Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, it's Bruce. Welcome back to the table. We
Speaker 1: are at the Sunset Tower Bar. I could not be
Speaker 1: more excited. It is a beautiful day in sunny SoCal.
Speaker 1: Are you gonna eat yeah, oh yeah, I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: like I do, my typical chop salad with chicken. Oh
Speaker 1: that's good. I love the chop sad. Yeah. Today we're
Speaker 1: having lunch with an acclaimed Broadway actor, a Tony winner,
Speaker 1: an acclaimed television star, an Emmy winner, a gentleman who
Speaker 1: has launched a podcast or our show is similar? Do
Speaker 1: I ask similar questions? You're like a star, You're great
Speaker 1: at this. No, you're a great conversation a star. So
Speaker 1: sit back and let's enjoy lunch with this incredibly funny
Speaker 1: man and talented actor, Jesse Tayler Ferguson.
Speaker 2: I'm Bruce Bosi and this is my podcast Table for two.
Speaker 1: If you pulled up a chair today on Table for two,
Speaker 1: we're sitting with an incredible actor, very acclaimed actor. I'm
Speaker 1: one of the most successful television shows we all know,
Speaker 1: Modern Family, which I've a lot of questions about a
Speaker 1: Tony Winner. Yes, incredibly all around great guy. I know
Speaker 1: you Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Welcome to Table for two.
Speaker 3: I'm so glad finally doing this. I know me too,
Speaker 3: Like we tried to do this.
Speaker 1: Like a year ago we did. Jess and I sort
Speaker 1: of have a similar podcast going on, which is I
Speaker 1: do lunch, Jesse does dinner, and I know that the
Speaker 1: genesis for me was I believed in the romance of
Speaker 1: a meal and the intimacy of a connection and felt
Speaker 1: that in this world of podcast and zoom is, one
Speaker 1: of the things that went away was the connectivity being
Speaker 1: in the same room, which is an ask for people
Speaker 1: because it's not like they flip up their screen, but
Speaker 1: in the nuances our lunch today, things happen. What was
Speaker 1: your motivation to create you know dinners on You.
Speaker 4: Said it so much more elegantly than I do, and
Speaker 4: I explained mine just like the romance of it is
Speaker 4: exactly spot on.
Speaker 3: I just feel like.
Speaker 4: There's something about having a meal with someone your guards
Speaker 4: let down a little bit more. You know, it's a
Speaker 4: it's something you do with people you care about. So
Speaker 4: even if it's like someone I don't know so well,
Speaker 4: it does feel soon intimate that we're having a shared
Speaker 4: meal and you know, there's also the the you know,
Speaker 4: you hear us ordering our food and like you sort
Speaker 4: of get a sense of like what we're like is
Speaker 4: real people, which.
Speaker 3: I think is interesting.
Speaker 4: But you know, the same thing for you know, you
Speaker 4: know during the pandemic when sort of everything switched to
Speaker 4: zoom and then it kind of just stayed that way.
Speaker 4: I thought, if I'm going to do this, I want
Speaker 4: to look for a reason where like I have.
Speaker 3: To be sitting with someone real time, and.
Speaker 4: Like the rules of this podcast and is as you
Speaker 4: well know, like you have to be in person and
Speaker 4: you have to you must arrive at the same place
Speaker 4: and share a meal together. And it's just it's part
Speaker 4: of it's part of what makes the podcast special.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right, and the like normally, like Jeff, we're
Speaker 1: at the tower and Jeff allows us to use this
Speaker 1: private space. But sometimes we're in the terrace. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: you know, and there's noise or we have the mullet
Speaker 1: king Eric behind you. It will come and you know,
Speaker 1: you know, and it's all about the interaction of again connectivity.
Speaker 1: That's cool. So when you do Dinners on Me, which
Speaker 1: and I love that you have the same you know,
Speaker 1: the same thought process is there some sort of common
Speaker 1: thread with humans that you're finding, because you know, I
Speaker 1: think we both we kind of sit in the same
Speaker 1: room in regard to the same kind of guests, very
Speaker 1: you know, entertainment oriented journeys. Who have you found anything
Speaker 1: that well.
