Courtney B. Vance on Raising Teenage Twins with Angela Bassett: 'I Go to Work to Rest' (Exclusive)

The actor is dad to daughter Bronwyn Golden Vance and son Slater Josiah Vance

Life raising teenage twins isn't always easy, according to Courtney B. Vance.

In an exclusive conversation with PEOPLE, the actor, 63, opens up about raising his 17-year-old children, daughter Bronwyn Golden Vance and son Slater Josiah Vance, with wife Angela Bassett.

"I always tell people that I go to work to rest and I come home to work," Vance — who recently released a book, The Invisible Ache: Black Men Identifying Their Pain and Reclaiming Their Power — says.

"I am running around this house, doing this and that," he continues. "... That's the way we are, we are busy, all of us. The four of us and our company manager and our executive assistant, we're a machine that really everybody's got to communicate, 'Who's got this person, who's got that person?' "

Vance adds: "In order for it to work, we got to let people know. And when we're off a little bit, we get back together."

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After seven years of IVF, Vance and Bassett, 65, welcomed their fraternal twins on Jan. 27, 2006, via surrogate.

During an appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden in 2021, Bassett detailed how she and her husband — who wed in 1997 — go about disciplining their kids.

"He is usually pretty calm but he is consistent," the 9-1-1 star said of Vance. "For instance, right now he's 2,500 miles or so away in Chicago, and he can still get them to hop to it."

"Meanwhile," Bassett added, "I'm 25 feet away and I either have to guilt-trip them or pull things away or just leave the room, just throw my hands up and go to my own corner and try to think of some other way to get them to do what they know they need to do."

Related: Angela Bassett on Her Kids Following in Acting Footsteps: 'Whatever They Want to Do — I Support Them'

Next year, Vance and Bassett will become empty nesters when their kids graduate high school and head off to college.

Though he knows it will be an emotional adjustment, Vance tells PEOPLE, "We could say that we've been getting ready for them to be gone. They were away this whole summer, and we were working."

"We can say all we want to, but when it actually hits you when they're out of the house — and it's just us and our beloved Piper, our lab — it's going to be emotional," he continues.

Detailing that it was "a big transition" when the twins first came into their lives, Vance also notes, "It's going to be a big one when they transition out and get into that next phase."

"... This transition has been done by many, many before us, so it's just our turn," he adds.

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