Never prank the prankster.
Speaking recently to The Hollywood Reporter, Danny DeVito revealed that he once nearly took legal action against “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” after an on-set April Fool’s Day prank went too far.
“We had one incident that was kind of a faux situation because — I didn’t know it — but it was April 1st, and we were going to start shooting an episode that week,” DeVito, 80, said in the interview published Wednesday. “We were ready to go, and the morning of, I got a phone call and somebody said to me, ‘They’re going to change up the first show, but they want you to read it before you come in.’”
“They had all this planned, of course — the nut jobs I work with, who I love dearly — so I started reading [the script] and it was really, really bad,” DeVito explained. “I was abused in this show to the point of, I can’t even tell you. Midway through, I said, ‘I’m not going to do this. There’s no way I can do this. This is really crazy.’”
DeVito said the end of the fake script involved his character, Frank Reynolds, surrounded by nightstick-wielding cops who throw him down to the ground — before one of the officers tells Frank: “April Fool’s motherf—er.”
“I realized at that time that they had me totally wrapped around their little finger,” DeVito told the outlet. “I seriously was going to call my lawyer [and say], ‘Lawsuit, no way!’”
However, DeVito eventually got revenge on the “It’s Always Sunny” team members who pranked him.
“I got ‘em back. We all went to some Upfront thing in Washington, and it was a big hotel packed with TV people,” the actor recalled. “I got there early, and we all had rooms that FX had given us on our own, so I talked to the manager, and I said, ‘Look, don’t give them their rooms. Give me a small room with one bedroom and get me a bunch of cots and tell them that the place is filled.’ The guy did it and he played it to the hilt.”
DeVito continued, “They were all in the room, and I was in a closet with a bottle of tequila and glasses watching them react to the fact that this guy is telling them there’s no room in this hotel and this is the room that FX booked for them and they all had to sleep together on cots. Rob [Mac] got on the phone. He was going to call the big shots, and then I came out of the closet. I had ’em good.”
DeVito has starred on the comedy show since 2006. The cast also includes Charlie Day, Rob McElhenney, Kaitlin Olson and Glenn Howerton.
Following the Season 17 finale, DeVito was asked by THR how’d he feel if the show ends with next season.
“Well, as long as we have a good ending — I don’t know what the ending could be, they probably have one already figured out in their head,” he said. “It would be hard to let go, but if it’s right and the audience is happy with it, then I think it’s a good thing to do.”
