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 getting her on Canadian TV!

During an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon Friday, the actor and director told the story of how he discovered the "Rolling in the Deep" singer when he spent time in the U.K. while she was promoting her 2008 album 19.

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

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

But the Schitt's Creek actor wouldn't accept that answer. "There was a rage in my eye," he recalled of his reaction to their rejection.

"It was early days, I could have quit," he said, but he eventually convinced them to let Adele come on the show.

"You could hear a pin drop," Levy remembered, describing her performance in MTV Live's small studio. "She has a power that can stop a room. ... It was unbelievable."

Levy told host Jimmy Fallon he's never told Adele the story, but when he saw her preform live in Las Vegas once, "She did come over and sort of grabbed my hand and gave me a wink. So, I don't know, maybe she did remember."

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 one — the day he had to reject a role as one of the Kens in Greta Gerwig's hit movie Barbie.

“Logistically [I] could not make it work despite desperately trying to," he said. "So, yeah, I guess I was technically unavailable to do that."

The Happiest Season actor regrets the conflict very, very much.

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"Does it haunt me when I sleep at night? Sometimes. It's not like it isn't, like, one of the biggest movies of all time. That was a tough, that was a tough day," he admitted.

He called Gerwig "one of the great, young auteurs of our time" adding, "I would have loved to play in her world."