As everyone knows, once you hit your teen years it’s a different ballgame, and Courtney B. Vance and his wife, Angela Bassett, have begun to notice that with their own children.

“They’re in everything now,” Courtney, 59, exclusively told Closer Weekly of his 13-year-old twins Bronwyn and Slater while at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s Patron of the Artists Awards. “Before my wife and I were going to do this and were going to do this and this and this … Now, OK, you don’t want to do that. Oh, OK, let’s do that. So it’s a new phase for us.”

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“We always said that from zero to 12, children need to hear us and actually do what we ask them to do, and then 13 on we have discussions,” the Ben Is Back actor continued. “So we’re in the discussion phase now.”

The youngsters also understand that their folks are Hollywood stars and have been for quite some time. “With famous parents I think it is a burden, but we spend as much time as we can with them so they know that our job is to be kind and to help,” the Golden Globe nominee explained, adding how grateful he is that he was able to be at the SAG event.

“That is what this organization is about and that’s why I’m so glad that I was tapped on the shoulder to be here to try to do what I do best which I think is, to try to help people,” Courtney added.

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Alex Berliner/Invision/AP/Shutterstock

Courtney and the 9-1-1 actress, 61, tied the knot in 1997 — Angela once revealed the secret behind their longtime marriage. “Respect and negotiation! I want what I want, he wants what he wants and sometimes they’re not he same,” she exclusively told Closer. “But we’ve learned how to negotiate to make each other happy and fulfill out dreams and desires.”

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“He lets me be me and do me. He is a great support person for anyone,” she added.

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