Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson has spoken out about how the TV series helped shield him from homophobic abuse. Ferguson played lawyer Mitchell Pritchett on the hit family sitcom from 2009 to 2020. In the series, his character is the partner of Cameron Tucker, played by Eric Stonestreet.
Speaking on his Dinner’s on Me podcast on 6 August, Ferguson discussed a difficult experience he had in Las Vegas before Modern Family propelled him to fame. “I had been in Las Vegas a few years earlier [pre- Modern Family ], and I sort of got gay bashed a little bit,” he told guest Nicole Byer. “This was before.
.. It wasn’t anything violent, but it was definitely like, there was negative energy coming at me from a couple that felt uncomfortable around me and my then-boyfriend.
” Ferguson has been married to actor and producer Justin Mikita since 2013. According to the Modern Family star, he later went back to the city and was shocked at the different reaction he received. “I went [back] after Modern Family, and I remember feeling that same negativity initially, but then they would see who it was and they would recognise me from being, ‘Oh, I am gay, but I’m also that gay one from TV and I like that show,’ and there would be a change,” he said.
Describing the change as “really weird”, Ferguson said: “Your initial [reaction] – I saw it happen – was disgust. Like, let’s process this. “But also there was this like some weird superpower that I felt like .