Why Danny DeVito, Rhea Perlman _ Lucy DeVito Still Love Going to the Movies _ Architectural Digest

I like Goobers because they have the chocolate-covered peanuts. Mm-hmm. You like the Raisinets. I like Raisinets, too. It's the same thing. Like, you know, I'm a Dodger fan, you're a Yankee fan. Oh, no. Oh, I'm only kidding. Excuse me. Pardon me. Oh, take that back 100%. She's a diehard Dodger fan. This is so great. Yeah. Being in the Egyptian theater? Well, it's a classic Hollywood theater. It's a real deal. Yeah. I read somewhere that, like, they had the first premiere here ever. What, like a Hollywood premiere? A Hollywood premiere. The first premiere ever was Douglas Fairbanks' Robin Hood. Wow. And it's where the red carpet— Oh, yeah, became the red carpet. —became the red carpet, yeah. This is Hollywood. This already means a lot more to me. I didn't know it meant that. Well, I always thought when I was a kid that it was an escape. Every weekend I went into the movies when the lights go down and then you let yourself go. And it's just the most— I just love the experience of going to the movies. Yeah, I love it, too. I remember the first time I got here, like, to California, I wanted to see Hollywood. And I went immediately to Hollywood and Vine. And then the second thing I saw was, I think, Because it was so iconic. I mean, and you walked in and it had all these palm trees. On the street, there's also, like, Mann's Chinese Theater. The Chinese Theater down the block. Yeah, with the handprints and the G prints. And what a street. Yeah, it's a great street to go to the movies. Movies, in general, were just like a big part of our lives growing up and going to the theater together. Oh, yeah, we came here a lot. Oh, yeah. We went to go see The Departed for, like, opening weekend. And it was before there were assigned seats. I think they oversold it or something. But I remember sitting on the steps with you, just watching the whole movie from, like, the aisle. Just, like, how exciting it was to be there with, like, so many people seeing that movie for the first time. And Matt Damon saying, The Departed. Yeah, Departed. And then, yeah, going to, like, your premieres. Yeah. I remember you did Batman. At the Chinese. Probably. Yeah, that was fun. One theater that I hope gets renovated or just comes back is the Cinerama Dome. Oh, yeah. I'm wearing my Roger Rabbit shirt because I saw that when I was a kid at the Cinerama Dome. I happened to be at the Vista when they were playing one battle after another, and oh, my God. I think that's the best movie of the year anyway, but that's how I found out it was the best movie. Everything was great about it, you know? And you just get so sucked in. You don't want it to be over. And it's so cool when you have, like, the right sound and the screen, and it's dark, and you're not, like, tempted, really, to look at your phone. Oh, boy. It's great to watch a movie the way that it's meant to be watched. I shot a scene in Throw Mama from the train in the Vista with Owen watching Strangers on a Train. Oh, yeah. Didn't you guys film in there for Get Shorty? Yeah, I think we shot in that movie theater a lot. It's a real landmark and a great theater. Like here, you've got the whole new sound system and everything. It's a beautiful green. Love it. I'm gonna come back quick. Let's play it tonight. We'll see. I also like the idea lately of the thing where you can go in and have a cocktail. I don't know. I mean, when I was a kid, it was like, you know, it was Jujubeats and Milk Duds. Don't knock Jujubeats. No, I like Jujubeats. I'm not gonna Jujubeat. No, you can do, like, the classy experience. Cover my head? Yeah. Get a little bucket of wings? Yeah. The first movies I ever saw were in Coney Island where my grandmother lived in. Almost every week would be another Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis movie. I don't know how they made so many movies. I'll tell you the truth. I think they were all the same. I thought they were hysterical. Like, I remember when Godfather 1 was in New York and Ria and I stood in line in the rain, pouring rain for, like, it had to be an hour. Oh, yeah. But we got in there. We actually watched Don Corleone while we were sopping wet. It was, like, a great experience. I was shooting Megan Matilda. I think I was Megan Matilda. We get home and the kids say, hey, Dad, we just saw the greatest movie we ever saw. And I said, oh, good. Where'd you go see? They said, Usual Suspects. My 12-year-old, my 10-year-old, this is the greatest movie they ever saw in their life with Kaiser Soce, you know, blowing everybody up. It was a great movie. You got good taste. Yeah, it was great. When we first came here, I had an apartment in New York and I didn't want to give it up. Once I was here for a certain amount of time, I became a Los Angeles person. It swallows you in a good way. It makes you feel like this is home. I'm always really proud to say I was born in LA. Yeah. This is a great place to raise a family. And we have three wonderful children and now two grandchildren. And it's a really cool, it's a cool place to live. This is a great, great city. It really is. And movies is the basis. It is the foundation of it in a way. The experience going to the movies is like supreme. Once people get that experience and know how exciting it is to be in a room with 300, 400 people, the scare hits, the laugh hits, the intensity is so great. So what we have to do is like regenerate that interest. I think we've got to like all get together in the movie industry and do this, revamp these theaters, put them on their feet and allow people to get that visceral, wonderful experience and get into a habit of going to the movies with their families and with their friends. Coming together for an experience is one of the most special things that you can do for community, for feeling like filled in your life. Yeah. We all have to come together as a family. Yes, yes. Let's go to the movies.