Modern Family Star Reveals The Backlash He Received From Gay Fans Over His TV Role

Jesse Tyler Ferguson who starred as one half of the iconic gay couple in the hit TV show Modern Family has revealed the backlash he received the time.

He spoke on his podcast this week about the response from gay viewers and how it effected him at the time.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson played uptight lawyer Mitchell Pritchett who lived with his partner, then husband, Cameron Tucker (Eric Stonestreet) and their adopted daughter.

Modern Family fans weren’t always happy with gay representation

When Modern Family debuted in 2009 it became an instant hit worldwide as viewers fell in love with all of the characters.

However two characters that captured the attention the most in the early years were that of Mitch (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cam (Eric Stonestreet).

While seeing gay characters on mainstream television was no longer something new or novel at the time, the representation of the pair as a family unit with their adopted daughter Lily broke new ground in terms of rainbow family representation on screen.

However despite much praise for their representation from the general public, Ferguson has described the criticism he faced from the gay community.

“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,” he said on his podcast Dinner’s On Me with gay actor Russell Tovey this week.

However unlike Stonestreet, who is heterosexual, Ferguson is an openly gay man and was at the time of the show airing.

Because of this he always took the comments “with such a grain of salt, because I’m representing one person. I’m in charge of this one character” acknowledging that it was impossible to represent everyone.

Fans did criticise the pair at the time for fulfilling what they perceived as gay stereotypes with some considering the pairs lack of affection towards each other in the early seasons as a sign of sanitising their relationship for television.

However Ferguson reflected that the character of Mitchell “was a shade of who I was.”

As a gay man, playing the character and investing much who he was into the role he explained “So, you’re kind of like, if it’s stereotypical, I’m basically playing myself, so I guess, guilty as charged.’”

Despite the criticism Ferguson received five consecutive nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series while Stonestreet received three consecutive nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

Following the end of the series it was announced that a spin-off series centred around Mitch and Cam was in the works, however it was revealed this had been rejected last year.

Last month Aubrey Anderson-Emmons who played their daughter Lily on the show came out as bisexual in a hilarious video using one of her most iconic scenes from the show.