Bradley Whitford acknowledges that in Hollywood, men and women are not praised equally for aging.
“Honestly, men are lucky as hell,” Whitford, 62, tells PEOPLE in the latest issue.
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“We get celebrated for aging. It’s unfair and it’s crazy. I remember my mom, who had absolutely nothing to do with show business, would talk about how unfair that is, that men become distinguished and women become invisible. I have siblings and my sisters talk about that a lot. It’s unfair. I have been celebrated for aging, which is bizarre.”
Whitford landed in PEOPLE’S annual Sexiest Man Alive issue this year, which led the down-to-earth actor to make plenty of jokes at his own expense over the title.
“This is basically Sexiest Man, Barely Alive,” Whitford says of the title, adding that being in our “Dad Bod” act means that he only “kind of cares a little bit” about his physique. “You want to be healthy. You don’t want to be photographed in a magazine.”
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And when the star learned of the accolade in the issue this year, the first thing that came to Whitford’s mind was not himself but rather West Wing costar and “frenemy.”
“My first thought was, ‘This is going to kill Josh Malina,’ which made me very happy,” Whitford jokes. The two actors poke fun at each other from time to time.
All that being said, Whitford does admit that he was in the best shape of his life “when I was a lot younger, many decades ago.” He adds: “As my father would say, I have a bright future behind me.”
All that being said, he does make time for exercise and enjoys long walks around his Los Angeles neighborhood with wife Amy Landecker.
“I started walking a lot [during the pandemic], which I love to do. It’s sort of an anti-anxiety, anti-depressant,” he says.
“As I’ve gotten older, I have to be careful with my knee. I’m doing a play right now, and so I’ve been going to a gym and sort of pathetically lifting weights sort of regularly, and walking, and just getting up and down counts as a squat.”