Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson reveals burden of huge responsibility during sitcom’s run

Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson has spoken out about the pressure he felt during the long-running series.

The 49-year-old actor, who played gay lawyer Mitchell Pritchett in the sitcom which ran from 2009 to 2020, has revealed he felt a responsibility to the LGBT+ community to portray his character as authentically as possible.

Speaking in a recent episode of his Dinner’s on Me podcast with guest Wendie Malick, Jesse said he felt it was his duty to ‘get it right.’

He said: ‘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.

‘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 [LGBTQ] 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.’

On Modern Family, Jesse’s character Mitchell married Eric Stonestreet’s Cam Tucker in the season five finale in 2014.

The couple were also parents to their adopted their children, Lily, and Rexford.

Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson has revealed he felt a ‘responsibility’ to the LGBT+ community during the sitcom’s run

He played Mitchell in the series, the husband of Cam (Eric Stonestreet) and father to Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons)

Modern Family premiered on September 23, 2009 on ABC and wrapped on April 8, 2020. The program made waves at the time and had consistent ratings.

It aired for eleven seasons and yielded an impressive 250 episodes.

The cast also included Ed O’Neill, Rico Rodriguez, Sofia Vergara, Nolan Gould, Julie Bowen, Ariel Winter, Ty Burrell, and Sarah Hyland.

Cam and Mitch were set to have a spin-off following the end of the main sitcom, but plans were scrapped by the network.

Addressing the axed series, Eric admitted that he felt hurt.

‘[Modern Family co-creator] Chris Lloyd and a couple of the writers wrote a really great script that spun Jesse and I off in our life in Missouri, and they said, “No,”‘ he explained.

‘They just said, “We don’t want to do it,”‘ he added.

The Emmy winner also revealed that he though the network threw out the project because they saw him and Jesse as ‘old guys.’

‘I felt a responsibility from the [LGBTQ] community when I was given a role like the one I had on Modern Family,’ Jesse said of his role 

The star has remained pals with his Modern Family costars (pictured with Sarah Hyland and Julie Bowen in 2024) 

The Kansas native said: ‘I think Jesse and I maybe felt like they thought of us as the old guys, or something like that, that didn’t seem worthy of keeping those characters going.’

And although he felt let down, he understood the decision was not in his hands.

‘It felt a little hurtful. But people make business decisions,’ Eric said.

However, the actor did admit that if the show was created, it would have been a ‘slam dunk’ with viewers.

Jesse remains close to his Modern Family co-stars, regularly sharing photos with them – even officiating the 2022 wedding between his on-screen niece Sarah Hyland and her husband, Bachelor Nation’s Wells Adams, at the Californian Sunstone Winery in Santa Ynez. 

He shared: ‘I don’t think it would have not been successful. Because you had one of the creators — who had really taken such great care of making sure that show was great for so long — willing to do it.’