“I know that sounds weird”: the only director who finds Danny DeVito “very sensuous”
Sensual is not a word that springs to mind when considering the immediate qualities of longtime Hollywood actor and household name Danny DeVito.
There’s something about short, stocky types that seems to find a winning home in silver screen comedy, be it Mel Brooks or Mickey Rooney. At barely five feet and armed with a thick New Jersey accent, DeVito formed a much-loved presence in US film and television at a time, a larger-than-life character completely at odds with the Burt Lancasters of the day, and who could play cantankerous down to a tee.
Such gifts for irascible hilarity would yield his TV breakthrough. After a string of appearances on the stage and minor film roles, notably as one of the patients in 1975’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, ABC’s Taxi would make an overnight star of DeVito, playing the titular cabbie firm’s morally unscrupulous boss, Louie De Palma, winning both an Emmy and Golden Globe for his performance.
DeVito would carve an imitable place for himself from then on. Always anchored in the comic, DeVito has explored an eclectic range of roles across his 50-odd-year career, from Big Fish’s vaudeville eccentricity, his menacing turn as the grotesque Penguin in Batman Returns, to a piningly vulnerable lovesick partner in Terms of Endearment. His comedy chops are wildly elastic and dextrous.
He’s still going strong, too. Maintaining a fierce prominence in the contemporary comedy world, DeVito’s joining FX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia cast as the scheming Frank Reynolds thrust the elderly comic to a new generation, a role acclaimed in the comedy world just as much as Taxi was nearly 50 years ago.
High and unusual praise was bestowed upon DeVito by longtime writer and filmmaker Richard LaGravenese. Boasting story credits such as The Fisher King and The Horse Whisperer under his belt, DeVito’s starring in his directorial debut would prompt LaGravenese’s unexpected appraisal of his physical magnetism.
“I always found him beautiful,” LaGravenese told the Associated Press at the time of 1998’s Living Out Loud. “There’s something beatific about his face. It’s very sensuous, in a way”. He added, “I know that sounds weird. But I’ve always felt that when he smiles, and he’s got that charm, I’d do anything that he says”.
A romantic comedy-drama starring DeVito and Holly Hunter, the enchanting tale of a seemingly odd couple’s crossing of paths and the potential romantic sparks between the pair. Acclaim was heaped on DeVito’s performance of Pat Francato, the unhappy elevator attendant whose emotional adrift is soothed by Hunter’s Judith Moore, the pair’s relationship never quite extending beyond the platonic realm despite the teases and hints along the way.
Beauty’s in the eye of the beholder, and LaGravenese clearly saw a humanity and emotional intelligence radiating from the uniquely looking DeVito that lent itself perfectly to the role. It’s a charm that’s served him well over the years, always impossible to like and imbued with an attractive warmth even when playing the most antagonistic roles or villainous characters.
