I ended up watching one episode of AppleTV+’s The Reluctant Traveler. I’ve never watched the show before, and I’m probably not going to start. The whole feel of the “Prince William episode” was awkward. Many are putting the blame squarely on William’s shoulders, but I’ll admit something: William would not have come across quite as badly as he did if Eugene Levy knew how to interview people. That was the fundamental problem – Levy’s job isn’t “journalist” or “celebrity interviewer” or “professional conversationalist.” He was just trying to take a tour of Windsor Castle when all of this got thrown onto him. Levy’s stilted discomfort added to William’s dullness, awkwardness and rizzlessness. The show’s editors left in all of those awkward pauses, they left in the lack of segues, they left in William’s habit of making some awful comment about how he doesn’t know anything about history, laughing at himself and then glancing quickly over to Levy, who was never laughing. It looked like William was just performing a series of rehearsed monologues while Levy blinked and tried to spy the exit. Hilariously, Levy has been giving interviews in the wake of this episode, and the only thing people are asking HIM is “why didn’t you ask William about Harry and Meghan??”
Eugene Levy is explaining why he steered clear of asking Prince William about his estranged brother Prince Harry and sister-in-law Meghan Markle during their much-talked-about sit-down at Windsor Castle. The Canadian actor and comedian, 78, joined the Prince of Wales, 43, for the Oct. 3 episode of The Reluctant Traveler on Apple TV+. Speaking to ITV News in an interview released Oct. 2, Levy said he was not told to avoid the topic of Harry and Meghan — but chose not to bring them up.
“Were you ever told you couldn’t ask questions, for example, about Harry and Meghan? Did you find that was just something you didn’t want to go near?” the reporter asked.
Levy replied, “I was not told I couldn’t ask anything, but it wasn’t really, you know, up to me, to get into that. I had no interest in asking him about that, because it was, you know, very delicate issue and certainly not up to me to get into it.”
“I think there were other things, you know, I could lead the conversation to that might be interesting for him and interesting for the world to hear, but that was something I wasn’t necessarily interested in getting into,” Levy continued.
“I was not told I couldn’t ask anything.” First of all, I don’t believe that. I think somewhere, someone at the palace sent some AppleTV producer an email saying “tell Levy to avoid Sussex questions.” These are the same f–king people who were micromanaging Meghan’s necklaces and Suits scripts after all – it’s simply not believable that they would send big dummy Peggington in there with his rehearsed speeches and expect him to field questions about Harry and Meghan on the fly. Second of all, that’s the reason why Willy gave this “interview” to Levy – because he’s not a professional journalist, because of course there were no follow-up questions, because of course Eugene Levy was told that certain topics were off-limits and he adhered to those rules. Meanwhile, in an interview with Town & Country, Levy claimed that he genuinely didn’t know that he would be meeting William until he got to England and he was already filming there.
Eugene Levy wasn’t planning to interview Prince William when he went to Windsor Castle. The veteran actor didn’t even know he was going to meet the future King until he was in the UK to film an episode for season three of his Apple TV+ series, The Reluctant Traveler With Eugene Levy. “The only thing I knew was when I was on camera filming the episode and found out I got an invitation from him to come to Windsor Castle,” Levy tells Town & Country. “I didn’t know he was gonna be on the show.” Even then, Levy thought it was only going to be a tour around the castle at best. He didn’t realize he was about to spend the better part of the day in conversation with Prince William.
Levy tells T&C he was pleased that the Prince felt comfortable enough to speak about those [personal] issues with him. But he admits there’s one lingering question he still wishes he had asked. “I was sorry I didn’t get a chance to ask him why he picked this show for an interview quite this extensive. I wish I had asked him that,” Levy says. “There must have been something about [this show] or about me that made him feel that this could possibly be a very good vehicle for him to do it. It appears he was familiar with who I am because of American Pie, but there must have been something else.”
