Eugene Levy Was a Strict Dad to Son and Schitt’s Creek Costar Daniel: ‘I Would Ground Him a Lot’

Daniel Levy, the co-creator of the hit comedy Schitt’s Creek — in which he currently stars alongside his dad, legendary comedic actor Eugene Levy —says people always ask him what it was like growing up the son of a famously funny guy.

Turns out, it wasn’t all Schitt’s and giggles.

“I’d love to regale you with stories of hilarious antics, but yeah, I got into trouble a lot,” Levy, 35, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue of his incredibly “normal” upbringing in Toronto. “He made me do my homework. He grounded me.”

Eugene, 72, agrees. “It was a standard relationship,” he says. “Yes, I would ground him. The thing was for us, if you crossed the line, there was going to be some sort of punishment. It’s the way I was brought up, and it’s the way I brought up my kids.”

• Read more about Eugene and Daniel Levy in the new issue of PEOPLE, on stands now

“I don’t think I even did anything that bad!” says former MTV Canada VJ Daniel. “I just remember as a teenager I’d be like, ‘But some of these kids are going to rehab! I just didn’t do my homework!’”

But Eugene credits his strictness with helping him raise a couple of pretty great kids. (Daniel’s sister Sarah Levy, 32, also stars alongside her dad and brother in Schitt’s Creek.)  “It worked! Because honestly we’ve never had a problem with our kids. It was fun as they got older, because then they’d start making us laugh. There were more times that Daniel had us laughing that I ever had anybody laughing.”

Eugene also thinks he and his wife Deborah Divine’s decision to raise their family in Canada was the right call.

“There’s something about raising kids in a show-bizzy kind of environment that’s a little scary,” says the American Pie and Best in Show star. “Toronto is just a very normal town. They could grow up with all options open to them of what they wanted to do. We didn’t want them to be locked into show business. Of course the irony is they both went into acting — and now we’re all on a show together.”

Their comedy Schitt’s Creek — about a mega-wealthy family that loses all their money and has to move to small-town U.S.A. — will return for its 5th season on Jan. 16. Daniel says working almost every day together for the past seven years with his dad and sister has brought the entire family close than ever.

Eugene adds, “I never get over the fact that I’m actually on set with my kids.”

Schitt’s Creek airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on Pop.

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