Actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who portrayed a gay man for 11 season from 2009 to 2020 on the ABC sitcom Modern Family, says he felt there was no way to please everyone, including the most hardcore gay fans of the show.
Ferguson portrayed gay lawyer Mitchell Pritchett on the show from 2009 to 2020 and appeared in all 250 episodes of the series. His character was married to a gay man and the couple raised an adopted daughter over the length of the series, becoming the focus of some controversy over the years.
Now Ferguson is opening up about how he felt he couldn’t please everyone, and he now wants to take on roles that he finds challenging, not roles with which he has to tread careful lines for fear of upsetting the activists.
Appearing on the Dinner’s On Me podcast, the Emmy-winning actor said that he felt pressure to “get it right” in his portrayal of a man in a gay marriage and raising a child.
“I was in the trenches fighting for marriage equality, and I felt so lucky to be part of a pop culture touchstone that was also part of that same issue,” he said.
“It was tricky for me because I had to tune out that noise of a community wanting me to do it correctly and preciously and, you know, my desire to do it with nuance and levels and layers and also poignancy. I just felt like there was no way to please both camps,” he continued.
“I felt a responsibility from the community when I was given a role like the one I had on Modern Family to get it right and to do it with care and precision,” he reiterated.
But now he is looking at things differently.
“I’m 1756109735 in a place where I’m, as an actor, being given a role where I’m attracted to the messiness of that character. I’m attracted to their flaws. Like, that’s what makes it interesting. And, honestly, that’s what makes the audience interested in watching me,” he said.
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