one she’s not only been dreaming of her whole career, but even planted the seed to Levy in the first season of Schitt’s Creek. Here, Hampshire explains what the filming of that scene was like, why many of the moments in what was truly a “Stevie season” felt so earned, and then in true Hampshire style, she ended up getting delightfully teary just talking about it all.

Decider: What I wrote down about this episode was, ‘OMG that Cabaret moment’. 

Emily Hampshire: Oh my god! Yeah, that’s what I felt when I read the script. I just feel like it’s such a huge moment for Stevie in a way that you never expected — I never expected. When I read all the scripts of this season, Dan was saying, ‘This is the Stevie season.’ She really goes on this journey and the culmination of it will be the “Maybe This Time” song in Cabaret. Which to me personally was the craziest moment because whenever anyone would ask me, what’s your dream role to play, years ago I said Sally Bowles in Cabaret. I loved the movie and I’m obsessed with musicals. I’ve always told this to everybody I worked with, I want to do this. I even said it to Dan first season, ‘If we do a musical can we do Cabaret?’ But I never in a million years thought Stevie would be part of it or let alone play Sally Bowles. So I kind of got my dream in the best way possible because I got to do my dream as Stevie and got to express what Stevie’s feeling to that iconic song.

It is really an incredible moment and very powerful. Have you watched it already?

No, but that makes me really happy that you say that because I’m so nervous! I haven’t seen it. I’ve only seen, Dan sent me like a little cut of the song. Because I kept saying, ‘I want to go in and fix it if there’s something wrong.’ At first they wanted me to do it live, and he was on board with it for all the music. Because for me, when I watch a musical that’s done live, like Coal Miner’s Daughter or the one about Buddy Holly, or any musical, you just feel a performance. Instead of people just singing songs, there’s a filter through when it’s not live, you kind of hear the sterileness of the recording. So because Stevie is not a singer, I’m not a singer, and she’s not a performer, I wanted it to be like whatever she was doing in the moment. But then after I did that, then I started to be like, wait a second, what if this is totally off-key or terrible or I want to fix it. But he sent me a clip of part of it and [said], ‘This is what it’s like and you’re gonna be very happy.’ I trust Dan implicitly when he says to me that I’ll be happy because we’re both very perfectionist people and I trust his take.

I know on a set sometimes things can feel very sterile, but this goes through these moments of Stevie’s voice quivering to this really powerful belting out. What was it like when you shot it? Did it feel good, did it feel sort of mechanical? What was that moment like?

Everything was set up in the way [so that] shooting for me [would] feel as much like Stevie would feel as possible. I think this is intentional of Dan, even directing-wise he wanted it to feel live. So I also said I would like to not do it — because usually you block it or rehearse it — I said I want my first take to be the first time I’m doing it, and to the audience. Because I would naturally be super fucking nervous, like on so many levels; me as Emily and as Stevie and the expectations of everybody like, it’s the “Maybe This Time” song.

In rehearsals they were like, could you me get a level for sound, but I never did it until the first take. And that’s how we did it. From there, we did about three takes of it all the way through. Then that was kind of…it. Normally I just want to do it over and over, I’m a virgo, but this was something that I felt like, it’s best in its imperfections. I never wanted it to sound like Stevie suddenly became a musical performer singer. I wanted it to be like Stevie’s heart.

I love musicals, I have huge musical aspirations, but I’m aware that I can’t sing or dance remotely like professionals can do. So I definitely wanted it to be how Stevie would emotionally connect to the song in a way that Stevie has never really let herself connect emotionally to anything or anyone. Even when she does, she kind of is defensive about it. I wanted to let her have the moment I get as an actor, where you can actually let yourself feel something through a performance that you can’t feel in life because you’re too embarrassed or ashamed and all those things. I felt like Stevie got that magical moment. At least I did on stage when we were doing it. I don’t know if you can see it, but I hope that what I felt when I was doing it, [the audience also felt] that she got to that magical moment as a performer when you lose yourself.

That certainly comes through. You mentioned this being a ‘Stevie season’, and this really was a culmination of that for the character. From the relationship with Emir (Ennis Esmer) to worrying about Johnny’s (Eugene Levy) health last episode, this was the most vulnerable that we’ve really seen her be so far. What was that like for you?

What was amazing for me was that you couldn’t have had this season without all the seasons before of Stevie being sort of closed off and protective and all those things, because then it would’ve meant nothing. It would’ve been annoying to have somebody being vulnerable all the time. But I felt like when I read the script it was so earned for Stevie. And I kept having these read-throughs and I was bawling. I just couldn’t handle these things. Stevie breaks my heart. Mr. Rose breaks my heart. When I read it, and just even reading on the page, it just gets me. All of her relationships really hit a nerve for me. So I was glad that she got to express herself more rawly.

She found a family with Mr. Rose and a kind of father figure in Mr. Rose and she takes care of him and he takes care of her and cares about her. It’s [such a loving family] that I don’t think Stevie, or a lot of people in real life, has ever experienced. You see yourself getting broken up with, and Mr. Rose is being lovely with you [her voice starts to break] it’s so lovely. Oh my god.

I didn’t mean to get you choked up! I know you’ve just started Season 6, so I wanted to see how that’s going so far and if you’ve cried yet at the scripts.

Well, I flew into Toronto to start shooting bawling all the way home on the plane. We’ve known the show was ending for a while, but when it was posted and became real, it was sad. Really sad. But it didn’t quite register until I was on the plane and I was bawling. My fiancée came over and was like, ‘Oh my god what’s wrong?’ and I was like, ‘I just feel so grateful for this show and I feel bad that I never really said this to Dan.’ Because with Dan, we do have a David and Stevie relationship where I would never say something like ‘I’m grateful.’ I’d just be sarcastic with him, I wouldn’t let myself be like, ‘I am so appreciative of this show’ and I just felt overwhelmed by the gift this show is for all of us. And then my fiancée was like, ‘I’m just so glad it’s not about me that you’re crying’.

But coming back for all of us was… unlike the other seasons in the way that we know it’s ending. It’s kind of like when you know someone’s dying, suddenly you appreciate everything and you don’t take anything for granted. I feel there’s a bit of that energy on the set, which is special. None of us want it to end but we all believe in it ending. We believe in the story ending right and admire Dan for doing that. It’s a hard thing to do when you love what you’re doing and love the people you work with. I haven’t cried yet at the scripts, but we’re just at the beginning. I laugh a lot.

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