You may know Sarah Levy from her role on the Emmy-winning comedy series, Schitt’s Creek, but this April she’s playing ‘Susan Ireland’ in SYFY’s Surreal Estate. Now in its third season, the paranormal-drama series kicked-off April 3, releasing new episodes weekly over the course of 10 weeks. Besides being outwardly excited regarding the return to her role, Levy recently chatted with us about her current “these-really-work” beauty picks and balancing some “bucket list” opportunities.
When we last spoke, you shared your love for SkinCeuticals and Joanna Vargas—you know all the good skin care. What are you loving right now?
Oh, man. I’m such a sucker for product! I will always love my Joanna Vargas and SkinCeuticals. Over the past couple years, I got into Skinfix and I’m loving that line as well. I’m using their moisturizer, their serum and their face wash. The Barrier Plus ($30) is amazing and takes off every speck of makeup just with the face wash—which is hard to achieve. You usually have to really double cleanse or grab a face cloth to get everything off. It is my favorite face wash of all time.
I know the line. I think dermatologists recommend it, too.
Yes. Going to work and then wearing a mask through COVID and stuff…my skin barrier, especially around my nose, where the mask just kept rubbing, felt like it was gone. That was suggested to me to build it up and get it healthy again. It really worked.
Besides beauty, you have your third season Surreal Estate out right now. Are you still enjoying working on it?
I’m loving it. I feel like we’ve really hit our stride. The first two seasons were great. The third season is even better. During the third season of any television show, you just feel like you’re comfy in it at that point and you don’t need to explain a lot. You know the characters, you know their history.
The beauty of our show is that every episode is different. You never get tired of these circumstances because it changes all the time. Some are ghosts, some are monsters and some are really just people—these entities that we help move on in the houses that we try and ghostbust and sell. Some are just really beautiful souls that just need help moving on. You’re never stuck in one particular genre, which I love the most.
And, you were recently a guest judge on Top Chef, and you’re a big foodie. Did you enjoy doing that? Do you consider cooking a hobby?
Oh, yes. Being a guest star on Top Chef was a true bucket list moment. I honestly never thought I would get the opportunity to do something like that. I was just trying to stay present as much as possible while having pinch-me moments every five seconds. It was incredible to see how that show works and how much of a well-oiled machine it is!
I was on the second episode of this latest season. We had, I believe it was 16 or so contestants. We were at the beginning. I got to meet everybody and taste everybody’s dishes. How do I explain this properly? It’s like you watch TV and all of a sudden I felt like I was in my TV doing it. Even though I do it for a living, that specific thing is something that I’m not used to at all. It was epic.
I do love cooking still. Although I don’t get to do it as much as I’d like with my now-almost three-year-old running around. It’s not as relaxing as I had hoped it would have been, or it has been in the past, but it’s still a huge part of my life.
Your family was affected by the LA wildfires. I’m sorry to hear that. How has the rebuilding process been working for you?
It has been such a journey. The past three months…it feels like it’s been 10 years, and it feels like it’s been two days in a weird way. It’s really only been 90. There’s still so much up in the air. My heart is still in the Palisades. I just love my neighborhood and my community so much. Our plan is to rebuild. It’s so hard to say where the road will end up taking us, but for now, that’s our plan.
I want to get back there. I want to see the community rebuilt. I know it will be because it is just too strong. Everyone is really pulling together to bring it back, it seems, as quickly as possible. I know it will take years, but I’m hoping it’ll move sooner rather than later.