“Even then, Levy thought it was only going to be a tour around the castle at best. He didn’t realize he was about to spend the better part of the day in conversation with Prince William.” You can really feel that within the episode too, that Levy was completely unprepared to spend that much time with a prince who had nothing else to do. William had no meetings, no events, no school run, no kid’s football practice. It came across that way too, that William simply has a lot of time on his hands and he refuses to fill his time with meaningful work or tasks or even hobbies. Anyway… there are already a lot of thinkpieces and KP clean-ups on this, so this week should be pretty fun.
Screencaps & promotional images courtesy of AppleTV+.
QE2 & KC3 weren’t ever hanging around begging to be interviewed. Their diaries were usually filled well in advance. And as much as I love Eugene from American Pie etc., is he really A-list? I think William just wanted to meet an actor from a film he enjoyed, and get a daytime pint in.
It is all a bit odd.
Eugene Levy is a big deal in Canada starting with SCTV where he worked with John Candy. He got the Order of Canada for a reason. American pie isn’t what he’s known for here in Canada. He’s also done the Christopher Guest films with Catherine O Hara.
Cool. I live in Ireland, so he’s more of a “the guy from” level of fame here.
@Tarte Au Citron, I’m also in Ireland and I’d know Eugene Levy more from Schitt’s Creek then American Pie. Schitt’s Creek is huge, maybe he’s not A List marvel movie shite, but he’s certainly very well known.
I haven’t watched anything from this but from what I have read on here williams answers to some of the questions were vague to say the least. I feel like a sit down interview would only work in his benefit if they addressed 1 topic and he was willing to go in dept about that. But therein lies the problem i guess because william is as deep as a puddle.
I haven’t watched either and don’t plan on watching. It sounds like Peggy heard they were filming a show in Windsor Castle and he decided he wanted to be in it and got his way. I would love for this to backfire on Peggy, and by what I’ve read it is starting to.
I have watched the series from the start and the episodes are usually more fun because it’s Eugene doing things he’s never done before.
This episode was kind of a drag compared to the other episodes he’s done.
Any interview with William shows he lacks depth and charisma. Nothing more or less.
I think they picked Levy because he isn’t a journalist and this isn’t the type of thing he does. Peg could say whatever dumb thing he wanted and there would be no follow up questions. I hate to say it but Levy was used. It was let’s find a mark that won’t make Peg look bad but the problem is it doesn’t matter who would ask the questions Peg will always look bad.
Have you watched the series?
“The Reluctant Traveller” is not exactly a hard-line investigative news show. The whole point is to put Eugene Levy into uncomfortable situations in foreign locations and strange cultures. The polite Canadian dork stumbling around a royal palace was the reason for this episode. The only thing Levy is probably upset about is that they wouldn’t let him hilariously trip and knock the Queen Victoria Goblet off its pedestal.
My question is did the Palace tell him that he could only get a tour of Windsor Castle if he talked to William? I’ve already said on the other post that Eugene Levy was picked because he wasn’t a journalist. From the quotes that have come out it’s clear there were opportunities to ask about Harry and Meghan but I’m with Kaiser in thinking that he was told they were off limits. There are some rumblings in the British press about William choosing to talk to Eugene Levy instead of the royal rota but it seems like the British press have accepted that this is the way it’s going to be.
@Amy I think this is probably closer to the truth; KP probably forced this interview on Eugene. From his comments, it seems that he was totally unprepared to interview William. Although Eugene is not an actual journalist or interviewer, he is charming and I’m sure if he was prepared for the episode to go in this direction he would have done a much better job for the interview. But as you’ve mentioned, if Eugene’s tour of Windsor was held hostage unless he to meet William then that would explain a lot. I bet Eugene was annoyed, hence the complete lack of editing to make William look better, although that seems to be an impossible task.
Maybe they told Levy that William allegedly throws anyone out of the room who mentions Harry’s name? I’d steer clear of the subject too if that’s the case. It would make for a super short episode. I wasn’t planning to watch this show anyway and now I know that was the right choice. I guess we’ll start calling him Dulliam now.
