Ty Burrell Was Practically Broke Before 'Modern Family' Came Along

[Brian Damage]

Deadline Hollywood: How does it feel to be co-starring on the “It” comedy of the moment?

Ty Burrell: Well, it’s really kind of surreal. A year and a half ago, my wife and I were sitting in our living room trying to decide which chair we could burn to cook dinner. I had an actual plan to print funny T-shirts and sell them. I was down to that and bake sales. Now, I have this. It’s truly unbelievable.

DH: So you’ve carved out a nice little career, but if ‘Modern Family’ hadn’t come along, you’d still seriously be selling T-shirts?

TB: You know, quite possibly. And I’d have honestly been OK with it. I think there are pluses and minuses to being simpleminded. The minus is not having any sort of vision for the future. But on the plus side, my wife and I have really been happy through all of the ups and downs. When you don’t have crazy ambitions, you’re always happy just kind of getting by. Our expectations were always kept low. And so I feel like we appreciate it all the more to have all this good fortune come our way, which we hadn’t really been planning.

DH: But just to be clear, all things considered, you’d rather have sitcom success and an Emmy nomination than have to scrape together a living from bake sales?

TB: Well sure. But you know, the bake sales would have been OK, too. And they may have to be again.

http://www.deadline.com/2010/07/emmy...ll/#more-57367