NEED TO KNOW
Michael Schur decision to age up Mary Steenburgen’s A Man on the Inside character did not go over well.
The show creator, 50, said Steenburgen, 72, was upset with him for having her play a character who was older than her real age on season 2 of the Netflix series.
At a PaleyFest 2025 event in New York City, moderator Frank Rich asked the cast and creator of the hit comedy about “playing their own age” as older individuals.
Steenburgen, who joins the cast as her real-life husband Ted Danson’s love interest, was quick to say she “did not play my own age.”
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Schur quickly admitted that he had to age Steenburgen up in the series. “I’m so sorry,” he said to the actress, before telling the audience, “No one’s ever been angrier at me.”
“There’s the line in the premiere [episode] where she says, ‘When I was 18, I performed at Woodstock,’ and if you do some basic math, an 18-year-old at Woodstock has to be a person of a certain age, and that age happens to be older than Mary really is,” the creator explained.
The detail meant that Steenburgen’s character is 74, two years older than her actual age. Once on set, the actress told Schur, “I’m not 74,” which caught him off guard.
“I knew there was a reason that we did it and I couldn’t remember,” he recalled. “And then I remembered after a couple takes, and I went running back, I’m like, ‘No, no, no, there’s a reason. There’s a reason.’ ”
The Oscar winner was then told the explanation for her character’s age and she forgave Schur. “Of course, I loved the reason, so I was fine with that,” she said. “My character played Woodstock, I can accept that.”
The event consisted of a screening of the first two episodes of the new season and a panel with Schur, Steenburgen, Danson, Mary Elizabeth Ellis and Lilah Richcreek Estrada.
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A Man on the Inside follows Danson’s Charles Nieuwendyk, a widow and retiree-turned-private investigator. Season 2 sees the main character going undercover as a college professor to help Wheeler College president Jack Berenger (Max Greenfield) crack a case.
Steenburgen, who has been married to Danson since 1995, joins the cast as music professor Mona Margadoff.
The cast continues with Stephanie Beatriz, Michaela Conlin, Lisa Gilroy, Madison Hu, Sam Huntington, Jason Mantzoukas, Constance Marie, Linda Park, David Strathairn and Jill Talley.
Colleen E. Hayes/Netflix
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Steenburgen also spoke about her early days working on the show during the panel, saying, “We came in and read four episodes one day, then came in two days later or something and read the next four episodes.”
“The energy in the room — the sweetness of it. It was funny and it was moving, and I just sat there going, ‘I cannot believe how lucky I am and I’m really trying not to screw this up,’ ” she said.
A Man on the Inside season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.
