Jesse Tyler Ferguson says critique of Modern Family character was ‘loudest from the gay community’
Jesse Tyler Ferguson has spoken out about criticism of his Modern Family character. (Karwai Tang/WireImage)
Jesse Tyler Ferguson has spoken out about criticism of his Modern Family character. (Karwai Tang/WireImage)
Jesse Tyler Ferguson says the critique of his Modern Family character was the “loudest from the gay community”.
Ferguson played Mitchell Pritchett for 11 seasons from 2009, alongside his on-screen husband Cameron Tucker (played by Eric Allen Stonestreet). While their depiction of the gay couple was widely criticised, their characters were trailblazing for the LGBTQ+ community as one of the few stable on-screen gay couples on American network television at the time.
In fact, a poll run by Hollywood Reporter in 2012 found that 27% of people said gay TV shows such as Modern Family and Glee made them more pro-gay marriage, a notable increase from previous polls.
In a recent podcast appearance, Ferguson reflected on the “pressures” of “portraying a gay man on a television show, on a network that is as popular as it is”.
He told Tuesday’s (8 July) Dinner’s On Me podcast: “You receive criticism, as you do, with anything you do, but the criticism that I think I heard the loudest was always from the gay community, feeling as if, maybe, I didn’t represent their idea of what a gay relationship was, or a gay man was.”
One year after the series launch, Modern Family viewers launched a Facebook campaign demanding to see more intimacy from the couple, and urging that Mitchell and Cam kiss on-screen.
The series eventually responded in the form of the episode titled “The Kiss”, which explained the apparent absence of physical intimacy between the pair due to the characters’ emotionally distant upbringing.
However, the actor said he “always took [criticism] with such a grain of salt, because I’m representing one person. I’m in charge of this one character”.
“We can’t be expected to represent every gay person. We can only represent these two people. Also, Mitch is basically a version of me… so I never know how to take it when people say that he is stereotypical.”
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