Danny DeVito Says He Almost Took Legal Action Over ‘It’s Always Sunny’ Script: “I Was Abused in This Show to the Point of, I Can’t Even Tell You”

Danny DeVito says he once almost took legal action against his own show, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, after his co-stars pulled an April Fool’s Day prank on him. He shared the story in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

The actor explained that it happened on the morning of April 1, when he got a call telling him there was a new script he needed to read before coming 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 said.

As he read the fake script, the storyline kept getting worse for his character, Frank Reynolds. “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,’” he recalled.

The prank script ended with Frank being surrounded by police officers with nightsticks, thrown to the ground, and then mocked when one cop told him, “April Fool’s mother*****”

That was when DeVito realized it was all a joke. “I realized at that time that they had me totally wrapped around their little finger. I seriously was going to call my lawyer [and say], ‘Lawsuit, no way!’” he said.

DeVito made sure to get even later on. During a trip to Washington, D.C. for a television event, he worked with the hotel staff to trick his castmates. He asked them to give the rest of the gang a small room with several cots and tell them there were no other rooms available.

“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,” DeVito said. “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 joined the show in 2006 and has been a main part of the cast alongside Charlie Day, Rob McElhenney, Kaitlin Olson, and Glenn Howerton. After the season 17 finale, The Hollywood Reporter asked him how he would feel if the next season ended up being the last.

“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. 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.”

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