Over the decades in Hollywood, besides perfectly bringing their acting chops to the screens, a lot of actors have also tried their hands at other ventures. For Kim Basinger, this other venture was investing in real estate with a major plan in mind, which, had it succeeded, could have brought in more than just a few big bucks for her.
However, that plan ended up failing rather brutally, becoming her worst real estate misfortune ever. But while nothing good came out of that business decision financially, Basinger still managed to partly inspire the smash-hit sitcom Schitt’s Creek with her disastrous mishap, and after realizing this, now she wants those royalty checks.
Kim Basinger wants “those royalty checks” from the show inspired by her misfortune
While Kim Basinger led a fairly successful career as she landed masterpiece after masterpiece and became the recipient of major accolades including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe, her trying her hand at investing in real estate didn’t really turn out to be a profitable decision, since it even led to her eventually declaring bankruptcy at one point.
Back in 1989, the actress reportedly invested $20 million to buy the bulk of 1,691 acres of privately owned land in the small town of Braselton, Georgia, on the recommendation from some of her family members. Her hopes with the same were to ostensibly develop a tourist attraction and production center there, though that idea really fell flat.
This is because three years later, instead of it becoming a place blooming with tourists, the only businesses open in town were a furniture store and a dentist’s office, as per the Chicago Tribune. The hardware store, department store, and grocery store had all closed, and postmaster James Deaton even said that the town was “deader than it was” when she bought it.
Thus, five years after investing in it, Basinger sold the real estate at a terrible loss for a reported $1 million. But while that didn’t help the L.A. Confidential actress out the least, it did end up partly inspiring Schitt’s Creek, as Dan Levy confirmed himself (more on this later). And, after finding out about this crucial tidbit, now Basinger jokes about wanting a share in those checks.
During a recent interview with Variety, she shared the same while revealing how she had no idea her misfortune could inspire something so iconic. Basinger said, “Who knew? I love that show. So, hey, made for good material.” Continuing, the actress jokingly added, “That would be lovely to have those royalty checks.” Well, she does deserve them!
Dan Levy confirmed Schitt’s Creek‘s partially inspired by Kim Basinger’s misfortune
While not entirely, Schitt’s Creek is still, as it turns out, partly inspired by Kim Basinger’s missteps back in the early 1990s. Apparently, the masterminds behind the show were in the early stages of figuring out the backstory for the main characters Johnny and Moira Rose. Sharing how this ended up bringing them to Basinger’s story, Dan Levy revealed in an interview with Vanity Fair:
We started to research different ways that people had lost tremendous amounts of money or gone bankrupt. In the process, I stumbled upon an article about Kim Basinger having bought this town in Georgia… We thought, what if that could be funny?
With this in mind came the storyline for the masterpiece. As Levy went on to explain: “The family bought the town as a joke because it had this terrible name. and it’s the only asset left after everything gets repossessed because the government didn’t see any value in it… Unfortunately, it took a probably very traumatizing experience in Kim Basinger’s life for us to get here, but yeah… It was the most unlikely of Google searches.”
Well, they do say everything happens for the better, and perhaps the better for Kim Basinger’s worst real estate misfortune was the smash-hit sitcom the unfortunate turn of events was going to inspire decades later!
Schitt’s Creek can currently be streamed on Prime Video.
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