For Lucy and Danny DeVito, going to work is a family affair.
The father-daughter pair have worked together on many sets before (“The Good Night,” “Curmudgeons,” “The Comedian” and “Dumbo” among them), and found their chemistry on-screen was enhanced by the bond they shared behind the scenes. In some cases, that connection was played to purposely hilarious but disturbing effect, such as when Lucy appeared on “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” Danny’s long-running irreverent FX series, as a waitress who catches the eye of his ogling Frank Reynolds.
Their latest project, though, required that familial spark to find its footing through voice alone. The animated FXX series “Little Demon,” which airs Thursdays, follows Chrissy (Lucy DeVito) as she navigates the perils of puberty as the daughter of Laura, a normal woman (voiced by Aubrey Plaza), and Satan (Danny DeVito). While Laura does her best to protect Chrissy from her demonic ex, Satan tries to build a relationship with his estranged daughter and use her Antichrist potential to take over the world. The series boasts all-star cameos from Mel Brooks, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lucy’s mom, Rhea Perlman.
Lucy, 39, and Danny, 77, spoke with The Washington Post about their on- and off-screen dynamics, their approach to roles and how an attempt at a fun family excursion turned into a not-so-kid-friendly trip to Las Vegas.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: What about “Little Demon” made you both want to be a part of the show?
Danny: I was offered the part of Satan by Lucy and her friends, [the creators of “Little Demon”], a few years ago. I jumped at the chance because I’m always looking for some kind of characters that have an edge to them and have a little flair and fun.
Lucy: What better part for Danny to play than Satan?
Danny: Yeah, I always felt that. As soon as you called me, I felt, “Wow, this is really cool and ambitious and great.” And then Lucy and [executive producer] Jake — Jake is her brother and my son, another DeVito — they took the ball with the demons.
Lucy: Yeah. [Show creators] Darcy [Fowler], Seth [Kirschner] and Kieran [Valla], we refer to them as the demons. We jumped at the opportunity to work as a family in this sort of very out-there format for us. And we teamed up with Aubrey Plaza very early on and she’s basically like family now. And then we got Dan Harmon and his team on.
Q: Did your experience as actual father and daughter help you get into character for this more outlandish take on a father-daughter relationship? If so, how?
Lucy: What was so great about doing this and actually playing father and daughter, is that the relationship is already so cooked between us, and my upbringing was the opposite of what we’re depicting in “Little Demon.” But there is something really cool just as an actor [about] being thrown into a scenario where so many of those gaps are filled from actual real life.
Danny: We’ve been connecting the dots for many years.
Lucy: You know, we can finish each other’s sentences and we can read each other very well and get to these heightened emotional points in that way that only family members can. And so it was really cool to be able to just bring that into the work.
Danny: Even though we are offering up extreme situations in “Little Demon,” there’s an ease. There is a connection. It’s more like an emotional connection to the person that you’re working with.
Q: Lucy, you’ve primarily done live-action acting in the past. How did you prepare for a role where most of your part of the performance was going to be entirely auditory?
Lucy: I think I initially approached it as I would a live-action character. I tried to find the reality in her and how I’m similar to her. And then, technically, I think that I really caught on quick to what it was like to act in a booth, and there’s some really great things about it — one being that you can just show up in your sweatpants and do the thing. You get so many tries, you can do it as much as you want. But then there’s the sidebar of being in a room alone, acting. There’s a bit of a learning curve. I think it was really helpful for me that I did a lot of theater and that has taught me to use my voice and be sensitive to that part of my instrument.
Q: Danny, a lot of your projects have focused on complex parental relationships. You directed and acted in “Throw Momma from the Train” and “Matilda,” and have worked on “Always Sunny” and “Hercules” and now this. Is there something about exploring those relationships on screen that you find particularly interesting or rewarding?
Danny: Whether it’s the movies you mentioned or “War of the Roses” — where there’s something amiss, something’s not exactly clicking — all those stories have a mechanism that makes you wonder how they’re going to navigate the situation. And I think in “Little Demon” it’s similar. I, [as Satan], feel like even though I am a really strong, powerful being, I have great feelings about my nuclear family. Which is surprising to me because I don’t usually, as the devil, get caught up in that.
Q: Do you have a favorite performance of each other’s?
Danny: I remember seeing Lucy in a play that was written by — well, who wrote “The Shape of Things?”
Lucy: That was Neil LaBute.
Danny: Neil LaBute. Lucy did that onstage and she was amazing in that. I mean, I’ve seen her do a lot of great stuff, but that was a kicker.
Lucy: There’s so many to choose from. I love you in “The Price,” which was the Arthur Miller play that was on Broadway a couple of years ago. And I love Owen in “Throw Momma from the Train” because there’s just something so vulnerable and nutso at the same time.
Danny: That’s what I am, vulnerable and nutso.
Q: “Little Demon” deals a lot with the uncomfortableness of middle school. Do either of you have a favorite memory of Lucy in middle school? Either like a father-daughter moment or just a fun thing that happened?
Lucy: When we were young, I think I was a little bit younger than middle school, my dad took me and my sister, who was younger than me, to Las Vegas to see Siegfried and Roy. It was just a trip with Dad, but everyone knew who he was.
We had two nights there. One night was going to be Siegfried and Roy, and the first night we didn’t know what to do. So we decided to go to a show that was advertised as being about mermaids because — girls and mermaids. We love mermaids, you know? I remember just sitting at one of those banquette booths.
Danny: Big leather booths, center stage.
Lucy: Just from the minute it started, you knew it wasn’t children-appropriate, lots of naked ladies.
Danny: There were mermaids in it! All I knew was there was mermaids and we didn’t know what to do that night.
Lucy: But then the kicker is that the production knew that Danny was in the audience with his two daughters, and they like, at a moment, stopped the show and were like, “And please welcome Danny DeVito and his two daughters!” And it was like the spotlight came on us.
Danny: I still have that picture somewhere of us in that booth. They did the whole Vegas thing — you know, the person comes over with a big camera and takes a shot of us and gave it to us.
Lucy: I think we snuck out during intermission.
Danny: Yeah, we did. I think it was it was even going to get a little bit more racy in the second act. But there were a lot of mermaids in it, that’s for sure.
Q: How do you both feel about this meme-culture cloud that now surrounds Danny that the younger generation has kind of created?
Lucy: I think it’s awesome.
Danny: Yeah, it’s cool, right? I dig the fact that I’ve done “The Price” and I’ve done also, you know, David Mamet movies, “Heist,” “L.A. Confidential.” But I’ve also done “Matilda” and “Hercules” and “Dumbo.” And “It’s Always Sunny.” I really like it when the little kids like the 9-year-olds talk about “Are you Mr. Wormwood?” [his character in “Matilda”]. How do you feel, Lucy? I think it’s cool.
Lucy: I love it. I’m happy everyone adores you. It’s awesome news to hear there are Danny DeVito dress-up parties. It’s hysterical. I get a kick out of it. And I love that you’re my dad, but then you’re also all these other people’s dads at the same time.
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