Actor Ty Burrell: From Grants Pass to ABC’s hit comedy ‘Modern Family’
For a young man who grows up in Ashland, getting the acting bug must be as easy as falling off a log. Right? After all, the Southern Oregon town is home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, known for its world-class productions and top-flight casts.
But for Ty Burrell, the Oregon native who co-stars on the ABC comedy, “Modern Family,” the whole acting thing took a while.
“What do they say about not taking advantage of things in your hometown?” Burrell says, calling from Los Angeles. “You know, if you’re in Paris, you never go see the Eiffel Tower? I didn’t go to see a play at the festival until I was in my early 20s.”
But fans of “Modern Family” — the show averages 10.6 million viewers weekly — know Burrell has become a gifted actor, moving easily between drama and comedy. Burrell, 42, has performed onstage in New York and London; in movies (“The Incredible Hulk,” “Black Hawk Down”); and on TV (“Back to You”).
Oregon Live spoke with Burrell about his own family, acting and his Oregon roots. Here are some of the Q&As:
Q: How much of the character of Phil is based on you or your family?
A: I mainly just drew on myself — sadly (laughs). Phil’s inability to see how he’s goofing and messing things up comes directly from my own delusional, oblivious existence. It’s magnified with people that I’ve met over the years, people who I’ve really liked because I think that type of person is just so full of life.
Q: What were your younger days in Oregon like?
A: I was born in Grants Pass and grew up in Ashland. We also spent about eight years in Applegate, where my family owned a little country store. That was an amazing time, lots of lazy summer days, floating down the Applegate River on inner tubes. In many ways, it was absurd because we had no business being out in the country because we were extremely soft! I graduated from Hidden Valley High School.
Q: When did you get interested in acting? Was that something others in your family had done?
A: Nobody in my family, at any level, had ever had any connection to performing or show business. I will say, though, that there’s a long history of raconteurs in my family. My grandfather was a great storyteller, and my dad and his brother would get going and were very funny together. My younger brother, Duncan, and I really watched that a lot and admired it. The official term would be we got into comedy when we were young. But we really just got into goofing off when we were kids.
Read the rest of the story Oregon Live
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Eric Stonestreet Tree
The annual Kansas City Mayor’s Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony will be held on Friday, November 27, 2009 at 5:30 p.m.
Kansas City native Eric Stonestreet, star of ABC’sModern Family, will be on hand for the festivities. The 100-foot-tall Mayor’s Christmas Tree is one of the tallest in the United States, and is the centerpiece for this holiday celebration.
The Mayor’s Christmas Tree Ceremony is located in Crown Center Square.
[source: Kansas City on the cheap ]
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Fizbo’s Business Card
Courtesy of @ericstonestreet comes Fizbo’s one and only business card when Eric Stonestreet was 13.
[Source: thetvaddict]
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‘Modern Family’ star Eric Stonestreet takes the EW Pop Culture Personality Test
Eric Stonestreet from Modern Family tool EW’s “Pop Culture Personality Test”. Here are some of his answers:
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Clowns: Scary or Misunderstood?
ERIC STONESTREET: Misunderstood. But you’re talking to someone who’s always been fascinated with clowns, so I might be biased. Growing up [in Kansas], I wanted to be a clown and run away with the circus. I created a clown character that I would do for kids’ birthday parties and stuff like that. That’s how the inspiration for “Fizbo” started. Fizbo is my real clown name from when I was kid. I have business cards printed up with it on. [The show's writers] just liked hearing the stories, so they thought it would be funny if Cameron brought back his clown character.
The most embarrassing song on your iPod?
I consider myself the least music snob in the world, and actually, I like to make fun of music snobs. I’m not ashamed to rock out to an ‘N Sync song, Backstreet Boys, Wreckx-N-Effect. If it’s on my iPod, it’s there for a reason. Sometimes it’s an impulse purchase for me off iTunes, but I’m a big music guy. I’m proud of all my [checks his iPod] 5,400 songs.
