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Mary Steenburgen might be a fresh face in the second season of A Man on the Inside, but the show’s leading man, Ted Danson, is no stranger to her heart.
Off-screen, Steenburgen and Danson have been happily married for three decades. Their on-screen chemistry has been showcased a few times previously in films and TV projects like Pontiac Moon, It Must Be Love, and Living with the Dead. In the upcoming season of Danson and Mike Schur’s comedy on Netflix, the challenge is for them to portray a blossoming romance as if it’s their first encounter.
Steenburgen revealed to DECIDER that she and Danson used a unique technique to capture this on-screen magic. Before the cameras rolled, they would exchange tender words—or rather, meaningful ones—to set the scene.
“We had a secret code before every take, which I thought might catch the editor’s attention,” Steenburgen shared with DECIDER, as Schur, also present during the interview, indicated otherwise. “We’d say ‘Sandy’ before each take. This was a nod to my mentor, Sandy Meisner, and Ted had studied under one of Sandy’s students. Sandy’s method was all about deep connection and genuine listening. Embracing this allowed us to tap into the joy of acting, almost like revisiting our younger selves starting out in the profession.”
This personal touch extends to their roles on the series, where Steenburgen and Danson portray Charles Niewendyk and Mona Margadoff. Following the mystery unraveling at Pacific View Retirement Community in Season 1, the narrative now shifts to Wheeler College. Here, Steenburgen’s character, a vibrant music professor, becomes embroiled in a mystery involving a missing laptop crucial to securing a significant donation.
The added layer of possible deception between them, they say, only helped to make their scenes together — of which there are many — more dynamic. Their two characters are both hiding things and healing from their spouses’ deaths, which gave Steenburgen and Danson even more corners of the roles to explore individually and together.
“We both went to New York the same year and started studying, and it was just kind of a fun way of being in touch with our younger selves, you know?” the actress said of tapping back into their greener sides in order to relive the honeymoon phase of their relationship.
For his own part, Danson just smiled and looked on lovingly as his wife of three decades opened up about staying present during their scenes. In other interviews, though, Danson has shared his own thoughts on getting to “fall in love” all over again with his wife. “Charles is smitten, and I was too,” Danson told USA Today. “It’s so much fun to play falling in love with someone you’re madly in love with. You just sink into each other, which is lovely.”
As for whether or not the couple makes it through the season or if Steenburgen’s character is hiding that she’s behind the blackmail that brought Charles to Wheeler, fans will just have to tune in to watch and find out.
A Man on the Inside Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.
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