What Happened When Danny DeVito Almost Died On The Set Of It's Always Sunny

It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia is currently airing its 11th season on FX, and Danny DeVito, despite being in his early seventies, is still pretty game to get up to crazy stunts and plotlines. However, other It’s Always Sunny actor Charlie Day recently explained that one of those crazy scenes nearly got Danny DeVito killed while the team was filming a recent scene on the series. Here’s what happened:

We did an underwater sequence, and Danny’s incredibly buoyant—like a bouey. It was hard to get him down, so we really had to weigh him down to get the shot where we’re all holding hands. And when the shot was over and we were all trying to get back to the surface for air, we all quickly got through the water but because we weighed him down, he sort-of got halfway and was going nowhere. And that look of panic in his eyes like, ‘This is the end, these guys killed me.’

While appearing on Conan on Tuesday night, Charlie Day said that the show was filming a Season 11 scene when the actor very nearly drowned, thanks to the antics of everyone holding the older actor down while filming a scene. Luckily, Day also mentions that the show had some safety divers on hand. They jumped in and got the actor right out, so everything ended up being okay on the series. Sort-of. Obviously, that was the end of filming for the day.

He went straight home. He was like, ‘Goodbye, that’s the end of filming for the day.’ I don’t blame him.

You can check out more from the Conan interview, here.

Four episodes have already aired from the new season, and Danny DeVito’s character Frank has already gotten into plenty of danger. In Episode 2, the gang made him sit near the window thanks to his stinking farts. Unfortunately, he actually fell out of the window and suffered an injury that made him think he was back in 2006. While obviously that’s a fictional fall on the TV show, I think it’s safe to say that Charlie, Dee, Dennis and Mac get up to enough shenanigans that Danny DeVito is forced to film some precarious scenes. Probably not what he signed on for when he first decided to be a part of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia more than a decade ago.

Obviously, keep an eye out for this near-death scene as It’s Always Sunny continues to move forward (and continues to air reruns on FX). The cabler signed on for 10 new episodes this season, and four have already aired, with a new one called “Mac and Dennis Move To The Suburbs” set to air on FX tonight. You can catch recent episodes if you are a cable subscriber over at FX’s site. In addition, new episodes of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia air on Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. ET.

Finally, if you are interested in what else is coming up at midseason, check out our TV premiere schedule.

Jessica Rawden
Managing Editor

Jessica Rawden is Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. She’s been kicking out news stories since 2007 and joined the full-time staff in 2014. She oversees news content, hiring and training for the site, and her areas of expertise include theme parks, rom-coms, Hallmark (particularly Christmas movie season), reality TV, celebrity interviews and primetime. She loves a good animated movie. Jessica has a Masters in Library Science degree from Indiana University, and used to be found behind a reference desk most definitely not shushing people. She now uses those skills in researching and tracking down information in very different ways.