The last time we saw Moira Rose (before that commencement address featuring Mariah Carey), the Schitt’s Creek matriarch was sitting in the backseat of an SUV, being chauffeured out of the titular small town that melted her cold, couture-enrobed heart. The exit was a bittersweet déjà vu moment for Moira because, as Catherine O’Hara explained to Vanity Fair last Friday, the character grew up in a small town similar to Schitt’s Creek—a town of which she had been ashamed and determined to escape. Finding herself back in a similar town, especially after transforming herself into a soap star living an extravagant life with an executive husband, was deeply disturbing. The over-the-top, couture outfits she wore? “That [was] armor. She was defensive from day one. She thought, We’re getting out of here. She didn’t even consider getting attached. She was the most threatened.”
Now that Moira Rose has again escaped a small town, O’Hara told Vanity Fair that she just hopes that Moira “sees her kids again. It sort of ended, and you didn’t think [Moira and Johnny] were going to go back and visit.” But considering how close Moira and Johnny (Eugene Levy) grew to their children, Alexis (Annie Murphy) and David (Dan Levy), during their extended stay in Schitt’s Creek, O’Hara said, “I think we’d go back and visit…I don’t know if [Moira] would admit it right away, but she was really fortunate to have had the time in that town that she will not say.” O’Hara pointed out that Moira never once spoke the name Schitt’s Creek in the show’s six seasons—she was in that much denial.
As for Moira’s future, O’Hara said that she was happy when Schitt’s Creek costar and cocreator Dan Levy told her that he was plotting for Moira to return to a reboot of her star-making soap Sunrise Bay. But O’Hara was adamant about one detail of Moira’s big return—especially after the actor garnered some new fame thanks to Alexis’s handling of the disastrous premiere of the latest Crows film. “When Daniel told me that I’d be doing a soap, I said, ‘Not in the daytime. It’s got to be prime time. Come on, there have got to be stars in it.’”
Taking O’Hara’s input into account, Levy scripted the season six episode “Sunrise, Sunset” in which Moira is wooed back to the series that killed her off. All of O’Hara’s demands were met: The series was rebooted for prime time, meaning that Moira will be finally eligible for a prime-time Emmy, and with a major star attached—Nicole Kidman, who was cast as Adriana’s daughter.
Kidman, a professed superfan of Schitt’s Creek, has since joked on social media that she is onboard. “When do Moira Rose & I start production for Sunrise Bay,” Kidman asked Levy on Instagram.
“I love how he mapped it out for her,” said O’Hara, “and that Nicole Kidman is involved.” O’Hara does feel bad that the Oscar-winning actor would have to share scenes with Moira, though. “I’m sorry, Nicole Kidman,” O’Hara laughed.