Danny DeVito ‘lusted after’ Michelle Pfeiffer on set of ‘Batman Returns’: ‘She was a goddess’
Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman had Danny DeVito purring.
The actor, 80, revealed he pined after his co-star, 67, when the two filmed 1992’s “Batman Returns.”
DeVito sat down with Colin Farrell to swap “Batman” stories for Variety’s Actors on Actors, published on Monday, June 2, and divulged his secret crush.
“She was a goddess,” DeVito said of Pfeiffer. “If I knew she was going to be in a scene that day …”
“Did you brush your teeth that morning?” laughed Farrell, to which the “Taxi” star revealed he went to great lengths to make sure he looked his best in front of the blond bombshell.
DeVito played the villain Penguin alongside Michael Keaton as Batman and Pfeiffer as Catwoman in the Tim Burton-directed flick.
“I got all flushed. Put extra makeup on — ‘Give me another pound of makeup.’ It was very difficult,” DeVito confessed, saying working with Pfeiffer was “just so wonderful.”
“And I lusted after her. I loved her,” he admitted.
Farrell loved the confession and pried more from the star, who once claimed his Penguin was “better than” Colin’s in “The Batman” opposite Robert Pattinson’s lead role.
“We’re moving on from your lust,” the actor stated. “Just tell me what form did the lust take, behaviorally?”
“It was not me. It was the Penguin,” DeVito interrupted, blaming his character. “It was Oswald that was lustful.”
When Farrell asked if Pfeiffer ever called security on DeVito, he responded, “I kind of feel like she liked it. She liked Oswald.”
DeVito gushed over his “Batman Returns” experience, saying he’d “absolutely” reprise his role as the monstrous Penguin.
“I loved it because it gave you a freedom that burst out,” he explained. “For you too. You can go off the rails with something.”
“The music and sets and the whole thing,” DeVito elaborated. “The Shakespeare of it — ‘All the world’s a stage.’ Oswald’s realm and his penguins and his minions and his passion. I loved that.”
The actor didn’t even care that his transformation took him three hours in the makeup chair.
“It’s a cakewalk. I was there every day for 66 days,” DeVito shared. “In makeup, cooking pasta in the afternoon, having meals, making meatballs. I’m in the middle of a scene in the Penguin’s lair, and this wonderful guy who worked with me, I [call] him over. He goes through all these catwalks; he goes, ‘What is it, Dan?’ And I said, ‘Stir the sauce.’ He had to go back to the trailer to stir the tomato sauce.”
DeVito seemingly hinted about his crush on Pfeiffer when he penned a comic in honor of Oswald “The Penguin” Cobblepot’s 80th birthday in December 2021.
The comic had him and Selina Kyle (Catwoman) falling in love.
“At first I was a little bit hesitant about doing the comic, but then I got into the fact that I’ve always been a big fan of Michelle Pfeiffer’s, and the Penguin obviously lusts after Catwoman,” DeVito told Entertainment Weekly at the time.
“So I figured I’d put those two together, and then it was also in the middle of the pandemic, which we’re still fighting with. I thought it would be good if Penguin had a little bit of Robin Hood in him.”
