Bronson Pinchot Says He’ll Never Forget What His Idol Lucille Ball Told Him: ‘I Still Cry Thinking About It’ (Exclusive)

Bronson Pinchot will always remember the day in 1986 when comedy legend Lucille Ball invited him to visit her on the set of Life with Lucy.

During an exclusive chat in Los Angeles at the March 19 premiere of Netflix’s whodunit series The Residence, the 65-year-old Perfect Strangers actor opened up about his encounter with the late I Love Lucy star.

“When Perfect Strangers first came out, after we aired two or three episodes, I got a call from a journalist who said, ‘What do you think of what Lucy said about you?’ And I said, ‘Lucy who?’ They said, ‘Lucille Ball.’ I said, ‘Lucille Ball, wait a minute. How does she know who I am?’ ” he told PEOPLE, adding Ball had said Perfect Strangers was her “favorite show.”

“It really was like meeting God,” he said of meeting Ball alongside his Perfect Strangers costar Mark Linn-Baker. “She was so genuine with us. … She was sexy, she was vulnerable, she was witty, she was sassy, she was warm. She had just found out that her show was not going to continue.”

And that’s when she told him and Linn-Baker something he’ll never forget.

“Someone asked us to pose for a picture, and she held our hands in her hand to her heart and said through her smile, ‘They don’t want me anymore, but they want you. You know what you’re doing, so you go and do it,’ ” Pinchot explained of Ball talking about Life with Lucy ending.

While Life with Lucy didn’t get renewed after airing just one season, Perfect Strangers had just begun its eventual eight-season run in 1986. Like Ball’s six-season I Love Lucy, Perfect Strangers relied heavily on physical humor.

“I still cry thinking about it because that’s so generous — so generous and so un-actor-y — and so that’s what she really believed,” Pinchot said. “She thought we were carrying the torch of physical comedy."

He added, "It’ll stay with me forever. I had grown up watching her. I thought she was the muse of comedy, and I had her blessing. It was amazing.”

Pinchot, who plays pastry chef Didier Gotthard in Netflix’s The Residence, also told PEOPLE that he now bestows kudos to young deserving actors, just like Ball did for him decades ago. 

“All the time, yes, if I see somebody with talent, I always mentor them and help them if they want it because that’s what the good people do. That’s what the really good people do,” said the Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F actor.

All eight episodes of The Residence are streaming on Netflix.