“Toy Story 5”'s Tony Hale On His Love for Forky —and How Asthma Made Him a Better Actor (Exclusive)

Eileen FinanFri, June 19, 2026 at 7:00 PM UTC

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Tony HaleCredit: Liesa Cole

Key Takeaways

Tony Hale, whose new film Toy Story 5 opens June 19, credits his childhood struggles with asthma and anxiety for shaping his career

Hale, who plays Forky, and his wife, Martel Thompson, prioritize laughter and therapy as keys to their 23-year marriage

The Veep actor recently relocated to Birmingham, Ala., embracing a slower pace while continuing his Hollywood career

Tony Hale knows most people don't enjoy a visit to the hospital. "But anytime I'm there," he says, "I'm like, 'I love this place.'"

Hale's unusual attachment stretches back to childhood when his severe asthma attacks would send him to the ER, over and over. "I knew the minute I stepped inside, they were going to give me a shot and I could breathe," says the actor, 55, in a new cover story for PEOPLE Health. "It's a safe space."

Growing up, Hale says, he ended up in the ER upward of 30 times: "I have so many memories of being in the car, pushing my hand on my leg trying to sit upright, trying to get that breath," he recalls. "When you're limited in your breathing, you feel like life is going to be too." But he says he discovered, "there are so many ways to cope with it. Life isn't limited."

In fact, Hale has proven it's wide open with possibility — and he's turned his experience with asthma, along with the severe anxiety that's accompanied it, into something of an advantage.

Hale has become a master of portraying lovable neurotics, from his first break in 2003 as man-child Buster Bluth on Arrested Development to his Emmy-winning role as Gary Walsh, the haplessly devoted assistant to Julia Louis-Dreyfus's ruthless Selina Meyer in Veep. In his latest role he returns as the clueless and endlessly inquisitive Forky in Toy Story 5, which opens in theaters today.

"I play anxiety really well," he says with a laugh. "I do think it's cool how God uses crap that you go through in your life to help in your future. You want the stuff you go through to be a gift that helps you empathize with others. And with Forky, not only do I have compassion for him, he's so curious and open, I want to be him."

Tony HaleCredit: Liesa Cole

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An Army brat, Hale spent his early years with his two older siblings in Germany, where his dad was stationed. At the time, asthma was "such an identity to me," he says. "When I would spend the night at people's houses, I was propped up on pillows, and when everybody else was sleeping, I'm wheezing. And when we'd travel in the middle of Europe, I would have an asthma attack, and we'd have to find a hospital."

His inhaler became his constant companion—"like Linus with his blanket," Hale says. "There's a real safety attachment to it. When you have an asthma attack, it's like all of a sudden you start breathing through a straw, and someone is restricting your life source. It's terrifying. The inhaler is an immediate gift."

Intertwined with his earliest memories of asthma are his first experiences with anxiety. "It's the 'What ifs?': 'When am I going to have an attack?' 'Is there a hospital nearby?' 'If I get triggered, where is my inhaler?' " At times, he says, it would lead to a vicious cycle: "When the anxiety kicks in, it can trigger an attack."

When Hale was in seventh grade, his dad retired from the Army, and the family moved back to the States. In their new home in Tallahassee, Fla., "sports was king," Hale says. "But I was not an athletic kid." His asthma was a real — and convenient — excuse. "I was the kid on a soccer field staring at the sky. I was also the kid who would start wheezing." His dad had him try swimming as a less triggering option. But in the middle of one swim meet, Hale stopped abruptly. "Anthony, keep going!" his dad yelled. But Hale just screamed back: "Why? I'm exhausted!" Says Hale: "It just wasn't my path."

Tony HaleCredit: Liesa Cole

Not long afterward, he found his path, and his people, in the theater. His parents signed him up for lessons at the Young Actors Theater in Tallahassee, and "I loved it," he says. "It was creative and stimulating, and you get the bite of getting an audience's laughter."