Okay I’m laughing. It sounds like William knew Levy from American Pie and said yeah that’s who I want to publicly speak to about my future reign, eschewing all the journalists, just the guy from the Pie movies. No disservice to Levy and his lovely show but that is so wild. It’s making me laugh bc the BM and Rota must be so annoyed. And yeah William’s schedule is very free.
Right? How did Schitt’s Creek not make it to the Wales’ box set nights? That’s all we were told they did from 2012-2020. A takeaway and a box set.
Yes, to me at this point he’s more known for Schitt’s Creek which was so lovely. I’d be curious to see the rest of the travel show bc it’s probably cute. But I cancelled my Apple TV recently after they refused to air Jessica Chastain’s new show. Which I like Apple TV so I hope they go back on that. But William being most aware of him through American Pie totally tracks. Totally.
Having watched most of the rest of the series (but not this episode yet), the premise is that Levy is a bit of an awkward fish-out-of-water going places and doing things outside his comfort zone, but ultimately enjoying himself. It ends up making you want to go wherever he’s been. Spending a whole day hanging out with a prince at his castle is a whole different scope than what the episodes usually are, so I can see how he’d be shocked and the whole thing would have been weird. William does not seem like he’d be fun to spend a day with, and if he can’t even talk about the history of the stuff in his own castle…that’s really unfortunate.
This episode is a bit off in tone compared to the rest of his show because sometimes it seems like William is the fish out of water and not Eugene.
“Levy thought it was only going to be a tour around the castle at best. He didn’t realize he was about to spend the better part of the day in conversation with Prince William.”
Why wouldn’t Will’s team inform the production and the host about this, so everyone can be more prepared about what to do? Maybe, they thought Will needs to have the freedom to cancel at the last minute? This is very strange. The diaries of both QE2 and Charles were well prepared for events, they didn’t just wing it as they wished. The current heir is so lazy, he can’t even do a full collaboration with an easy-going show.
It is really disrespectful not to inform the production that it would be more than a tour. It is so unprofessional and it makes me think the whole thing was a last minute arrangement from KP’s side.
I agree, art historian. It’s bizarre and it comes off as a “and oh, prince William is home, would you like to rework this whole show around him?”
We were watching the ball game yesterday afternoon – Jays v Yankees (Jays won, 10-1, YES!) – anyhow, commercials galore, and who do I see? Eugene Levy, snuggled in a warm robe, sitting relaxed in a comfy armchair doing a commercial for SleepCountry!
Mr Lissen didn’t know why I burst out laughing. LOLOL
William seems like a little bit of a celebrity chaser. I’m not going to speculate the reasoning behind it, but he definitely seems to want to always place himself somewhere where it can appear that celebrities are excited and thrilled to interact with him. And I don’t have any intention on watching this, even though the premises itself of someone who doesn’t travel a lot going to all these places seems interesting on the surface because the excerpts sound like I would suffer from secondhand embarrassment from my couch.
I think this is what happens though when you’re intellectually incurious. You aren’t able to handle small talk conversations about various subjects and show genuine interest in things you aren’t aware of, because you don’t spend your time other than on your laser focus pursuits ( football, day drinking, being petulant). And Eugene Levy isn’t part of the Rota, so he’s not going to fill the awkward silences with over the top laughter and compliments about how charming and funny William is. Which is why William probably seemed like somebody bombing their 15 minute comedy set. He had the monologues prepared but they just weren’t hitting.
Celebrity chaser is a good word for him really. All the royals kind of are if you ask me.
One of them even married a celebrity!
“I think there were other things, you know, I could lead the conversation to that might be interesting for him and interesting for the world to hear” Well I guess not, eh Eugene? Harry *is* the only interesting thing about William.