Speaker 4: It's been mostly and maybe you found this too when
Speaker 4: you're when you were starting off. I mean, you have
Speaker 4: a I know, you know a lot of really incredible
Speaker 4: entertaining people, and so like I went to my own
Speaker 4: rolodext first, and so that sort of set the tone
Speaker 4: of like who was going to then come in? And
Speaker 4: you know, because I have such wonderful people who said
Speaker 4: yes so early on, like Tracy Ellis Ross and Jesse
Speaker 4: Williams and Julie Bowen and Chelsea Clinton, who's a buddy
Speaker 4: of mine. Like, because I was able to sort of
Speaker 4: set the tone with these incredible guests, I've been able
Speaker 4: to get other people who I don't know as well on,
Speaker 4: like Aquafina and I just had I mean a Savari
Speaker 4: on recently and I've never met her before, Paul Vegus,
Speaker 4: someone I don't know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So you find it harder or easy?
Speaker 4: Yeah, interesting, I find it a little harder to interview
Speaker 4: the people I know really really well.
Speaker 1: Me too, Yeah, because you kind of sink into something. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's and it.
Speaker 4: Feels like weird and fraudulent to almostly be asking questions
Speaker 4: that you know the answers to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's true. And you have to be careful of
Speaker 1: being too inside, right because you get too inside and
Speaker 1: the people that have pulled up the chair and I
Speaker 1: love the figurative, the idea that you and I are
Speaker 1: having lunch and there are people yes on wood that
Speaker 1: are having lunch or in their cars and they I mean,
Speaker 1: I get feedback which is like, yeah, it really wonderful.
Speaker 3: I feel like you're fly on the wall.
Speaker 1: The do you have. I mean it's so hard. People
Speaker 1: ask me like who are some of my favorite guests?
Speaker 1: And I never have an answer for them, just because
Speaker 1: it's all about.
Speaker 4: The conversations that surprised you. You thought it would go
Speaker 4: one way and it ended up being a whole other conversation.
Speaker 1: Oh that's yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think you know
Speaker 1: with Anna, who is so intimidating, so I bring her
Speaker 1: up not to be so name drop because she saw her,
Speaker 1: but she was really there was a lot of humility
Speaker 1: and there was a lot of generosity in this conversation
Speaker 1: where people are so look at her as being so
Speaker 1: stoic and some cold.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 1: Tom Ford was he that's his table over there, and
Speaker 1: he was very Uh, I didn't want to talk about fashion.
Speaker 1: Oh interesting, you know fashion? Was like not. You know,
Speaker 1: he wears his uniform, which is you know what you've
Speaker 1: seen him in his whole life. He's like, so, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know with the nuances of what you know, but
Speaker 1: nothing stands out. It's all a bo right blur, like
Speaker 1: from blur, think God were recording me exactly. So you
Speaker 1: born and raised in Albuquerque.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well no, I was born in Montana. But the yeah,
Speaker 4: I only lived in Montana for the first year of
Speaker 4: my life.
Speaker 1: It's so funny, I said to Brian two nights ago,
Speaker 1: to Montana. It's great, beautiful. I hadn't been there since
Speaker 1: I was born.
Speaker 4: And then my dad threw his seventieth birthday party there
Speaker 4: in Missoli, Montana, which is the town I was born in,
Speaker 4: and so I I went to that. That was That's
Speaker 4: the basically the first time I got to experience Montana
Speaker 4: and it's gorgeous.
Speaker 1: It's beautiful. Yeah. So Albuquerque ways like I mean, it's
Speaker 1: an interesting journey from Albuquerque to eventually being on Broadway, Like,
Speaker 1: that's not how did that?
Speaker 3: How did you traverse that?
