Dan Levy Recalls ‘Rage’ in His Eyes When MTV Bosses Almost Didn’t Let Him Interview Adele Early in Her Career

We have Dan Levy to thank for discovering Adele — or at least bringing her to Canadian TV!

During the performance at The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon On Friday, the actor-director told the story of how he discovered the “Rolling in the Deep” singer when he was in the UK while she was promoting her 2008 album. 19.

Levy, who landed a job at MTV Canada shortly after his trip abroad, told producers about Adele when he realized she was on an album tour in Canada. He fought for her to be on his show, MTV live.

“I told my producers, ‘You absolutely have to get this girl on the show. We have to talk to her and she has to perform,'” Levy, 40, recalled. “And my bosses at the time were like, ‘It’s not Sum41, so no.’ ”

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But Schitt’s Creek the actor would not accept that answer. “There was anger in my eyes,” he recalled of his reaction to their rejection.

“It was early, I could have given up,” he said, but he eventually convinced them to let Adele come on the show.

“You could hear a pin drop,” Levy recalled, describing his performance in the MTV livesmall studio. “She has the power to stop a room… It was amazing.”

Adele performs in 2008.

Jo Hale/Getty

Levy told host Jimmy Fallon that he never told Adele that story, but once he saw her preform live in Las Vegas, “She actually came up and grabbed my hand and winked at me. Well, I don’t know, maybe she remembered.”

How Dan Levy’s Very Real Grief Inspired His New Film: ‘I Worried I Wasn’t Grieving Properly’ (Exclusive)

The day he convinced his bosses to let Adele sing was a good day in Levy’s career, but he recently told PEOPLE about a very bad day — the day he had to turn down the role of one of the Kens in Greta Gerwig’s hit movie Barbie.

“Logistic [I] I couldn’t make it despite my desperate attempts,” he said. “So I guess I was technically unavailable for it.”

The The happiest season the actor is very, very sorry about the conflict.

Levy in 2007.

George Pimentel/WireImage

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“Does it haunt me when I sleep at night? Sometimes. It’s not like it’s not, like, one of the greatest movies of all time. It was a tough, tough day,” he admitted.

He called Gerwig “one of the great, young authors of our time” and added, “I would love to play in her world.”

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Source: HIS Education