Uzo Aduba 'Choked Up' After Learning Ted Danson's Connection to Her Mom

Orange is the New Black favorite Uzo Aduba "choked up" after discovering Ted Danson's connection to her late mother.

The duo recently sat down for the Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (sometimes) podcast, where it was revealed that Danson's wife, Mary Steenburgen, works with the same management company as Aduba's manager, Eric Kranzler.

While discussing the loss of Aduba's parent, Nonyem Aduba, who died from pancreatic cancer four years ago, Danson told the actress that he was actually hanging out with Kranzler when she first informed him of her mom's diagnosis.

The Cheers star said: "I don't know if you knew this, and I think it's OK to say, but when you made that phone call to Eric, he was walking with Mary and me in Vineyard Haven.

"He was visiting us, and he just told me this morning that's where that phone call happened. Not in front of us, he walked off. I didn't even know it at the time. He didn't say anything to us, but this morning, he told me as I was driving in."

This was news to Aduba, who had to take a second to compose herself.

"You are telling me that—I did not know that at all," she said. "I'm getting a little choked up, so forgive me."

This came six months after the star's emotional birthday tribute to Nonyem on Instagram , in which she admitted to holding her mom in "even higher regard now" after starting her own young family with husband Robert Sweeting.

"Thanks for showing me how to do this job," she wrote. "I was worried I wouldn't know how because you weren't here, but I'm steeped in so much of you. I see you in so many of the parts. I'm so grateful for that."

Previously on Where Everybody Knows Your Name, Danson spoke to his co-star from The Good Place, D'Arcy Caden, about his devastation after shooting the pilot episode for Cheers .

"You know what I did when I saw the pilot? I pulled Jimmy Burrows aside, and I started crying because I thought I was so bad, and he looked at me for about two seconds and started laughing and walked away in the opposite direction," recounted the 76-year-old.

"But what a thing to be a part of," was Carden's reply, as Danson further reflected: "I had this moment years after where it dawned on me and I had this 'holy moly moment,' that I got to play Sam."

Dan went on to play Sam Malone for 11 seasons between 1982 and 1993 before reprising him for a special episode of spinoff Frasier in 1995.