Jesse Tyler Ferguson says he received criticism from gay viewers...

[TMC]

...for 'stereotypical' Modern Family role

https://ew.com/jesse-tyler-ferguson-...icism-11768710

Ferguson, who played Mitchell Pritchett for 11 years on the beloved sitcom, says he understood the critique but took it "with such a grain of salt."

By Ryan Coleman Published on July 8, 2025 06:11PM EDT

Modern Family broke new ground in its depiction of queer life, marriage, and parenthood. But star Jesse Tyler Ferguson says that not all queer viewers were pleased with those depictions.

"One of the pressures I've always felt, specifically after being on a show like Modern Family, where I'm portraying a gay man on a television show, on a network that is as popular as it is," Ferguson shared on Tuesday's 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."

The prolific stage and screen star, 49, said he "always took with such a grain of salt, because I'm representing one person. I'm in charge of this one character." Still, he weathered a good deal of criticism during his 11-year tenure playing Mitchell Pritchett on the beloved ABC sitcom.

By 2010, some Modern Family fans were upset enough over the lack of an apparent romantic connection between Mitchell and Cam, the married couple played by Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet, that they launched a Facebook campaign demanding the couple kiss. The campaign was ignited by an episode that depicted Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell's characters kissing, but Ferguson and Stonestreet's merely hugging. The series even responded to the criticism with an episode called "The Kiss," which rooted the absence of a physical connection between Mitchell and Cam in the former's emotionally remote upbringing.

In 2014, the gay actor Tuc Watkins criticized Ferguson and Stonestreet's characters, saying he had "a hard time laughing at the gay guys; in fact, I kinda cringe. It feels a little bit like the gay equivalent of 'blackface.' It doesn't feel 'modern' at all."

In response, Ferguson noted, "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."

Ferguson echoed himself over a decade later when he shared with podcast guest Russell Tovey, who has played his fair share of queer TV characters, that Mitchell "also was a shade of who I was, so, you're kind of like, 'If it's stereotypical, I'm basically playing myself, so I guess, guilty as charged.'"

Modern Family remains popular with viewers and enjoyed an extraordinary awards streak while it was on the air. Every season of the sitcom was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series at the GLAAD Media Awards, and it won in 2011 and 2012. Stonestreet was nominated for three Golden Globes, won two Emmys, and Ferguson earned five Emmy nods for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

The series has also had a generational queer impact, with Aubrey Anderson-Emmons, the actress who portrayed Ferguson and Stonestreet's adoptive daughter Lily Tucker-Pritchett, coming out as bisexual in June by quoting an iconic line from the sitcom.

You can listen to the rest of Ferguson and Tovey's conversation on Dinner's on Me above.

[BestTVever]

This is ridiculous. Its comedy. Comedy always plays on extreme stereotypes. People are way too sensitive.