Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen were married in the 1980s; the actress and Ted Danson married in 1995

Malcolm McDowell is highly complimentary about his relationship with his ex-wife Mary Steenburgen and her husband Ted Danson.

While speaking with PEOPLE Wednesday at the Los Angeles premiere of his new movie Moving On, McDowell, 79, recalled how much life has changed since he and Steenburgen, 70, first met on the set of their 1979 time travel movie Time After Time.

“I was sitting at my granddaughter’s 10th birthday party with Mary, Ted, and we were sitting there with the three granddaughters and my two children with Mary… And I was sitting there and I looked at her and I went, ‘This is all because of Time After Time,’ ” McDowell recounts of how his family has grown since his and Steenburgen’s marriage.

“Fantastic. Fantastic. And they’re a wonderful couple, and Mary’s great,” the actor says of Steenburgen and Danson, 75, who tied the knot in Oct. 1995, some years after her and McDowell’s divorce.

McDowell also tells PEOPLE that he and Steenburgen will work together again in an upcoming western the Clockwork Orange star says is filming soon.

“She’s in this film I’m doing, this Western,” McDowell says, noting that Bernadette Peters will also appear in the film. “I’m so thrilled. It’s called Last Train to Fortune, and Mary said she’d come and do a little. I was really thrilled that she did that.”

Steenburgen and McDowell share kids Charles “Charlie” Malcolm and Lily Amanda, whom Danson is now stepfather to.

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Steenburgen and Danson first met in 1983 when Danson auditioned to play Steenburgen’s spouse on Cross Creek. Both actors were married at the time; Steenburgen to McDowell, and Danson to his second wife Casey Coates, with whom he shares daughters Kate and Alexis.

The couple’s romance blossomed after costarring in the 1993 film Pontiac Moon and they married in 1995.

RELATED VIDEO: Mary Steenburgen on the First Time She Met Husband Ted Danson: “It Wasn’t Love at First Sight”

“Everyone I’ve ever loved has taught me so much, but I feel like my life really began when I found him,” Steenburgen told PEOPLE of their relationship back in Feb. 2021.

“I think love is just really listening to your heart,” she added at the time.