Jesse Tyler Ferguson Recalls Pressure to Represent the LGBTQ+ Community in ‘Modern Family’
For Jesse Tyler Ferguson, playing Mitchell Pritchett on Modern Family was met with more judgment than when his character forgot to bring reusable bags to Whole Foods.
During a recent episode of his Dinner’s on Me podcast, the openly gay actor said that playing Mitchell wasn’t all one-liners and comedic timing. He felt an additional layer of “responsibility” from his fellow members of the LGBTQ+ community to portray same-sex relationships with “care and precision” on Modern Family.
“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.
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The actor said he struggled to strike a balance between crafting a realistic character and satisfying his community’s need for positive on-screen representation, especially on a major network television series. “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,” he explained of being “put on a pedestal” during Modern Family’s earliest seasons. “I just felt like there was no way to please both camps.”
Nearly 16 years after the show’s premiere, Ferguson no longer feels as though he has to satisfy everyone with his characters. “I’m in a place where I’m, as an actor, being given a role where I’m attracted to the messiness of that character,” Ferguson added, noting that he finds flawed characters particularly interesting. “Honestly, that’s what makes the audience interested in watching me.”
He isn’t wrong. To paraphrase Mitchell Pritchett: being different is where we win.