Some people I know watched this and said he came across like a charming and thoughtful young man. 🤦♀️🫣
So he’s got at least some audience that’s very willing to be pleased and is quite happy with those rehearsed speeches.
He doesn’t have to do much to keep the punters happy, which makes his churlishness and self-pity even worse. All he has to do is show himself at the fancy dress events and pop up now and then at a charity. Apart from that, he’s free to do whatever. But he chafes even at that much effort. He seems to want all kinds of glory without actually doing anything.
Agreed @Jas no one wants or expects him to turn cartwheels but be pleasant, diplomatic and dutiful. Responsible adults work and still bring up their children. Therapy would help him find himself and get him to face taking the appropriate action to thrive. If being front of house in a public role is just not for him. Why not admit it and make other arrangements? Preferred option at the moment is withdrawal to Fort Knox and limited public presence but is that truly sustainable as king? If he at a crossroads or he’s decided he’ s trapped and can’t face being slaughtered by the press if he abdicates so it’s easiest, safest just to coast on?
Yes, he seems really to be struggling to do even the basics. Being POW and king can’t be much fun. The UK press is so malignant. But he’s not helping himself. Like you say he’s just coasting. He has no purpose or strategy, except to avoid as much of the job as possible. I don’t know how long that will be sustainable.
William will never have Harry’s charisma, but I can see it working for people who don’t pay attention to what William does or doesn’t do. They won’t pick up that he said his parents divorced when he was 8 or the obvious omission of Harry except for one brief mention.
This is for the masses not the experts on either side and it will get the job done.
Eugene Levy was just trying to do a show and tried to relate to him but he wasn’t ever going to do a journalistic interview. This was a puff piece as was intended.
It is supposed to be a travel show, right? It didn’t need to be a personal interview at all, it could have been an easy walk around the castle and grounds. But then it turns out William knows sod-all about the history of the ancient property he is going to inherit! He was young enough to remember the big fire in the early 90s.
“He wasn’t planning on interviewing William” . Exactly. Meaning He was not given time to prepare questions which was the whole point of catching him unprepared .
Exactly. It’s not like Levy or the production necessarily had questions prepared lol. They thought they were just getting a tour. And I don’t know that I think KP did tell Levy what to ask. I kind of think it’s as Levy himself said, he didn’t want to wade into the sibling conflict but maybe I’m wrong.
He was probably given a series of general questions drawn up by show staff and vetted by KP. It’s not unheard of in media relations to work with morning/ talk show producers on interview topics and questions. I don’t believe for a second the courtiers would allow Bill to be interviewed on camera without clear guidelines for the interviewer ( no matter who).
@Jais Actually, I’m starting to think William kind of wanted to be asked about Harry. He mentioned Harry by name in this interview and I don’t recall him mentioning Harry from his own mouth in quite a while. Briefings don’t count. I think he wanted asked more about his brother but Eugene didn’t want to got there.
Interesting. I can see that. The very fact that he mentioned Harry is significant. Bc it’s been years since he uttered that name.
Yes, William knows that he can no longer pretend to ignore his brother. Within the next 12 months he is going to be dropping Harry into more conversations. It is clear that the press have been told to call the dogs off Harry and Meghan and provide slightly more balanced coverage.
Thanks Kaiser for watching this, so we didn’t have to ❤️.
American Pie?? Levy produced and starred in arguably the most brilliant sitcom of all time much more recently. Why does no one think that was William’s angle?
It sounds like William specifically mentioned American Pie, which is completely on brand for this idiot. Never forget his answer to being asked what his favorite emoji is. William is the worst form of a failure to launch frat guy, what a waste of an amazing platform.
That all sounds right. Those were such awful movies that do not stand the test of time. I would guess Eugene Levy has mixed feelings about them. I’m sure they helped pay for his future work which was much better, but also, gross. Having someone as high profile as William recognize him for the trashiest thing he did rather than the future work that really matters must suck. But yeah it speaks volumes about William that the American Pie movies are something he treasures.
