Ted Danson is a leading man again in his new Netflix series “A Man on the Inside,” and even his co-stars were star struck by the comedy legend when 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 of the flattery.
“Every time he walks out of a door someone’s there being like, ‘You’re an icon and we all love you!’ so I think at a certain point it’s like, ‘That’s enough of that,’” the “New Girl” alum, 45, shared.
On “Man on the Inside,” Danson, 76, stars as Charles, a retired college professor who recently lost his wife to dementia and gets a new lease on life by being hired to go undercover at a retirement home.
His character is tasked with uncovering who at the home stole one of the female resident’s necklaces.
The nursing home features an eclectic group of elderly folks, played by acting pros like Sally Struthers and John Getz — who aside from Danson — co-star Stephanie Beatriz referred to as “incredible legends.”
“These actors that have done this for so long and are so good at it, we’re seeing them every day at really, still, the top of their game,” the “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” alum, who plays retirement home’s executive director, Didi, told Page Six.
“It was really cool to look around and go, ‘Yeah, I can do this until they don’t want me to anymore.’”
Co-star Lilah Richcreek Estrada, who plays private investigator Julie, added that she felt inspired by her older co-stars and their new series because they made “aging seem really cool.”
“I’m excited about it,” the 35-year-old actress told us. “Aging is the best case scenario.”
She continued, “We get to grow old and we get to have all those life experiences and I think we show that, we don’t show it in a way that’s like, ‘Oh God, get ready, brace yourselves.’”
Beatriz, 43, joked, however, that it was “hilarious” to witness the side-conversations among her older co-stars on set, which sometimes entailed the harsh truths about getting old.
“[I’d] be waiting for the next shot to get set up and, like, me being surrounded by all these older actors and they’re all talking about what the best hearing aid is and, like, how their knees hurt,” she said with a laugh.
Danson, for his part, is doing whatever he can to keep himself feeling young as he nears 80.
The former “Cheers” star told the Los Angeles Times earlier this month, “I’m a silly man who remains youthful by being silly.”
Season 1 of “A Man on the Inside” is streaming now on Netflix.
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