TVSquad

Jesse Tyler Ferguson found success on Broadway originating the role of Coneybear in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. He stood out, too, in his role in The Class, but the show didn't stick around too long. Now he's in one of the most buzzed about sitcoms on the fall schedule, Modern Family, co-starring with Ed O'Neill, Sofia Vergara, and Ty Burrell.

Ferguson plays Mitchell, half of a gay couple with Eric Songstreet's Cameron, who are raising an adopted Vietnamese girl. O'Neill plays his father, Jay, who is newly married to a woman half his age, Gloria, who is played by Vergara. There is also his sister Clarie (played by Julie Bowen) and her husband Phil (Burrell) who thinks he'll be cool to his kids if he learns all of the dance routines from High School Musical.

The family looks like a wonderfully funny mess, and Ferguson says they'll add their share of guest stars in the coming weeks with Elizabeth Banks, Edward Norton, and Shelly Long making appearances. I caught up with Ferguson by phone during a morning long press session of interviews to talk about the buzz for the show, his character, and his Tweet that he's planning to dress as Lady GaGa from the VMAs for Halloween.

I'm sure this is your thirtieth or so of these [interviews] for the day.
I'm happy people want to talk about the show, I really am.

Have you been happy with the buzz so far?
Yeah, I mean, it's thrilling. At first it was a little terrifying because we shot the pilot so long ago, and the buzz started happening after that. We just sort of sat with that buzz over the summer months, having never seen another script and not starting up work again. But now that we've gone back into production and we've started shooting new scripts, I feel like I can relax a little bit because the new stuff that we're doing is even funnier than the pilot. So I know we're on the right track.

Where are you in shooting? How many episodes have you done so far?
We're actually simultaneously shooting episodes seven and six at the same time this week because we have illustrious guest stars joining us. So we're accommodating schedules. But we're pretty far in. We're like halfway through our order right now. It's exciting.

Who are the illustrious guest stars?
We shot with my good friend Elizabeth Banks, who joined us yesterday for an episode, which went really, really well. And we have Edward Norton coming in. We just shot with Shelly Long last week. So it's a Who's Who, throw a rock, hit a star over at Modern Family.

Who are all these people playing?
Elizabeth Banks plays mine and Eric Stonestreet, who plays Cameron, she plays our best friend whom we've sort of abandoned because we now have a child. And we're very busy. She's a little miffed at us for kind of abandoning her, so we take her out for drinks one night and get a babysitter and she slowly deconstructs over the night and ends up in a drunken heap. And Shelly Long plays my estranged mother, which was awesome. Shelly Long. 'Nuff said. And Edward Norton is ... Ty Burrell [who plays Phil] and he are really good friends, so he's playing a character in their story arc that's coming up, I think, next week.

What was your reaction when you read the part of Mitchell?
You know, I loved the role so much, but I was asked to audition for the role of Cameron, so I told my agent that I responded more to Mitchell, and they let the casting know, and I was told that that wasn't going to happen. So I was like, all right, I'll audition for Cameron, even though that was a role I kind of knew how to play, and I was more interested in the challenge of someone a little more serious and uptight.

It was very interesting being able to play the dynamic of the brother and sister role with Julie Bowen [who plays Claire] and the father/son role with Ed O'Neill [who plays Jay]. But I went in and auditioned for Cameron, and the people representing Chris Lloyd said, "You know what, you'd make a very good Mitchell." And I said, "Well, that's what I've been saying." They let me audition for it a few days later, and then I got it!

Do you feel you have to play this couple in any certain way because it's sort of a precedent, having gay dads on TV?
I don't think about it, honestly. With Eric, it's so easy because we're such good friends and we had a chemistry read together early on, and we just sort of clicked. He's such an awesome, fun guy, and he's become one of my best friends on the show. So I just sort of go in and have fun with him and try to make the funniest [scene] with him, and it just sort of plays out.

Obviously, it's going to be hard to ignore, and the social atmosphere we're in is definitely a very hot topic. I think by us letting the pressure off of it, it's going to speak a little more loudly and resonate a little more. I don't want to shine too much of a spotlight on it, but at the same time, I think it's groundbreaking in its commonality.

A bit more on Mitchell and Cameron:



How tightly drawn are the characters? Is there room for improv and input?
Yeah, especially with these interviews to the camera. These testimonials. They definitely let us go off. They're always asking for our input, and if something's not working, we just sort of improvise new dialogue. They want it to sound like it's coming out of our voice; they don't want it to sound like we've memorized lines. With each episode, they sort of find our voices, more so. So far as the script goes, they really let us have some freedom with these characters.

Do you collaborate with Eric Stonestreet on this stuff?
He's a master improviser, and I'm not. I come from the theater world where I go home and memorize my script and do it the same way eight times a week for two years. So I'm learning to be a little more loose with it, and he's the best person to sort of guide me through that because he's a master at it.

How's the chemistry with the cast, in general? It's a fairly large ensemble cast.
It is, but I don't know if just the stars aligned in this really bizarre way, but it really works. It clicks together. With everyone from the children to Ed O'Neill, it's such a perfect family unit really. I joke about it, but it's true, the most difficult person on the set are the twins that play our daughter. They do this crying thing. It's really annoying. And hold up production for two hours. But, you know ... they'll learn, they'll learn.

Have you had any experience working with babies?
I have a huge amount of friends in New York City who all had babies at the same time, so I was doing a lot of babysitting for them. I would take these kids to the park, and then other mothers would see me as the fun, cool, hip babysitter with these kids, so they would sort of coach me. I basically ran a babysitting job. I had an entire agency employed only by myself working out of New York City for a while. I love kids, and I really get along with them. I think I do have a knack for hanging out with the kids.

Is there any Coneybear in Mitchell?
There is not a single trace of Coneybear in Mitchell. People have said that Richard from The Class was like what Coneybear would have grown up to be. I guarantee you, Coneybear would never, ever grow into Mitchell. He is way too tightly wound.

Have you settled on Lady GaGa as your Halloween costume?
Uh. How genius is that? I kept trying to match the one I wanted to be my Halloween costume, and then the camera would pan to her and she'd have a nest around her face. It's like, I don't know, that one's even better. I couldn't decide on which of the outrageous outfits I wanted to settle on.

Do you feel any pressure because there has been such a good initial buzz for the show?
Um ... I mean, yeah. Obviously. Being a buzzworthy show, we want to obtain that level of quality that blew up in the pilot. I'm trying just to go in and do the best job I possibly can with the cast and try not to look too much at the reviews and the buzz. Hopefully, I won't look too much at the ratings when they happen, and I hope it all works out. I hope people find the show and really respond to it. I think we're doing everything on our part to make it as likable a show as possible.