Speaker 4: Well? I mean I became when I was young. I
Speaker 4: found a lot of comfort in theater. I didn't have
Speaker 4: a lot of a lot of friends at school, and
Speaker 4: I found my people to be, you know, the artistic types.
Speaker 4: And there was no big theater program or there was
Speaker 4: really the zero theater program in my grade school and
Speaker 4: also my high school, and so I had to look
Speaker 4: for extracurricular places to do that. And there was a
Speaker 4: pretty good children's theater company in Albuquerque, New Mexico that
Speaker 4: I joined, and I just found myself to be so
Speaker 4: much more myself and comfortable around these other kids who
Speaker 4: were like, you know, playing theater games right zip zaps
Speaker 4: ofp and I just I just really blossomed. And so
Speaker 4: it was something that I think when I think about
Speaker 4: like how I fell in love with theater, I think
Speaker 4: it's because theater felt like it was finally a safe
Speaker 4: space for me, and I was able to really you know,
Speaker 4: explore parts of myself that I just felt like I
Speaker 4: couldn't do yeah at school, I you know, I think
Speaker 4: at that certainly at that young, young age. I didn't
Speaker 4: know that I was gay. I didn't know what that meant.
Speaker 1: But so because you said safe place, which made me
Speaker 1: want to you know, because I certainly didn't either, but
Speaker 1: I certainly knew I was different. And the other kids
Speaker 1: who have this like ability to sense things and be mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: you I they sense they since and they they're the
Speaker 1: ones that would tell me like, oh you're gay, right
Speaker 1: and an usually not nice.
Speaker 3: Way, usually usually followed by get them right.
Speaker 1: Well, you know you're so self conscious. Yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: understand that.
Speaker 4: Age when you're self conscious about everything, right, so you
Speaker 4: don't want to get called out for anything, right, So
Speaker 4: uh yeah, when I say safe space, I think that
Speaker 4: I didn't realize even what I was trying to be
Speaker 4: safe from, but it just felt like more secure around
Speaker 4: these people. And that's I think that I do think
Speaker 4: that theater in that way sort of saved me, protected me.
Speaker 4: So that's why I have this great, great affinity for it, right,
Speaker 4: And it just always feels.
Speaker 1: Like it came like your tribe. Yeah yeah, and when
Speaker 1: you went to did you get out of Albuquerque when
Speaker 1: you were going to college or you moved to New York? Right?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I was able to go to New
Speaker 4: York when I was in high school as part of it.
Speaker 4: So I was part of a French exchange program, and
Speaker 4: it was our year to go to to like Paris
Speaker 4: and spend some time in France, like basically a month
Speaker 4: in France. And there's also an opportunity to go to
Speaker 4: New York City for like five days with my local
Speaker 4: community theater. Okay, and my parents said, you have to
Speaker 4: choose one or the other, and I chose to go
Speaker 4: to New York for five days rather than France for
Speaker 4: a month.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 4: I had never been to Broadway and it was just
Speaker 4: like you might watched the Tony Awards, and I had
Speaker 4: this just this like kind of a fantasy version of
Speaker 4: like what New York was in my head, and I
Speaker 4: needed to see if it was actually real because I
Speaker 4: was getting to that point where like I was going
Speaker 4: to graduate from high school at some point in the
Speaker 4: near future, and I wanted to know if that's where
Speaker 4: I should go. And I just had a feeling that
Speaker 4: it was it was going to feel right, and so
Speaker 4: I had to take the opportunity to go to New
Speaker 4: York for for a week.
Speaker 1: And did you see do you remember what you saw?
Speaker 1: Uh huh, okay, tell me and what.
Speaker 4: Ye yes, well it was nineteen ninety two or three, right.
Speaker 1: You're sure? I mean literally there's a full like because
Speaker 1: I was eighty four. So the theater that was, you know, yeah.
Speaker 3: Like the original of the Kaja Phone.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I saw that, the original Dream amazing, It's incredible,
Speaker 1: the original Sweeney incredible because I grew up in Yeah, yeah, yeah, but.
Speaker 3: I saw well.
