Eugene Levy was nearly too grossed out to star in American Pie

Eugene Levy didn’t think he could be a part of American Pie when he first read the script.
The Canadian actor has been acting since the ‘70s, and even helped cultivate the mockumentary genre thanks to co-writing Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show.
While he is best known for starring as Jim’s dad in the American Pie franchise, Eugene admits he nearly didn’t accept the job.
“Where do you want to start? Walking in on your son masturbating into a tube sock as an opening scene? When I first read the script, I was like, ‘I can’t do this’. It was about as far out as I have ever seen in a movie. It is pretty explicit,” he told Britain’s Metro newspaper.
“No, I didn’t (have to do it). But my thinking was that I wouldn’t go and see this movie – I realise it is meant for a younger crowd. But when I met Paul and Chris (Weitz), the young directors, I realised very quickly how incredibly bright and intelligent they were and what a strong comedic handle they had on this thing.”
Eugene has twice won an Emmy for his work on TV, and often mixes up small screen and big screen roles.
The 69-year-old can next be seen in Disney Pixar’s Finding Dory, where he voices Charlie, the dad of Ellen DeGeneres’ Dory. For his Charlie animation Eugene doesn’t sport his famed bushy eyebrows – something he was happy to lose for the feature.
“No and I was quite delighted,” he smiled. “My eyebrows are now more famous than me. I think they could take Martin Scorsese’s eyebrows in a fight.”