Danny DeVito discusses the new season of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Frank Reynolds, the move to FXX, his play, and more. Watch the season nine premiere of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia on Wednesday, September 4th at 10pm on FXX.
Danny DeVito: I’m very excited about this season.
Guest stars this season – we’ve heard Seann William Scott and Josh Groban:
Danny DeVito: These guys [Rob, Glenn, Kaitlin, & Charlie] are responsible for all the guest stars, so you’ll have to ask them about the all the guest stars. [Filming with the guest stars] Frank is a particularly self-centered person and they are actors that come on the show, so he doesn’t pay much attention to them. We had a great season this year. It was a lot of fun. Every year it goes farther and farther out.
Episode where Charlie gets smarter:
Danny DeVito: We had the good fortune of having a great script written by these two gentlemen that do the Game of Thrones. It’s really a blast. It’s like Flowers for Algeron. It’s terrific. It’s a good episode. We have a lot of fun on every one of them but it’s always fun when Charlie has a lot more to do.
Frank this season:
Danny DeVito: When we started the show I said to them that the one thing that we have to do is keep pushing the envelope. I think they took me to heart. After a couple of years it got so crazy. Every year it gets farther and farther out. I say yes to everything, basically – if somebody says to me you have to do this, that, and the other thing – this year I wound up in whitey tighties stuck in a coil in the middle of a playground. I couldn’t get out and they won’t let me out. They are very mean to me even though I pay for every morsel of food that goes into their bodies because we don’t sell a lot of beer in that bar, if you’ve noticed. They always have really nice clothes; they have nice things to eat. Where are they getting all of this money? Right here, see. [Laughing.] They don’t know it. They don’t realize it. They are like kids. They are in their thirties but they act like they are about maybe fifteen. I don’t know. The kids come home to eat and there is this big thing on the table and they eat it. That’s the way they are.
Preparation for the more ridiculous things:
Danny DeVito: This year we are a germ show. I become totally germaphobic where I shave all the hair on my body. I was about to do it all and I did a little shaving and it got a little uncomfortable, but I do get bald – no hair on my face – because hair is where all the dirt is and all the germs. It got pretty radical there. That was one of the last shows that we did this year. It was a lot of fun and I can’t wait to see me covered in sanitizer and naked on the floor…dripping and oozing in one of those products [sanitizers]. I just totally covered my body in it. We did it as a special effect but it’s real, it’s on me, but it’s not something that would kind of harm all the germs that I love on my body. I wouldn’t want to kill the germs. Anyway, we are looking forward to it. We are moving to FXX. That’s a new venture for John Landgraf and his boys and girls, and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s easy to find our show. You just look for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and modern technology will bring you to FXX. I start rehearsal for my play that I’m doing at the Ahmanson, which is The Sunshine Boys. We are going to start performances in September in Los Angeles. I’m very excited about it. Judd Hirsh is going to be with me on stage. We haven’t been together since Taxi. We’ve seen each other but we haven’t done anything together. David Krumholtz is playing my nephew.
Being on stage again:
Danny DeVito: It’s exciting. It’s like riding a motorcycle. I did it in London with Richard Griffiths, a wonderful actor that passed away last year. We had a great time. I’m really looking forward to it. It’s a great play. The Sunshine Boys is like Neil Simon’s wonderful play. It’s a great show for the audience and I have a good time up there.
Favorite crazy moment:
Danny DeVito: I usually throw myself into things, so all of the insanity that comes about, whether it’s what I was just saying about being stuck in a playground in my underwear, or coming out of a couch naked, or slithering across our floor covered in antibacterial gel – it’s like they are highlights. I like the physical stuff. I like the physical comedy. I love being with these guys, so that’s really a lot of fun. Let’s see how long we can stick around…at least another year. You never know. I’ve heard that TV shows could get picked up for 100 shows. We just did our 100th show. Isn’t that great! [Celebrate] We got drunk. Isn’t that wild? I remember like nine years ago when we started and then it just zips by, really fast.
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