Our first guest is a gifted actor, producer,
and director who has worked on such films
as Romancing the Stone, Twins, The War of the Roses and Erin
Brockovich.
His new movie, Duplex, is in theaters now.
Please welcome Emmy award winner Danny DeVito.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[APPLAUSE]
Wow.
Well, this is great.
Isn't it?
Got your own little show here.
It's nice.
Really nice.
I'd do it whether we were on the air or not.
I just--
Yeah, just to hang out with people.
It's a fun thing.
Chit chat.
It feels good.
Thanks for being here.
I thought it was a British thing.
You were doing an Italian thing.
It's both sides and then ends on--
Kiss on both sides, yeah.
[LAUGHING]
Oh, I thought it was a British thing.
No, no, no.
It's just like a--
Italian thing too.
We just keep doing that to each other.
[LAUGHING]
Now-- hey, do you remember the first time we met?
No.
OK.
No, but I'm serious.
When--
I don't know.
But you said we met doing some dangerous sport.
I think it was, like, some kind of extreme sport.
Didn't we?
I don't do extreme-- what were you doing?
I can't imagine you do extreme--
I have a feeling--
What do you do?
[LAUGHING]
Well, I mean I was thinking like it was, like, bungee
jumping or--
did you ever base jump?
No.
Do you do that?
No.
Well then how would we have met?
I don't know.
No, I think-- I can't remember the first-- we might
have been in a restaurant.
Oh, yeah.
I think it was.
It was probably a restaurant.
We were eating something that was very rare.
Yeah.
Maybe that was the extreme thing.
I mean it's like-- yeah, something weird.
I can't remember exactly when we--
Because someone said--
We first bumped into each other--
I don't know.
Yeah, it's a while ago.
Yeah.
But anyway-- because I feel like I know you,
but I don't know you.
I know everything about your work,
and I've peeked in your windows.
But I don't know everything.
So you've-- this is what's weird that I just found out.
That's what I love about the show.
I learn new things.
About people.
Yes.
You were a hairdresser before you got into--
[LAUGHING]
[APPLAUSE]
I'll tell you what, the deal was this.
I was-- yeah, that's true.
You were a makeup and--
Well you know, it was, like, my sister.
I have a great--
I have two sisters.
I'm the baby.
My sisters were really--
they took care of me.
They were like my mom, you know that kind of thing.
And my oldest sister had a beauty parlor.
So I was at a high school, and I was hanging around Asbury Park.
I'm from New Jersey--
Asbury Park, New Jersey.
Yeah.
Right.
And my sister says, why don't you go to beauty school?
And I said, what are you, nuts?
You're out of your mind?
Me?
I'm going to go to beauty school?
I mean, what-- why would I-- you know.
I mean, you're a beautician.
You know, she had a shop.
Right.
I said, well, I'm like, I'm not going to go to--
How old were you?
I was like 18, 19.
So she said, what are you doing?
You're bumming around town.
You're not doing anything.
Why don't you just go to the school?
I'll pay for it.
Then when you're done, you can come and work for me.
And I balked like big time.
I wouldn't go, you know?
I didn't want to go.
And then finally, she enrolled me in this school.
And the first day I go to the school,
there's like 40 girls and two guys.
I said, this ain't going to be bad.
You know what I'm saying?
And so I did it.
You didn't stay there long.
No, I stayed a couple of years.
Because then that's how you started acting.
Well she-- my sister actually suggested
that I learn how to do makeup because she's, like, pushy.
You know, she's telling me what to do.
So she said, I found this place where
you can learn how to do makeup.
I said, this is, like, one thing to be washing heads all day
long, you know?
But anyway, I went.
But the only way you could get into school
is you had to enroll as an actor because it was a makeup
kind of program in the school.
So I said fine.
So I had to do a monologue.
I'd never seen a play.
It was like, wow.
So I did the monologue and I became an actor.
And that's it.
It's just--
My whole story.
It's just that easy.
And then you somehow--
I don't know how this happened, but while you were in school,
you were Michael--
you and Michael Douglas were roommates?
Well cut to, like, many years later.
I was already acting, doing off-Broadway,
off off-Broadway work.
And I went to this place in Connecticut--
Eugene O'Neill Foundation.
It's a really great place where playwrights get to show off
their plays and actors.
And then Michael-- so Michael was there one summer,
and we became good friends.
And the next thing you know, we were sharing
an apartment in New York.
And you know Michael was a great roommate
because I am a big slob, and Michael
is like very, very neat.
In fact he's like--
what I love best about him was we'd do laundry
and he would fold.
Oh.
He's the best folder.
Really?
Yeah.
That's important.
It's very important to have a good, neat folder
so it goes in the drawers.
Because it's even more wrinkled-- if someone's not
folding it right, you unfold it to wear it,
and it's wrinkled even though it's been folded.
It's horrible.
It's not good.
Yeah.
Well look at the two of you, that you look back and--
I mean, what's he done lately?
I don't know.
[LAUGHING]
What a cool thing.
And then that you would-- you go from makeup and hair designer,
to acting, to producing, to directing.
Yeah.
It's really-- that's incredible.
It's fun.
Yeah, it's good.
Well I mean, like--
I mean, the run you've had has been--
Yeah.
So--
Pretty good.
So now Duplex.
Yes.
Duplex is out.
Tell us about Duplex.
It's in the theaters now.
It's with Ben Stiller, and Drew Barrymore,
and Eileen Essell who is, like, this 80-year-old woman who
is, like, brilliant.
Hysterical.
She's really a hysterical--
[MUSIC PLAYING]