Albert Brooks is telling me about aging, ways to stay healthy, and feeling forever young.
"I didn't feel 50 until I hit 54," he says. "One morning, I woke up and I felt like 90.
"My advice about aging is to hang out with people much older than you. You will always be the youngest."
"Right now, my three best friends are 100. My best buddy is on a ventilator. I eat dinner at 3 p.m., but it's still good," he jokes.
You know him as the voice of the Dad in "Finding Nemo 3D" and from film classics such as "Defending Your Life," "Mother," and as the sweaty anchorman on "Broadcast News."
Writer-actor-father-husband Brooks — one of Hollywood's funniest man — says that when it comes to getting older in Hollywood and beyond, "there is no fighting it because you won't win.
"You just have to get older smarter by keeping your body in shape," he says.
He says that exercise is what keeps him in great shape to star in Hollywood movies.
"I bought one of those exercise bikes where you also workout with your arms at the same time you're moving your legs. I hate it, but it's good for me because I want to use my exercise time in the best way possible. Working out your arms and legs at the same time gets both done," he notes. "I gotta do something and this is an easy way to do it. You're in your own home, you put on a good movie and you just go."
"I try to do it every single day because I am a father and a husband. I have to stay healthy for my family," he says.
Of course, he can't resist a quick joke.
"If only worrying made you healthy," he poses. "I looked up worrying and there is no calorie count to it."
ALBERT AT HOME AND ON SCREEN
I find the man whose real name is Albert Lawrence Einstein on a typical morning at home with his kids, Jacob, 14, and daughter Claire, 12.
"I do think kids keep you young. There is a lot of running around after them. You can't discount all that movement. I'm sure it's not in some exercise book, but still ….When you're running after a child with their homework, it counts as cardio."
Later this year, Brooks will star in "This is 40," a new Judd Apatow comedy where he's playing Paul Rudd's father.
"It's about how everyone approaches these bigger number birthdays. I really do think if you eat healthy foods and move, you don't feel it as much," he says.
He grew up in Beverly Hills, California, with his mother, singer/actress Thelma Leeds and two brothers including Bob Einstein who is known as inept stuntman Super Dave Osborne. His father was vaudeville, radio, and film comic Harry Einstein who died when Brooks was 11.
After graduating Beverly Hills High School, he attended Carnegie Tech, in Pittsburgh, but left school to start a career in comedy.
His early comedy days including regular stints on variety talk shows including "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson."
He has written and directed cult hits including "Modern Romance," (1981), "Lost in America" (1985), "Defending Your Life" (1991), "Mother" (1996), "The Muse"(1999) and "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World" (2005).
He says that his own films are also motivating when it comes to exercising, healthy lifestyle tips, a good diet plan, and seeking out ways to stay healthy.
"If I'm on the treadmill and one of my old films is on I'll watch 20 minutes of it. But I limit myself to doing this only once every six years. And I'll try to forget that I'm in the film."
"So, I guess that 20 minutes every six years isn't really a good workout routine," he jokes.
Healthy living tips for the 50+ brought to you by Crest & Oral-B ProHealth For Life.
