Ted Danson is a leading man once again in his new Netflix series A Man on the Inside, and even his co-stars were star struck by the comedy legend while he was on set.
Mary Elizabeth Ellis, who plays his daughter Emily in the series, exclusively told Page Six that Danson was “self-deprecating” when faced with all the flattery.
“Every time he walks out the door, someone says to him, 'You're an icon and we all love you!'” “So I think at a certain point it's like, 'That's enough of this,'” the 45-year-old “New Girl” alum shared.
In Man on the Inside, Danson, 76, plays Charles, a retired college professor who recently lost his wife to dementia and gets a new lease on life by being hired to work undercover in a retirement home.
His character is tasked with uncovering who stole one of the house's resident's necklaces.
The nursing home houses an eclectic group of elderly people, played by professional actors such as Sally Struthers and John Getz – who referred to star Stephanie Beatrice, along with Danson – as “amazing legends”.
“These are actors who have been doing this for a long time and are very good at it, and we see them every day and they are really at the top of their game,” the “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” alumnus, who plays the nursing home CEO. Director Diddy told Page Six.
“It was really nice to look around and say, ‘Yes, I can do this until they don’t want me to do it anymore.’”
Co-star Leila Richrick Estrada, who plays private investigator Julie, added that she felt inspired by her older co-stars and their new series because they made “aging look really cool.”
“I'm excited about it,” the 35-year-old actress told us. “Old age is the best case scenario.”
She continued, “We get older and we get all these life experiences and I think we show that, and we don't show it in a way that's like, 'Oh my God, get ready, get ready.'”
However, Beatrice, 43, joked that it was “funny” to witness side conversations between her older co-stars on set, which sometimes involved harsh truths about getting older.
“[I’d] “I'm waiting for the next shot to be set up, and I'm surrounded by all these older actors and they're all talking about the best hearing aid and how their knees hurt,” she said with a laugh. .
For his part, Danson is doing everything he can to maintain his youthful feel as he approaches 80.
“I'm a silly guy who stays young by being silly,” the former “Cheers” star told the Los Angeles Times earlier this month.
Season 1 of “A Man on the Inside” is now streaming on Netflix.