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Eric Stonestreet: ‘I Love Spinning the Stereotype’
Another interview with Eric Stonestreet, from Modern Family, this time from Parade. Here are some of the Q&A:
Stretching his improv chops.
“We always get a couple passes where we just get to play and have fun. Inevitably some of those things make it into the shows. And then we always get to improvise a bit during the interviews with the camera. But, for the most part, it is 100% the words of our brilliant writers.”
Nothing but funny business.
“The most important thing for me as an actor playing a character is to make you laugh. That’s my No. 1 goal. I wouldn’t be in this business and doing what I do if I didn’t have the deep, deep need to make people laugh, which is what I enjoy the most.”
Making a gay couple “modern.”
“It’s an opportunity to give people a take on what they think of as gay parents and make them understand that the love and support of a child is the first thing, and it really doesn’t matter if it’s two moms or two dads. Bringing up a child in a loving relationship is the most important thing. I think it’s great that people are getting exposed to that and just to see the focus isn’t on the fact that Mitchell and Cameron are gay, the focus is on the fact that it’s hard raising a baby. It’s tiresome, it’s challenging and these two people happen to be funny people that will see things on the lighter side and have a good time doing it.”
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First Look: Fred Willard on Modern Family
The funniest new sitcom of the season will then take a week off and return on December 9 with a new installment. On that episode, “Modern Family” episode 10, Fred Willard comes aboard as Phil’s dad, as the Dunphy kids face the possibility of no Christmas this year.
TV Fanatic uncovered a photo of Willard in the role:
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Sofia Vergara Shines in Emilio Pucci at American Music Awards
Sofia Vergara, who made news this week for joking that she’d been raped at 13 on The View, seemed to have recovered from her embarrassment by the time she hit Sunday night’s American Music Awards red carpet. She looked beautiful in her peach asymmetrical Emilio Pucci gown.
[Soruce: zimbio]
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Modern Family: Is Shakira Getting In On the Act?
Shakira is no actress, but maybe it’s time for her to become one.
She and her hips are wanted over at ABC’s new hit comedy Modern Family.
“I’m trying to convince her to act,” M.F. star and resident MILF Sofia Vergara told me at the American Music Awards. “Hopefully, she’ll say yes.”
Vergara liked our suggestion that…
Maybe Shakira should play Vergara’s sister on the show.
“Why not!” Vergara said. “We’ll write a character especially for her if she wants to do it.”
Meanwhile, Vergara and her costars are the ones wanted by another primetime star…
“I’m obsessed with Modern Family,” V‘s Morena Baccarin said. “It’s my new, latest guilty pleasure. I would love all of those characters and our characters to interchange and do each other’s shows. I don’t know if it would be good, but…”
Aliens dropping in on Modern Family may not be so far-fetched—at least according to Baccarin.
“I do believe there’s something more out there,” she said. “We can’t possibly be the only living people in the universe.”
[Source: E!]
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Modern Family Feud
We’re trying to avoid the Sofía Vergara and Julie Bowen’s feud story, but you can read the details here. We hope that they can fix thing between them…
1-on-1 with…MODERN FAMILY’s Eric Stonestreet
Jim Halterman has an interview with MODERN FAMILY’s Eric Stonestreet. Here are some of the questions he asked:
Jim Halterman: How are you getting used to all the attention that the show is getting and, more importantly, that you’re getting?
Eric Stonestreet: The one thing I was taken by surprise by was how fast it was. We were on one week and it went from people looking at me and thinking they saw me somewhere or I went to school with them to now people definitely quickly know me as Cameron from Modern Family, which is amazing and I was pretty blown away by how fast it works.
JH: Are people assuming you are Cameron?
ES: [laughs] When you meet me I think it’s pretty clear that I’m pretty different from Cameron but we’ve had conversations about that. I don’t care if people think I’m gay. People ask me all the time ‘Aren’t you worried about people thinking you’re gay?’ If I was worried about that I wouldn’t be doing the character. There are actors that may not want to do this character for that reason but I don’t happen to be one of them. I joke around and say that I was more worried that people would think I was a killer because I killed three people on TV last year. [laughs]
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Going to a wedding?
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