I watched this episode last night! I thought it would be just a short segment of surprise! Will is your tour guide! It took an odd turn when the segment went on and on. The tour was interesting and I was glad to finally hear W actually speak freely (?) about how he is doing and his plans as future king. W answers somewhat earnestly throughout, but doesn’t give away much. In a nutshell, he mentions several times he thinks family-related things are overwhelming. He chuckled about not knowing much history while surrounded by incredibly historic art, architecture and pieces like Henry VIII’s real armor.
He did mention Harry momentarily and (forgive me if I misunderstood him), but it sounded like he knows “how things are” for people in the institution and he wants to prevent that from happening to his kids. So maybe a sliver of awareness? Who knows.
This is a travel show — I get that we desperately want some “gotcha” moment where someone embarrasses Will on camera — but this wasn’t the person to do it, nor was it the time or place.
You don’t get access to spaces for your show if your goals are shady.
Y’all are getting me excited for when I reup with Apple TV+. That won’t happen until I can watch the full season of The Morning Show, though.
I adore Eugene Levy, but I don’t get Windsor Castle as an offbeat location, though. I toured it as a recent high school grad when my amazing grandmother took me on a grad trip to England. Literally anyone can tour Windsor Castle. William was a young child then with a still living mother, so no one offered me an interview.
A British journalist, Mic Wright, once explained that the pressure and unspoken agreements are so intense that the Daily Mail, the Telegraph, etc. don’t *have* to instruct their reporters and columnists what to write. If they didn’t already know what to write, they wouldn’t be working for those outlets. It’s built into working there. The people that work there know this and deliberately choose to work there. This is that on a much smaller scale. They picked a television actor with a little travel show who isn’t a trained journalist, who likely is not really up with any of the gossip let alone details of the rift, and his producers and he would have felt HONORED William DEIGNED and chose them and wanted to make HIM feel comfortable. And so we get here, to self censorship.
British journalists are to blame for permitting client journalism. So for all that Chris Ship gets mad, his bosses at ITV won’t let anyone ask that family any really questions.
Peter hunt also pointed out that the client journalism wielded by the royals for years has now migrated to the right wing.
100% agree with this ⬆️. And this is a big problem for them if they want to survive in the 21st century.
I don’t have access to Apple TV so I can’t see the full interview but I would have liked to have seen more than the clips shown on UK news. His eyes and some of his expressions remind me of his mother. Reading the transcript and seeing him say overwhelmed four times about family stuff was concerning. I wonder if Harry watched the show and what he thinks about his brother now?
I recently rewatched the movie Bringing Down The House with Queen Latifah and Steve Martin and completely forgot that Eugene Levy was in it and stole the show bc he was so hilarious! Anyway, it sucks that the “tour turned interview” came across so badly and Willy Nilly didn’t even supply generic historical facts about his own future property. Most professionals like to be well prepared, esp when its their own show so I can only imagine how annoying this would have been for Eugene. This certainly would have exacerbated any awkwardness. But also, more preparation would have further exposed Wills cluelessness about well, everything, so good foresight KP. Kudos to Eugene for being so gracious about this nonsense.
It’s weird how much William and Harry’s voices sound alike. I was listening to this without watching and several times they were talking about stuff that was general enough that, if I didn’t know who was speaking, I wouldn’t have been able to guess. Of course if they had talked about anything substantive, it would have been a dead give away.
I don’t think that their voices are alike. Harry has a slightly deeper voice like Charles which is much more suited to public speaking.
I haven’t watched the show, but if William had actually given a tour of Windsor Castle and made it informative, fun, had a laugh or two with Eugene, and perhaps told harmless anecdotes about family times in the castle, William would have made a PR coup instead of trying to make poor Eugene his therapist. Trying to make people want to visit Windsor Castle should have been the object, right? Obviously William had an agenda- seems like he was dying to talk to someone.