Speaker 4: The shows that we were scheduled to see were Fan
Speaker 4: of the Opera, Guys and Dolls with Naple Lane and
Speaker 4: Faith Prince, that incredible revival.
Speaker 1: What else was it?
Speaker 3: I think it was Cats and The Secret Garden.
Speaker 4: Okay, and I think I played hooky And I didn't
Speaker 4: see Cats because it was my first night in New
Speaker 4: York and I really desperately wanted to see Falsettos, which
Speaker 4: was not on our list of shows to see from
Speaker 4: Albuquerque in Mexico. The Blue Hairs of Albuquerque, Mexican were
Speaker 4: not interested in seeing Falsettos, a quirky William Finn musical
Speaker 4: about you know, same sex couple, and I had. I
Speaker 4: was aware of it because I'd seen it on the
Speaker 4: Tony Ward. So I went to the t kt S
Speaker 4: booth and bought a ticket to go see Falsettos by myself.
Speaker 4: And that was the very first Probably show I ever saw.
Speaker 4: That's a good one. That's a really good one.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a it's a good one, and it's
Speaker 1: a great story. It says a lot about your strength too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was part of that.
Speaker 4: I felt like, I, yeah, I was afraid to ask
Speaker 4: about that show to the people who were planning this trip.
Speaker 3: I didn't even tell my parents that thought I was
Speaker 3: going to do that. You know, I hear.
Speaker 4: I had a free ticket to Probably show and I
Speaker 4: let it go and I spend money, with my own
Speaker 4: hard money to see something else. But I did feel like, Okay,
Speaker 4: I'm here in the city by myself. No one knows
Speaker 4: who I am. I felt comfortable and securely going up
Speaker 4: to the booth and buying a ticket for it. Almost
Speaker 4: felt like I was going into like a you know,
Speaker 4: I guess I'm like like looking at a porn magazine
Speaker 4: or something like. Yeah, I was afraid that something need
Speaker 4: to do this. Yeah, and yet it was just a
Speaker 4: Probably musical.
Speaker 1: No. But unless it's the same feeling, especially because of
Speaker 1: the subject matter of the show, I think that made
Speaker 1: it makes it seem like you were doing something maybe
Speaker 1: you are you hide I was hiding a little bit, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, and that's brave.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: It was definitely a moment that solidified my desire to
Speaker 4: move to New York. Right, And not only that, but
Speaker 4: that show is so imprinted so much on me. Like
Speaker 4: I you know, I obviously knew who William Finn was.
Speaker 4: I was a fan of his music, but you know,
Speaker 4: I was looking through the program, I was like, oh,
Speaker 4: it's just the director James of Pine.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 4: He directed you know, Sending the Park with George and
Speaker 4: Into the Woods, Like these are shows that I absolutely loved.
Speaker 4: And you know, I put those two names on my
Speaker 4: dream board like people I would love to work with
Speaker 4: one day. And you know, I mean, if we fast
Speaker 4: forward a little bit, that's exactly what happened. I mean
Speaker 4: I got to work with both of them on the
Speaker 4: twenty fifth annual putin Kunty spelling basis.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, right, you were so amazed. That was
Speaker 1: so good.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Did you then graduate and go and pursue the career?
Speaker 1: I should know this. She didn't know, Well, did you
Speaker 1: go to the I.
Speaker 3: Didn't go to college.
Speaker 4: Per se I went to. I always say I didn't
Speaker 4: take college. I got a certificate of Complete from the
Speaker 4: American Musical Dramatic Academy, which is a two year program. Okay,
Speaker 4: if had some great talent that it's come out there,
Speaker 4: yeah like you.
Speaker 3: But yeah, you know, I auditioned for like regional theaters.
Speaker 4: I wasn't part of the Actors Equity Association at that point.
Speaker 4: I was doing non non union work and taking whatever
Speaker 4: I could get.
