9 Quick Questions for Danny DeVito

After more than 50 years in show business, Danny DeVito has compiled a long and diverse résumé, one that strikes a chord with every generation. The Emmy winner’s work on the FXX comedy (streaming the next day on FX on Hulu) embraces that.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has been renewed through Season 18, making it the longest running scripted comedy in TV history. Wow and how?

Little by little it just took off and lit up. First it was all guys that liked the show, then all the women, then it was college students and now — it’s really crazy but I’ve met 10-year-olds who watch this show. They have very liberal parents obviously.

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You’ve played so many memorable characters. Which one brings you the most recognition?

It’s a mixture. Right now, a little kid will go “Oh, Mr. Wormwood.” [Matilda]. Another time it’s “Frank” [from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia]. A lot of people just say, “Hey, Louie” [Taxi], or I get a lot of “Danny”—a lot of people like Twins, they like Arnold, so they go into that. Or Romancing the Stone, that’s a big one. They love Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner.

Speaking of Michael Douglas, you and he were roommates way back when. What was that like?

It was a wild experience. It was in the ’60s. We became friends up in Waterford [Connecticut] at the Eugene O’Neill [Theater] Foundation. It’s a wonderful breeding ground for good writers, and we did a summer up there. Then we shared a place on 89th Street near Riverside in New York. It was one big room and a bathroom and a little kitchenette. He’s a good roommate. We did laundry together. It was fun.

DeVito as Frank in "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," which premiered in 2005.

Prashant Gupta/FXX

You are a beauty school graduate. Please explain.

After high school, my sister said, “What are you going to do, just hang out with all of your friends and get in trouble? I’ll send you to beauty school.” Long story short: I did it. I worked as a hairdresser in her beauty parlor.

This was in New Jersey, where you were born [Neptune] and raised [Asbury Park]. Are you still a Jersey boy?

The Jersey shore is a jewel of the Eastern seaboard. It was such a joy growing up there. I always feel like it’s inside of me. I do go back. I have friends that I went to kindergarten with still there. There’s a bond that you never lose with friends.

Those are some long friendships. Can you believe you’re 77?

It feels like I don’t know that I’m that. I know that you can look me up and I am the guy in the picture. You look at me in television and movies and you look at Louie and even Cuckoo’s Nest and you go, “What? Where is that guy?” But I feel the same way as I did when I was walking around as Martini or as Louie De Palma. Knock on wood. You have to live with that positive energy. If you can do that, no matter what, it helps and it feels good. If you have friends and family — because that’s who you have to rely on — you feed off of each other.