Ted Danson has taken on many roles in his career, but his latest has a special meaning.

In the new Netflix series A man inside, Danson, 76, plays Charles, a retired professor who loses his wife and discovers a new hobby as a private investigator’s assistant by infiltrating a retirement facility to help solve a case.

When speaking to PEOPLE about his new role in this week’s issue, Danson said it was a task he couldn’t resist, especially since he identified with many of the show’s themes.

“My favorite comedy has serious undertones, and in this case it’s a very funny premise,” he tells PEOPLE about the series, which is based on Maite Alberdi’s 2020 documentary The Mole Agent. “There’s something inherently funny about a 76-year-old man who’s a (retired) college professor, his life is over, his daughter is worried, so she says, ‘Get a project,’ and he happens to find a project where…” He becomes an undercover spy in a retirement home.

“We get to explore aging, all the things that we’re sometimes afraid to talk about in this country, memory loss, everything, we address with tenderness and seriousness that still contains it in a kind of light-hearted, joyful way are the Cheers Stern continues. “I’m so happy because I’m 76 and I can be part of this conversation that is becoming more and more my conversation in life.”

As the father of four adult children – Danson shares daughters Kate and Alexis with his ex-wife Casey Coates and is stepfather to wife Mary Steenburgen’s children Lilly and Charlie – Danson says he can “see himself” in Charles from a parental perspective, too .

“My eldest daughter once said, ‘Your love is a kind of hit-and-run. I know you love me, but you somehow come in and love me and then you have to go.’ I guess it came from the fear of relaxing more and more in a moment and not trying to control it,” he explains. “The way we love people and express our love is sometimes overshadowed by our own insecurities or desire for control.”

“I had to grow with it, with my children and with Mary. I’m constantly being challenged to be more real and more present,” Danson admits, before noting that Charles is “going through the same thing” with his daughter Emily. , played by Mary Elizabeth Ellis.

“He decides (for them),” he adds. “I did that with Mary. She often says, ‘No, you have to tell me everything and let me decide how I react to it.’ Because Charles decides to protect his daughter from this sadness and pain he is going through, which completely stops her from being part of his life. I’m so happy to be a part of it.

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The topic of aging and parenthood wasn’t the only thing that interested Danson in the eight-part project. The fact that he would also reunite with him The good place Showrunner Michael Schur, who created and executive produced this series, was also a big draw.

“In my case, you can follow Mike Schur’s wonderful words and pretty much just respond to the great actors he’s hired, and the job becomes easier and easier,” says Danson, who starred in “Michael.” The good place. “But I liked the conversation we had, which was that life doesn’t end until it ends, so keep going.”

“And for us people my age and older, you can still make a big contribution,” Danson adds. “So go out there and keep going, and the way you engage with life until the end is an inspiration to the younger people behind you and your children. Because people often think that creativity has an expiration date.” There is no such thing as a contribution to life.

To learn more about Ted Danson, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here.

A man inside is now streaming on Netflix.