Dan Levy put Catherine O'Hara "on a pedestal" and let her "shine" in Schitt's Creek.

The 42-year-old actor, who co-created and starred in the beloved sitcom alongside his dad Eugene Levy, has reflected on his process when it came to working with the likes of Annie Murphy, and late castmate O'Hara.

He told The Hollywood Reporter: "You have to put them on a pedestal and let them shine. You have to trust the actors and their instincts.

"You have to trust what their lived experience and what their brains bring to the table. That show wasn't me.

"They walked into the room as those characters. It was them. I simply said yes and wrote some scripts that allowed them to shine."

The show followed the Rose family, who lost their fortune and had to relocate to the titular Schitt's Creek.

There, the family - parents Johnny (Eugene) and Moira (Catherine), son David (Dan) and sister Alexis (Annie) - tried to adapt to a very different lifestyle surrounded by a cast of quirky and lovable characters.

Dan explained that his approach was similar when it came to working with the likes of Taylor Ortega on his new Netflix sitcom Big Mistakes.

He explained: "I wanted to make sure that Morgan was accurately written, so I went to a female writer to help flesh out that character.

"There is something special about the nuance that certain lived experiences coming from the writer then being imparted into what the character can do for the experience of an actor.

"So often, particularly as a gay actor, I'll read scripts that feel like a two-dimensional depiction of the character, and you see the potential of what the character could be, but you don't necessarily see it on the page."

Dan admitted that scenario is his "worst nightmare".

He added: "So for me, it's all about the authenticity of these characters and making sure you have a team around you who can write to the lived experience of the character with the kind of nuance that would then allow Taylor to come onto the show and do what she does best without having to question whether her part is a whole person."

Dan recently revealed he was "thinking" about bringing Schitt's Creek back, but he has scrapped those plans after O'Hara died aged 71 in January following a brief illness.

Elaborating on the decision in the new interview, he said: "If the idea was there, we would have done it already."

As O'Hara's passing, he added: "You want her in the cast. It wouldn't seem right to make anything without a complete cast coming back."