The character Danny DeVito likes to “live vicariously through”
Danny DeVito has had a strange old career. It’s hard to imagine an actor with a more eclectic resume. From playing the twisted Penguin in Batman Returns to the grouchy dad in Matilda, he’s mastered comedy, drama, action and everything in between.
There is one role however that has always stood one. While DeVito has never shied away from strange and quirky figures, in one character he seemed to totally let loose. Casting off any expectations for what a major Hollywood figure like himself might do, instead he signed on to a tiny budget left-field dark comedy written by a group of friends.
DeVito’s decision to join It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia perfectly summarises his career and enthusiasm as an actor, as he seems up for trying just about anything. After the first season was made out of almost nothing, with the original cast writing and filming the pilot themselves for only $200, their network FX decided they needed a big name. When DeVito’s name got thrown around, the original cast of Rob McElhenney, Glenn Howerton, and Charlie Day were initially reluctant.
It’s a funny thought that acting legend DeVito had to essentially beg to be let into the show. “I loved it. It was fucking outrageous just the way they are,” DeVito said after seeing the first season. “I immediately said, ‘Yeah, this is an amazing show. Whatever you’re going to do with it, I don’t know.’ And then I didn’t hear from anybody.” He wanted in, but the conversation initially opened up by FX Network went quiet.
Eventually, the cast agreed to try it, writing DeVito into the show as Frank Reynolds, the chaotic father of Dee and Dennis. Anyone who has seen the show knows it is a wild role, putting DeVito in some scandalous scenes and outright ridiculous plots. But there is something about the character that the actor absolutely loves.
“I live vicariously through Frank,” he told The Talks. “We pretty much do everything; find babies in dumpsters, crawl out of couches naked, I’ve been slimed, fallen out of windows, I lose my memory, lose my mind — I don’t know, do drugs, have crazy sex with Artemis, anything.”
As a fan of the no-holds-back, anything-goes energy of the show, DeVito gets a lot out of the totally unrestrained character. “I have a big closeness to Frank because I really want to do stuff,” he continued, “I want to try things, I want to do stuff and Frank is a character that is with a bunch of young people and he wants to explore. He doesn’t want to sit on the couch.”
From the very first day after begging to join the cast, he knew it would be a fun role. He’s asked all the time why he chose to take a shot on the low-budget project when there was every chance in the world that its strange characters and offensive humour could fail.
“Everybody asked me that. Every single person that I knew asked me that. The doorman asked me that,” DeVito said in an interview with his castmates on The Always Sunny Podcast. “‘Why are you going to do that show? You’re a TV icon. You were on one of the most popular shows in the world, Taxi. Why do this show?’ And I feel like it’s why you do anything: it’s a gut feeling. Then I had that meeting with you guys where we sat and talked about it, where I was probably drunk.”
