Jesse Tyler Ferguson

Ty Burrell [Phil Dunphy on Modern Family (2009)] calls shows like ours 'Trojan horses' because you sneak in there and make people feel comfortable. And then maybe you show a little bit of an agenda. But the audience is acclimated to it at a very comfortable rate...Obviously, our main objective is to be funny and make people laugh, and whatever comes out of it, comes out of it. But there were certain times, especially in our first season, when we didn't have any gay writers, when it was harder. Then in our second season, we acquired Abraham Higginbotham, who was also a writer on Will & Grace (1998)...He and Jeff Richman are our two gay acquisitions. But in the first season, some of the writers would come to me and be like: 'Is this offensive? Are we going too far with this?' And Eric Stonestreet [who plays Mr. Ferguson's partner on 'Modern Family"] was always concerned about making sure everything was up to my standards. And I kept saying: Stop worrying about it!...Once you start worrying about being offensive, you're doing a disservice to yourself and the creative process. I also begged them to get some gay writers so I didn't have to be bothered with their questions. Show less «

[re The Class (2006)] I played a suicidal kid who had this beautiful love story with a woman he runs over with his car. [Being gay,] I never felt uncomfortable looking at her that way. It's just part of playing a character. You click over. This is the world that this character lives in, and these are the rules this character abides by...With 'The Class,' my first show, I was very excited to work in a medium I had never worked in before. I am a huge fan of Friends (1994) and Will & Grace (1998) and all these classic sitcoms. So, to be in front of a live studio audience with James Burrows, who is the icon of all icons when it comes to directing multi-camera shows, I felt like I was living in a dream. Show less «

[re Do Not Disturb (2008)] It got canceled after three episodes. It was a three-part mini-series, I like to say. It didn't work. I played a gay character on it, and it was not a good fit. And I was nervous about going into another gay role until I read the Modern Family (2009) script. But it was such good writing. A wonderful character, a wonderful story. It didn't occur to me for a second to worry about it...but when I was in that in-between time, between jobs, I was thinking: 'O.K., that was not a good experience. Don't do yourself a disservice by playing a character that you don't particularly like'. Show less «