Jesse Tyler Ferguson is getting candid about the “responsibility” he felt to the LGBTQ community to “get it right” with his portrayal of gay lawyer Mitchell Pritchett in Modern Family.
The actor, who played the character for 11 seasons from 2009 to 2020, recently shared on his Dinner’s On Me podcast that he believed there was “no way to please” everyone when it came to his role on the ABC sitcom.
“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,” Ferguson recalled, before later admitting he also “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.”
He added, “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.”
Now, 15 years after first deputing Mitchell on the small screen, Ferguson said he’s finally letting go of the pressure he once felt regarding the role.
“I’m 1756069053 in a place where I’m, as an actor, being given a role where I’m attracted to the messiness of that character,” he said. “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.”
Ferguson added, “No one wants to see perfect people. No one wants a sitcom or a movie where it’s like everything just happens neatly. And yet, I felt like, you know, at least in the first few seasons of Modern Family, being put on a pedestal in a way as far as like, OK, this is the gay couple that’s on network television on a huge show. They better get this right.”
Modern Family follows three different, but related, families as they face trials and tribulations in their own uniquely comedic ways. As for Ferguson’s character Mitchell in the series, he and his partner Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) raised their adopted daughter Lily (Frances Anderson).