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After graduating with a journalism degree from Samford University, a private Christian school outside Birmingham, and studying communications and the arts in graduate school, Hale moved to New York City in 1995. There he found some success acting in commercials, including a 1999 ad for VW in which he seat-dances in a car to the Styx hit "Mr. Roboto." He also started a Christian community group for artists in the city, where he met his future wife, Martel Thompson, an Emmy-winning makeup artist who worked on Saturday Night Live. "She's my best friend," Hale says of her. "She understands the roller coaster of this business."

In 2003, soon after the couple married, they moved to L.A. where Hale began filming Arrested Development.

That role led to his second iconic series, Veep, for which he won two Emmys in 2013 and 2015. Playing Buster, who was crippled by his panic attacks, and Gary, who clutched his anxiety like the ever-present bag he carried for his boss, felt familiar to Hale. "With Gary and Buster, I just want to give them a hug," he says. "They're going through a lot."

Hale, who has suffered from panic attacks since childhood, says his own experience helped him understand how to translate their neuroses to the screen: "When you think of somebody who is in a panic or anxiety mode, they're not screaming it from the rooftops. There's a real internal battle going on. And that's what happened with me growing up," he says. "It was just like everybody's having a good time, and internally I'm like, 'Am I going to have an asthma attack?' You're putting on a brave face, which sucks to walk through it." In comedy, however, "it's great. Look at masters like Bob New­hart, Tim Conway: They could sit in their tension and just move their eyes, and it was funny. You could feel the tension in their bodies."

Tony HaleCredit: Liesa Cole

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Veep's run of seven seasons was a gift for an anxious actor who never knew when the next job was coming. And the set environment created close bonds among the cast. "We were shooting in Baltimore and were all away from our families. We were going out to dinner and talking about the day, and then living life together," says Hale. "We all stay in touch. It was such a family."

Hale's non-work family grew with the birth of their daughter Loy in 2006. Hale and his wife raised her in L.A., and Hale says he made every effort to not be away from home too often. "We made sure to travel to each other and spend that time," he says. "When I was in Baltimore, Martel would bring Loy over, or I'd fly back." One secret to their 23-year marriage? "Laughter," he says. "She's the funniest person I know. The relationship that I have with her is just a life source. She's a walking inhaler."

Therapy has also been a big help. "We're big fans. It's a maintenance point," says Hale. The couple started going to therapy together before they got married and continue today. "It's a way to try things and be more curious and not always be defensive. There are conversations that are tough to have one-on-one. You need a third party to help facilitate that."

Tony Hale's PEOPLE Health cover story will be in doctor's offices next monthCredit: Liesa Cole

Two years ago, when Loy was beginning college on the East Coast, the couple decided it was time to leave L.A. and move south, where both have family. They now live in Birmingham, Ala., with their two (hypoallergenic) Havanese dogs, Walter and Francis.

"We lived in L.A. for 22 years and loved it," Hale says. But he was ready to take a break from the frenetic "heightened reality" of life in Hollywood: "I wanted to find that same joy and beauty in the everyday," he says. "And Birmingham is a fantastic town—the restaurant scene, the art scene. But it's a slower, simpler pace."

The move hasn't slowed his career: Just this summer he walked the carpet for two big Hollywood premieres (inhaler in his pocket: "It's my accessory!"): Toy Story 5 and the Jennifer Lopez Netflix comedy Office Romance. And he's starting work on a new Nancy Meyers film (the Father of the Bride director's first feature in 11 years) with Penélope Cruz.

When he's not working, you might find Hale sitting at the end of a long bar in Birmingham having a cocktail with Martel: "We make each other laugh really, really hard, which is medicine." It's the kind of easy contentment that might have been hard to imagine as a kid consumed with worry and struggling to breathe: "That was such a part of my life when I was younger. But there are so many ways to cope, and you will feel better. Life does get better."

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