Bradley Whitford Talks "The West Wing" Cast's Enduring Bond 26 Years Later: 'Permanent Family' (Exclusive) Julia MooreOctober 31, 2025 at 10:00 PM 0 Steve Schapiro/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty; Jenny Anderson/Getty Martin Sheen, Allison Janney and Bradley Whitford in 'The West Wing' (left); Bradley Whitford attends 'The Diplomat' season 3 screening on Oct.
- - Bradley Whitford Talks "The West Wing" Cast's Enduring Bond 26 Years Later: 'Permanent Family' (Exclusive)
Julia MooreOctober 31, 2025 at 10:00 PM
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Steve Schapiro/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty; Jenny Anderson/Getty
Martin Sheen, Allison Janney and Bradley Whitford in 'The West Wing' (left); Bradley Whitford attends 'The Diplomat' season 3 screening on Oct. 14, 2025 in New York City (right) -
Bradley Whitford and Allison Janney met on The West Wing in 1999 and remain close friends
"We have this permanent family from that, which is a really wonderful thing, outside of any showbiz crap," Whitford tells PEOPLE of the cast's bond
Whitford and Janney reunite onscreen in The Diplomat season 3 as a married couple, which they say was a surprisingly "comfortable" dynamic to play despite their years of friendship
The West Wing was truly something special.
It's been nearly 20 years since the political drama concluded after seven seasons, but its stars, which include Bradley Whitford, Allison Janney, Martin Sheen and Rob Lowe, remain as tight as ever.
"It is a truly wonderful thing," Whitford tells PEOPLE of the cast's enduring bond.
"As actors, you had these episodic communities, no pun intended, but The West Wing was the better part of a decade of very intense workload," he says. "And we have this permanent family from that, which is a really wonderful thing, outside of any showbiz crap."
That feeling is one that Janney, 65, who Whitford reunited with onscreen in The Diplomat season 3, shares.
"Brad and I have spent more time together over the last 20 years than I have with my actual siblings," she tells PEOPLE.
Steve Schapiro/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty
The cast of "The West Wing"
"On West Wing, [we] were shooting 18-hour days. We had no cell phones. We actually talked to each other," she says.
"I spent so much time with him, so he feels like my brother."
Whitford, 66, adds that The West Wing cast would all "love to act with each other" again.
"Remember Martin used to talk about how we should go off and do a play together?" he says, to which Janney says that "of course" she remembers.
"I think they would love to act with each other and us and everybody all together."
Reuniting for The Diplomat, which saw Whitford join as husband and First Gentleman to Janney's President Grace Penn, was a welcome challenge for the longtime friends.
"If there was one thing that surprised me, it was the ease of taking the history we have together and shooting it down a different road," Whitford says. "It felt very comfortable."
Clifton Prescod/Netflix
Allison Janney as Grace Penn, Bradley Whitford as Todd Penn in 'The Diplomat' season 3
Janney agrees. "It was really fun and easy and comfortable with Brad because of our history together. I think it would've been more difficult with someone I didn't know. It was surprisingly really easy and really fun."
"And I was just excited for everyone on Diplomat to get to meet Brad and experience everything that is Brad, which is fabulous and joyful and just — he's the dream."
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The Diplomat season 3 is now streaming on Netflix and The West Wing can be streamed in full on HBO Max.
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Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: Entertainment
Published: October 31, 2025 at 04:09PM on Source: CORR MAG
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