The trolls on social media are repeatedly claiming that Meghan wasn’t invited to Paris Fashion Week and just showed up unexpectedly. It’s obvious that they’re claiming that because BaldyMore crashed Eugene’s filming and it turned out to be a failure. The palace is attempting to change the narrative. The trolls always reveal Willy’s hand. The Levy tour crash backfired on him. It’s apparently that he was not prepared for a life in general and specially for a life without using Harry to cover for his intellectual and social inadequacies. The heir is a flailing mess trying hard to appear cool and competent. Instead of working to improve himself, he takes the easy way out by attacking his brother and sister-in-law out of jealousy. What a miserable life to live.
I watched a few episodes of Levy’s show last season but didn’t finish the series because the title says it all. His anxiety and squeamishness on trying new things got annoying after a while and just isn’t my vibe. Great locations but not the show for me. I didn’t like Someone Feed Phil either. I saw snippets of the William show featured on Nightline. Honestly can’t remember much of it other than the scooter and him mentioning them getting drunk together in the pub. It’s a total softball interview, Levy looks nervous, and William using Levy as his sounding board for his ideas on what he hopes to do as king or whatever doesn’t necessarily seem quite right. He’s so dour and sounds like he’s trying to convince himself.
It’s actually hilarious that William horned his way on to this show. What a pick-me!
Hey, Willy, if you want to hang around celebs like your brother does effortlessly, you could try attending Bafta events.
Of all the bits that I’ve seen about this cringeworthy interview, a couple stick out to me: Bully actually mentioning H by name. That was very deliberate & I see the handiwork of the men in grey andd their machinations. But I wonder How little ole tommysykes is gonna square that one in his future stories about how Bully’s “friends” say how much Bully hates his brother.
And the other, very interesting thing that sticks out to me is Bully using the opportunity to inform us, via Kp- and men-in-grey speak that there won’t be any divorce; that he won’t do things (at the personal level) in the messy, harmful, & toxic way in which his parents conducted their marriage (hint: no divorce.) So I took that to mean that he will use his grandparents’ model: remain married inn name only; do select joint events to keep up appearances; while living completely separate lives.
While I can see how kitty & her family wd accept that proposal that keeps them within the royal circle in culmination of their life-long goal, I wonder how Bully will manage without a soul-mate like Penny, as his grandpa had. Will the Rota be able to keep his secrets in the age of social media?
Interesting times ahead!
Yes @ Kingston I even wondered whether they will be living together at Forrest Forever Home to keep the kids happy?
If Will gets a new partner, they are gonna make her walk with Kate to the church and invite her to the events with Kate, so she would be seen as a family friend and everybody would say that “how can she be the mistress, when Kate is hanging out with her in public??”. The same playbook they did with QE2 & Penny, Diana & Camilla.
Will ‘s team just wanted a soft ball chat to soften recent criticism of his work ethic. They want him to appear relatable and fun, riding the ecooter , being unstuffy and down to earth. Also an admission of vulnerability commenting on feeling overwhelmed and reminding us that no one is immune from disease. UK news reports all reported at his openness which is the approved KP talking point.
This is what I feel as well. They have to distract from the recent open criticism, and he also used a non British show to both get some softball answers as well as to “get back” at the British press that openly criticized him. He’s removing access to get them to ‘comply’.
Rhiannon Mills on Sky News is describing Jason Knauf as a close advisor and close confidence.How close?
I didn’t watch the interview but after what’s been said here I felt bad for Eugene. Just to have something like this come up on the fly, it’s prob awkward for him the whole time. And as mentioned before I’ve been watching Eugene even before American Pie, he was so funny in Splash .The thing is, if W is interesting people would have watched the show. Let’s be truthful here – I think Most of the world doesn’t think of him as fascinating or interesting. And the issue, they don’t like to admit defeat. But Look what happened yesterday. And imo it’s going to continue to be a losing game for them as they aren’t able to really adapt (with who’s left).