While professional athletes are the ones who usually face the pressure of a Game 7, there’s something universal about staring down the barrel of a do-or-die moment. Danny DeVito knows that reality firsthand.
“In our lives, we go through many Game 7s. You know, we come to that spot where we gotta make that decision, that thing. We’ve got to take that leap into the abyss in order to do what we have to do,” he told Newsweek. “And we know we’ve prepared for it, we don’t know what the outcome’s gonna be, but we have to go out there and give it our all.”
Louie De Palma (Danny DeVito) and Alex Rieger (Judd Hirsch) from the TV series “Taxi.” DeVito remembered how he faced a make-or-break moment when filming the series pilot.
United Archives / Contributor/FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images
And these days, the pressure of a Game 7 is especially relevant to DeVito. He, alongside NHL legend Mark Messier, served as executive producers for a Prime Video series about those decisive contests. Game 7 will premiere on October 22.
While the actor isn’t as devoted to sports as some of his peers, the make-or-break moments still draw him in.
“I’m an actor, I do my stuff, I do my whatever, I make movies and what not. But I am, I’m not like [Jack] Nicholson or Spike Lee or, you know, Billy Crystal or Tom Morello, guys who are like glued to the TV all night whenever there’s a game on,” he explained. “But when there’s a Game 7, I know that the stakes are that high. Or there’s a playoff, or there’s a World Series or there’s something that is like, you know, in hockey where things matter.”
DeVito might not have participated in any of those crucial contests, but working in show business still presents plenty of high-stakes, Game 7-style moments. Consider, for example, a memory from the earliest days of “Taxi.”
“One of my favorites is that I was gonna do the pilot for ‘Taxi,'” he recalled. “You’re up there, and everything is on the line. And you go to the dressing room, there’s a little plant from [show co-creator] Jim Brooks, and it’s got a note on it. It says, “Dear Danny, as Louie De Palma would say, ‘If you don’t do good tonight, you’ll be eating s**t tomorrow.’ You know? It was like, as a comedy guy, pushing my Game 7 button. You know what I’m saying?
“But it’s true. You had to perform. If you didn’t perform, if you lay down like a lox, there goes your career.”
DeVito, of course, did perform. The role proved to be a breakout success, and DeVito won a Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe for his efforts.
That success, however, doesn’t mean the work is done. Whether we’re talking about sports, show business or life in general, there’s always another test lurking around the corner.
“There’s always gonna be another Game 7 somewhere down the line where you’re gonna be challenged,” DeVito said. “And you want to learn from what you did before and you want to go on. … And that’s my take on it. I think it’s an important thing for sports, and it’s also a really important thing for life.”
Messier also highlighted the theme of learning and preparation.
“Game 7, for us, is that time where a lifetime of commitment to your skill set and honing your skills emotionally and mentally comes into play,” the six-time Stanley Cup champion told Newsweek. “Unwavering self-belief under any circumstance, and, of course, to win a Game 7 is never smooth sailing. You’re gonna face adversity at some point or another, but not being able to be distracted or derailed from a bad moment or a bad mistake that you might have made, to get yourself off the mat and continue on.
“Those are the life lessons that we’re so excited about in our docuseries and I think are told through the lens of sport, but really apply to life. And when you think about the boys and girls and giving them the tools to make the right decisions when their Game 7 moments arise in life, that, I think, is an important message in this docuseries.”
