Emmys Watch: Jesse Tyler Ferguson on \'Modern Family\' and Playing it Straight

September 20, 2012, 2:58 pm

By JEREMY EGNER

We will be talking to Emmy nominees leading up to the awards show on Sunday night. Previous entries in this series include Don Roy King, the director of “Saturday Night Live,” Abi Morgan, nominated for writing “The Hour,” and Christine Baranski, nominated for best supporting actress for “The Good Wife.”

The Emmy Awards

More coverage of the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards, including reports, reviews, interviews with nominees and more.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who plays the uptight attorney Mitchell Pritchett on ABC's “Modern Family,” is one of the show's adult stars who hasn't yet won an Emmy fo r his performance. (Sofia Vergara and Ed O'Neill, who plays Mitchell's father, Jay, are the other.)

But if Mr. Ferguson's profile has suffered in the shadow of his more flamboyant onscreen partner, Cameron, played by Eric Stonestreet, he has himself to blame. The producers originally saw Mr. Ferguson as the histrionic Cameron but the actor thought the more subdued Mitchell, a member of the show's central clan, was a better fit.

“I've played the flashy role before and I was interested in the challenge of playing the straight man,” he said in a recent interview. “I also wanted the challenge of playing not only a boyfriend, but a father and a brother and a son as well.”

He added: “And I kept thinking in the back of my head, ‘If I'm in the family and they don't like me, they can't fire me.' If you're one of the in-laws you're easily dispensable.”

For the second year in a row, the six adult actors on “Modern Family”- Julie Bowen, Ty Burre ll, Mr. Ferguson, Mr. O'Neill, Mr. Stonestreet and Ms. Vergara - were each nominated for supporting acting Emmy awards and the show as a whole received 14 nods, the most of any comedy.

Ms. Bowen and Mr. Burrell won the awards last year, and the show was named best comedy for the second year in a row. But it has taken Mr. Ferguson, a Broadway veteran, some time to get comfortable with the show's runaway success.

“As an actor in this business, you're conditioned to never buy into any of that stuff because it never seems to pan out,” he said. “Even now, I'm kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

Mr. Ferguson called recently from the “Modern Family” set to discuss Cameron and Mitchell's marriage possibilities and his character's similarity to Vanna White. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Is it gratifying or just kind of irritating that all your co-stars are nominated, too?

Honestly, I love that we're all nominated together because it makes the party a little more fun if we're all in it. There's going be a time when we're all not nominated - this can't happen every year. So I think we're just so happy that it happened one more time.

Will you go to the awards ceremony together?

Well we won't go in the same car because Sofia alone will have 18 people in her car. We sort of meet up on the red carpet every year and find each other. Having gone through this a few times, you kind of know the drill and don't find it so intimidating. The first year I was sort of clinging to Eric the whole time down the red carpet.

Which of you do you think is most likely to win this year?

Oh my gosh, I don't know. I don't know how people are going to vote. They could say Ed O'Neill is an icon and he's been around forever and he deserves it. It could be his year.

The show was almost immediately very popular with both viewers and critics. At what point did you think you might have a hit on your hands?

I think honestly it was after our first win at the Emmys that I felt like, ‘We're doing O.K. here.' That's when I started to relax a little bit.

Does that cautious optimism stem from superstition or emotional self-preservation or what?

I don't know. Maybe it comes from being a theater actor in New York, where you're on unemployment more than you're working. It's a little bit of a survival instinct and thick skin, and having a few shows before this one that did not do well. It makes you gun-shy.

There was “The Class.” What was the other show?

“Do Not Disturb.” You might have missed it - it was only on for three episodes. I called it a three-part miniseries.

Why not? The mini-series category this year seems pretty flexible.

Exactly! In another year I might have been nominated for it.

Did you and Mr. Stonestreet work out in advance the dynamic you have as a couple? Or do es that come from the scripts?

You can't work out chemistry. It's just going to happen or it's not. We're supported by really good writing and if something doesn't feel like it's sitting in our bones right, the writers are really good about saying, ‘How would you say this?' But it's one of those lightning-in-a-bottle moments when you get two actors who really genuinely like each other and work well together and want to see each other succeed.

All of the Pritchetts - including your character's sister (played by Ms. Bowen) and father (Mr. O'Neill) - anchor more bombastic partners. Was that by design?

It was a happy coincidence. But I think all great duos have a straight man and a more flamboyant character. Lucy and Ethel. Pat Sajak and Vanna White.

How do you all influence each other's performances?

I steal Julie's mannerisms to use for myself because I thought as siblings, they would speak the same way or kind of do the same things with their h ands or what have you.

The show is frequently very funny-is the comedy as apparent when you're shooting it?

Some shows are edited to be funny but ours is funny on the page. There have been episodes when I had uncontrollable giggles and I couldn't get through the scene, like the episode where Cameron and I mixed our faces on a computer screen to see what our baby would look like. I freak out at the end because I think I've brought the devil forth, and then Lilly [the couple's adopted daughter] comes in and screams at it and we're all freaked out. I think there are some takes where you see the corners of my mouth kind of quivering - there was blood in my mouth from me biting my lips trying not to laugh.

Who is the worst about cracking up and ruining takes?

We're all fairly professional but we've all had meltdowns. Usually it involves something Sofia has said wrong. The stuff that comes out of her mouth is so off and hilarious.

So that whole malapr opism thing is authentic?

Oh my gosh, these things are not written. Sometimes they do write something into the script and she'll mess it up even further, and it's even funnier.

I'm sure you're asked this frequently, but do you feel any sort of duty or added pressure to responsibly represent a committed gay couple?

You are correct: I do get the question often.

There's no way around it, sorry.

I did feel like there was a little bit of pressure at the beginning of the show but I've relaxed a little since. When our show went on the air there were other gay characters but there weren't any committed couples, and I'm really excited that this year there are several new shows with committed gay couples. It sort of takes the weight off of our shoulders a little bit because I sometimes felt like we were the poster children for committed gay relationships. So the short answer is, yes there was pressure. But while we recognize that the show has had a social impact and that there's an importance there, we also don't want to ever get lofty about it. Our main objective is to make people laugh.

As the only one of the main actors who is actually gay, do you ever get asked to weigh in on some of the plotlines?

In the first season Chris [Lloyd] and Steve [Levitan, the creators] would come up to me and ask, ‘Do you think this is offensive? Do you think this is too much? How would you handle this situation?' They would want my input. They are so in tune with this community and the culture - these characters are based on friends of theirs and they are a great voice for these characters. However, halfway through the first season I said, ‘You need to get some gay writers up in this place next season because I can't be the go-to guy.' We have three gay writers this year.

Do you think Mitchell and Cameron will get married? [On Tuesday, a week after this interview, Mr. Ferguson announced his engagement to his longtime b oyfriend, Justin Mikita.]

I would love to. We operate in the world as it is - when the iPad came out we did an episode about it because Phil would have wanted an iPad, of course. So when gay marriage is legal in California where this family lives - and I say “when” because I'm certain it will happen - I think that would totally be a discussion for Cameron and Mitchell. I think that's something they would like to do. I'm not saying it's definitely happening but we want to be reflective of where we are in the world today so I think it's 100 percent possible.