Judy Greer to Guest Star on Modern Family

January 16, 2010 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Modern Family News 

Greer at the premiere of 27 Dresses, January 2008
Image via Wikipedia
Modern Family’s outstanding guest star line-up just added a new name: Judy Greer is joining the funniest family on TV for on episode.
The actress has previously guest-starred on House and Arrested Development and even anchored ABC’s short-lived 2008 sitcom Miss Guided.

Greer will portray Denise, an ex-girlfriend of family man Phil that reconnects with him on (what else?) Facebook. Despite Claire’s initial hesitation, she’s invited over for dinner to meet the Dunphys.

Source: TV Fanatic

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Modern Family’s Jesse Tyler Ferguson on the Upcoming Story Line That Moved Him to Tears

December 10, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Actors 

Jesse Tyler Ferguson almost missed out on Modern Family, ABC’s breakout mockumentary that is already being heralded by the Hollywood Reporter as one of the best series of the decade. Recovering from his experience on the critically savaged and quickly canceled Do Not Disturb, Ferguson told his managers that he was finished with television and moved to New York last year to headline the Broadway musical based on Elf. Fortunately for Ferguson, his managers soft-sold him Modern Family, which the actor read five times over and fell in love with. Now, Ferguson can be seen on Wednesday nights as Mitchell Pritchett, the hilariously straight-laced former figure skater who has since settled down with his flamboyant partner — the hilarious Eric Stonestreet — and their adopted Vietnamese daughter.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson Modern Family

Movieline has an interview with Jesse, and here are some of the Q&A:

I heard that you also initially auditioned for the role of Cameron. How far were you in the audition process before realizing you were a better fit for Mitchell?
It was literally the first audition, and I had been desperate to play Mitchell. I feel like I had probably played Cameron before and it didn’t seem terribly challenging for me. I just felt it was more of a challenge to find the humor in his seriousness and his uptightness. And then the first audition with Chris and Steve, they said, “Oh you’d make a great Mitchell too. Why don’t you come back in and audition for that part?” And I said, “Well that’s what I’ve been telling people for weeks and no one has been listening!”

There is a lot of tension between certain characters on the show, especially between Julie Bowen’s and Sofia Vergara’s characters, that has extended into certain press interviews with the actresses. Is that tension real, are people afraid of them on set?
It’s completely not. We all have this amazing, kind of unruly sense of humor. Sofia and Julie have this hilarious dynamic between the two of them. They go out to dinner and they are very good friends but they make fun of each other all the time. When that whole thing happened with theChelsea Lately show, it was funny, because that is just how the two would be interacting to each other’s face. But people with too much time on their hands in front of their computers suddenly created this controversy between the two of them [Ed. note: Those people are so pathetic!], but they were laughing about it together. So there’s no tension between the two of them.

Can you tell us anything about the rest of the season — any big surprises or dance numbers?
[Laughs] Yeah, we adopt another baby. Just kidding. Can you imagine? There’s this great episode that actually really hit close to the heart for me. We deal with my dad’s uncomfortability with my character’s sexuality. Ed O’Neill’s character ends up introducing Cameron to his friends as “a friend of my son, Mitchell’s.” And I get really upset about it, naturally and say, “You would never introduce Phil as a friend of Claire’s.” It kind of opens up this can of worms between him and me and how much support he really offers me. It ends up being very moving and very touching. Obviously, through the eyes of Chris Lloyd and Steve Levitan and the writer of that episode, it is handled with such care and humor. It actually made me tear up when I read it. Especially in this era of marriage equality, it gave a simple, clear voice to a father and his son. And by the end of the episode, I think it might take a step towards changing a lot of people’s minds on marriage and equality and how they view people that are different from them.

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Actor Ty Burrell: From Grants Pass to ABC’s hit comedy ‘Modern Family’

November 28, 2009 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Actors 

Ty Burrell
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: ‘I Love Spinning the Stereotype’

November 24, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Actors 

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.”
Eric Modern Family

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Modern Family: Is Shakira Getting In On the Act?

November 23, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Actors 

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’ welcomes Minnie Driver

November 12, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Actors, Modern Family News 

EW reports that Minnie Driver will guest star in Modern Family:
The actress, whose arc as Megan Mullally’s bitchy, slutty arch nemesis on Will & Grace was a scenery-chewing triumph, has booked a guest appearance on Modern Family, sources confirm to me exclusively.
In an episode slated to air in January, Driver will play a friend and former co-worker of Claire’s (Julie Bowen). The two reconnect after years of being out of touch and things are not exactly how they remembered.
Minnie Driver in Modern Family

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Sofia Vergara: Sexy on the Red Carpet

November 5, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Actors 

Enjoying a night out on the red carpet, Sofia Vergara turned up for the Columbia Pictures premiere of “2012” on Tuesday night (November 3).
The “Modern Family” actress looked stunning in a purple frock as she arrived at Regal Cinemas LA Live in Los Angeles for the big event.
sofia-veragra-2012
sofia-veragra-2012-2

[source: Gossip Center]

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Nolan Gould Interview [source: Backstage]

October 30, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Actors 

Backstage has an interview with Nolan Gould from Modern Family, here are some parts of the interview:
Nolan-Gould- Modern Family 2

ACTOR2WATCH: How do you like being on “Modern Family”?

NOLAN GOULD: I really love the show. People are really nice on set. The food is good. Everybody is really funny, not just when they’re acting, but when they’re off-set too.

A2W: Who’s your favorite actor and why?

NG: I would say Jim Parsons from “The Big Bang Theory.” His demeanor and his little smirks, his little facial expressions just make me laugh cause it’s funny. Ty Burrell from “Modern Family” is also really good. He’s great at improving, and he acts like a little kid in the show. But the funny thing is he’s actually a little kid basically.

A2W: Have you started getting recognized? How about fan letters?

NG: No, no fan letters yet. When I go into audition rooms, some of the acting people notice me and say “Hey, you’re that kid from “Modern Family,” right?” And so that’s pretty cool. All my relatives back in Alabama know.

Nolan-Gould Modern Family

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An Interview with Julie Bowen from Modern Family

October 21, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Actors 

Chicago Tribune has an interview with Julie Bowen, the “Modern Family” actress, on which she plays the mother of three.

Bowen brings the same extra-sparkly girl-next-door quality to her new show that she has been displaying on TV since starring opposite Tom Cavanagh in 2000 on “Ed.”

From that series, she went on to “Boston Legal” while appearing in recurring roles on such shows as “ER,” “Weeds” and “Lost.”

Read the interview here.

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