Being rude secret to Danny DeVito's success

  • 30/07/2015
Danny DeVito (AAP)
Danny DeVito (AAP)

Danny DeVito puts his iconic Taxi role down to insulting everyone involved with the production during his audition.

The 70-year-old actor grew to fame portraying taxi dispatcher Louie De Palma in the TV series between 1978 and 1983. Looking back he's amazed he won the role as he took such an unorthodox approach when trying out for it. In his defence, that was only because he was so desperate to be involved as he wanted to work with the likes of James L. Brooks and Ed Weinberger.

"I wanted to figure out a way to really make an impression. So I come into the room and they're all sitting around this really well appointed office, the producers and whatever. I just walked in - you see the seat you're gonna sit in, where you're gonna do your audition, that's the hot seat - I got the script in my hand, I walked in, I took one step and I said, 'One thing I wanna know before we start, who wrote this sh*t?'" he laughed to talk show host Jimmy Fallon. "I took one step in total terror and then they just laughed and the rest of the time it didn't matter what I said, I could say, 'And?' and I got a laugh."

Strangely, that isn't the weirdest thing Danny has done in terms of his career. He stars in another hit TV show called It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and still can't believe he was involved in a nude scene for it. Even odder, it involved him climbing his way out of a leather couch while sweating profusely.

"So I read it, and when I you read it you go, 'OK, you go in, you get sewn into the couch, blah, blah blah, OK, I know these people really well. I don't mind, I'll take my clothes off and come out of the couch naked.' But you forget that you're in a scene where there's like 50 background actors there," he laughed. "OK, you come out of your dressing room naked. They grease you down because you gotta be sweaty, which is good, the greasing down part, but then you gotta pry your way out of couch like a flounder, a halibut, totally greased up, naked, you forget that there's all these people there. It's weird."

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