Of course it's my butt! It's a first for me 
Since making a cameo in Woody Allen's 1971 comedy Bananas, Danny DeVito has established himself as one of America's best loved short arses. Now, on his third collaboration with director Tim Burton, he bares said ass for the wonderful father-son reconciliation pic Big Fish...
This is your third film with Tim Burton. Presumably you enjoy working with him...
Yes. We did Batman Returns where I played the tragic Penguin. Then in Mars Attacks! I was a maniacal gambler who gets shot by an alien. You know, he just called and said he had this great script - and Big Fish is just a terrific script, written by John August. What Tim does is, he calls me and sends me the script. And [then] he sends me a drawing, an illustration of his image of me as the character. It's so great.
Why does he send a drawing? How does it help?
Well, you know that whatever Tim does is going to be whimsical and magical. He gave me a picture of the hideous penguin boy when we did Batman Returns. It gives you a leg up because you know immediately what arena you're in.
So what drew you to Big Fish?
In this movie, you have all the things you love from Tim. All the magic and the whimsy and the surreal, but he also has a fantastic story of a father and son that really gets under your skin. The son has always felt like he was a footnote in one of the stories the father tells. The father is an amazing storyteller and one of the tales that he tells is how he met his wife. So we see Edward as a young man (Ewan McGregor) on the road and he meets a giant and he brings the giant to a circus where he meets a Miss Calloway. He sees the woman of his dreams and I am the only one who knows who she is.
Your character has a secret...
The thing about that is that it symbolises the thing about when you go on a journey. - the silver lining in this part of the story is that Edward finds his true love but you have to go through many obstacles, and one of them is to look in the face of a horrifying thing, a beast... and we'll leave it at that.
What's not a secret is that you bare your butt in this film. Or did you use a butt double?
Of course it's my butt! It's a first for me. It's my first nude scene.
So how did you feel about baring your butt?
Tim sent me the script and I read the script and I saw what happens to the character. I go out into the woods at night, the secret thing happens and the guy is obviously standing there naked in the woods. So I just went on a diet immediately. I got all those creams and started rubbing!
