Mary Elizabeth Ellis has known her husband, Charlie Day, for more than half her life, so it only makes sense that the two share a sense of humor.
Naturally, their son Russell seems to take after both his parents.
Speaking exclusively to Us Weekly at the premiere of the Netflix comedy A Man on the Inside, Ellis, 45, explained exactly how similar the family of three really is.
“Sometimes we feel like part of the same person in the ways that we make each other laugh, and also how annoyed we get with each other,” she said of her and Day, 48. “And it’s like having an internal conversation sometimes. Nobody makes me laugh more than him, except maybe our 13-year-old son because we’ve also raised him with our sense of humor.”
Stars Who Shared the Screen After Getting Married
In A Man on the Inside, Ellis stars alongside Ted Danson and Stephanie Beatriz — Danson plays a retiree-turned-private-investigator sent undercover inside a nursing home. Ellis’ role as Emily, she said, allows her to also play a TV mom and embrace the challenges that come with it.
“[It’s] super fun to be a mom to little kid actors on set and to be like, ‘OK, you need to get in line,’” she said. “But also I’m a loving mom. But also I’m your mom, but also I’m not your mom, so if you have an issue, go ask your mom.”
Unlike other projects Ellis has worked on, her husband did not join her for season 1 of A Man on the Inside. Ellis has appeared in 37 episodes of the long-running dark comedy It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, in which Day stars as Charlie Kelly. The two have also appeared together on Reno 911! and in the 2023 film Fool’s Paradise, which Day wrote and directed.
“The hard things are when he directs me because I don’t take direction well,” Ellis admitted to Us Weekly in a 2019 interview. “I think I’m pretty perfect.”
Ted Danson Shares His and Mary Steenburgen’s Secret for Happy Marriage
At the A Man on the Inside premiere, Ellis added that in her role, she’s had to thread the needle of performing comedy while doing justice to the show’s more serious moments.
“I learned how to really trust myself more as an actor because so much of it is really funny, but there are also some really emotional moments,” she said. “To not plan how the tears are going to come, but just to trust Ted and show up and just really make that connection with him was lovely and a great practice.”
A Man on the Inside premieres November 21 on Netflix.
With reporting by Mariel Turner.
