When Danny DeVito got Arnold Schwarzenegger high on set: “I was stoned out of my mind”
One of the most beloved comedy films of the 1980s is Twins, the Ivan Reitman-directed movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito as two brothers who discover that they are indeed twins who were separated at birth. Not only are the two brothers wildly different in appearance but also in character; the main point of the film’s brilliance comes in this comic misalignment. Reitman then followed up on Twins with the film Junior in 1994, again using the physical paradigm of DeVito and Arnie.
Twins marked Schwarzenegger’s move from the action films that had served him so well throughout the 1980s, but starring in comedy also had some side effects, and the titan actor soon found that starring alongside someone like DeVito brought about a few pranks, including one in which the diminutive icon got Arnie “stoned out of his mind” while making Junior.
Discussing DeVito’s prank, Schwarzenegger remembered: “He said, ‘Arnold, you always give me cigars, and I always feel guilty. I have cigars; I want to give you a cigar.’ And I said, ‘Well, finally, Danny. This is really great.’ He gives me this cigar, a really long one, a beautiful cigar. Monte Cristo and Versario.”
Schwarzenegger continued, “I put it in my mouth, light it up, he comes in with the lighter, we light it up, we’re smoking it, and it was fantastic.” Arnie was likely glad that he’d finally got a cigar back from DeVito, having given him so many. However, it was once the duo got back on set that it became apparent that Arnie had smoked more than he had bargained for.
“We get back to the set; we continue on with the scene,” he said. “I forget my lines. I was sitting there with the camera; it was a close-up of me. Danny’s behind the camera, and the director says, ‘Action’. I said, ‘What am I supposed to say…’ ‘Well, continue on with the scene, Arnold, from before lunch. Remember the scene where you and Danny were talking about going out, and you’re not pregnant.'”
The former Mr Universe did not remember a single thing, so something was clearly up with his state of mind. He went on: “They asked, ‘What did you do before lunch?’ I had totally forgotten everything. Find out that an hour and a half later, when I finally start remembering things again that Danny put some marijuana in the front of the cigar.”
“I was stoned out of my mind,” Schwarzenegger exclaimed. “I’m standing there in front of the camera, having forgotten everything.” It was a cruel prank that DeVito played on his co-star, but a very funny one indeed, and thankfully, the production wasn’t delayed by more than a few hours.
DeVito himself also later recalled the incident. He said: “We come to my trailer. We smoke a stogie. I take the stogie that I’m going to give him, and I stick a little weed in it. He smokes the stogie, smokes the weed. All of a sudden, we’re walking back to the set, and he’s holding on to me. He’s great fun to work with, but stoned? He is like, whoo…off the charts, baby!”
