Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who plays a gay partner in Modern Family, says there’s an increase in dialogue about homosexuality in Hollywood
What makes this show stand apartIJ
I think the writing continues to be really smart. There’s a connect with the audience. When I watched The Cosby Show and Family Ties and those kind of great family shows, I just became really connected with them. TV now mentions subjects like homosexuality, infidelity and divorce which were taboos earlier. If you handle those issues with humour and wit, then people are more apt to be a part of the conversation. I think that we are not doing anything revolutionary. A lot of people who watch our show can relate to divorce infidelity and know gay people.
Would you have a child of your ownIJ
I am not looking forward to it anytime soon, but I do want to have kids.
What are the similarities between Mitchell and youIJ
We have same values. I have a lot of his serious qualities. I understand his relationship with his father and his siblings. I am a great dresser.
What is your work week likeIJ
It can be as early as 6:30 in the morning, and then it can go into the — we never work too hard. We are actually very underworked. I think a lot of the other shows are very jealous of our schedules. Recently I went in at 8:30 in the morning to do a scene with Ty Burrell, and I was, going home after an hour.
You make one episode a weekIJ
Yes. I mean, I have more, that was just my one day of work. I did not just work one hour for the episode, but that one day I just worked one hour. And then we do one episode a week.
What do you do when you’re not working on Modern FamilyIJ
I am working on a foundation with my partner, called Tie the Knot. We are selling bow ties and all the proceeds are going toward marriage equality. So we are launching that in a few weeks. That’s keeping us really busy.
Is there a sense of change in Hollywood over the last 10 years when it comes to the lGBT communityIJ
I think that there’s more of a dialogue, and it’s more of a normalcy to have gay characters on TV. It’s not so revolutionary, which is great. I hated, when we were first starting off, that they were like, ‘This gay couple on television is revolutionary.’ I guess it was because there hadn’t really been a committed gay couple on network television, but it wasn’t revolutionary at all. We were a very normal gay couple. We have a lot of celebrities now who are coming forward and saying, ‘I’m for marriage equality. This is ridiculous.’ Brad Pitt just recently gave so much money to marriage equality.
Now we are waiting for a sports star to come out...
Yes. Well, there’s lots of big sports stars that have come out.