For 11 seasons, Jesse Tyler Ferguson played Mitchell Pritchett on Modern Family and he’s spoken at length about the pressure he felt about being one of the first gay characters played by an out gay actor in network primetime. In a new episode of his podcast, Dinner’s On Me, he talked about how playing such an important queer character was “tricky” because he received criticisms from the queer community who felt that the character did not live up to their expectations.
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“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 said during his conversation with Oscar-winner Riz Ahmed. “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.” Adding, “I just felt like there was no way to please both camps.”
Ferguson said that many people wanted his character to be a model representation for the community, not being flawed and just generally more polished. “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 said. “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. 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 argued that it would be a disservice to have his character be perfect. “No one wants to see perfect people. No one wants a sitcom or a movie where it’s like everything just happens neatly,” Ferguson said. “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 a network television on a huge show. They better get this right.”
The actor brought up one instance where he heard remarks from the community after one storyline aired where Mitch didn’t want to kiss his husband, Cam (Eric Stonestreet) in public and said “the gays were furious.” They were quick to be upset, he said, but didn’t consider the reasons as to why Mitch wouldn’t be comfortable with PDA and the trauma that might have informed that reaction.
“It was more powerful to show the story of like, why is this character worried about showing public displays of affection with his partner?” he said. “It’s because of his past. It’s because of his history. It’s because of the trauma he had as a kid growing up and being gay and being teased by his sister. It’s like all these things that made the story interesting and made it last for 11 years are the things that I was also being criticized for.”
This article originally appeared on Out: Jesse Tyler Ferguson: ‘No way to please gay audiences’ on ‘Modern Family’
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