Speaker 1: Right it had it been so different now the age
Speaker 1: you were at in the nineties doing this versus where
Speaker 1: we're at now for a young person, because not only
Speaker 1: is the whole casting different because you know of representation
Speaker 1: and justifiably so you know, it's do you think could
Speaker 1: it be replicated your my experience and yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I do social media.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I mean it's also different.
Speaker 4: I do think that there is still a deep desire
Speaker 4: to discover untapped talent and new talent and fresh talent,
Speaker 4: right which you know I was No one had hired
Speaker 4: me before, so like I was, you know, an unknown commodity, and.
Speaker 3: Soone's actual audition the first thing I really booked.
Speaker 4: That that sort of puts some wind in my sales
Speaker 4: was the revival of On the Town that they did
Speaker 4: the Delacorte Theater, directed by George C.
Speaker 5: Wolf.
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, right, And you know, he.
Speaker 4: Had just come off of directing Angels in America and
Speaker 4: Jelly's Last Jam and bringing the noise, bringing the funk.
Speaker 4: He was is extremely prolific. His next job is doing
Speaker 4: Gypsy with Ador McDonald on Broadway.
Speaker 1: Wait for that.
Speaker 3: I cannot wait for that. I mean, come on, So
Speaker 3: you know, the.
Speaker 4: Having him sort of believe in me and give me
Speaker 4: my first big opportunity, which was also a big speaking
Speaker 4: role in On the Town. It wasn't like I was
Speaker 4: just casting the ensemble and I had never been given
Speaker 4: really much of an opportunity to even have a speaking role.
Speaker 3: On stage, which I was fine with.
Speaker 1: Was summer are we talking?
Speaker 4: This is nineteen ninety seven and the show and did
Speaker 4: have transferred to Broadway in nineteen ninety eight and also
Speaker 4: bombing pretty miserably on Broadway. It ended up transferring to
Speaker 4: the Gershwin Theater, which is the large house on Broadways more.
Speaker 3: Wicked and running successful for twenty something years.
Speaker 1: Right, nineteen ninety nine, Yeah, gets shorted. Yeah, so that's
Speaker 1: a big break. It was a big break. That's sort
Speaker 1: of like, you're not you're not a waiter, you're working actor.
Speaker 4: Well I was, you know at the time, I was
Speaker 4: bartending at the winter Garden Theater or Cats was playing.
Speaker 4: It's like, you know, Cats like was punishing me, Like
Speaker 4: you played hockey on us the first time, New York.
Speaker 3: Now you're gonna have to watch the show every night.
Speaker 4: For a year, right, you know karma, that's what they
Speaker 4: call karma. And actually I actually really do like kind
Speaker 4: of love Cats secretly. And there's production in New York
Speaker 4: right now. That's Cat's been set in the ballroom scene
Speaker 4: in New York and it is the most incredible thing
Speaker 4: I've ever seen my own. Yeah, I hope it transfers
Speaker 4: to Broadway called Cat's Agelica Ball. Anyway, I was working
Speaker 4: at the winder Garden Theater and when I was auditioning
Speaker 4: On the Town and a lot of the cast members
Speaker 4: of Cats were also auditioning for On the Town as well.
Speaker 4: It's a big dance show, right, and so naturally they were,
Speaker 4: you know, three great parts for guys who dance, and
Speaker 4: I wasn't much of a dancer. And I remember my
Speaker 4: friend Abe Silva, who is now a great writer and
Speaker 4: director and you know working on Pomeroyal right now. He
Speaker 4: was in the cast of Cats, And he tells me
Speaker 4: this funny story about when I finally got the job.
Speaker 3: Then he and his like dressing roommate.
Speaker 4: Were like talking about their callbacks from the town, and
Speaker 4: someone's like, did do you even know who this is? Like,
Speaker 4: as they're putting on their cat make did you hear
Speaker 4: anything about on the town?
Speaker 3: Do you know who got it?
Speaker 4: And like it's one of the guys across the room
Speaker 4: was like, yeah, the bartender got it, like putting the
Speaker 4: whiskers on their.
Speaker 3: Face, but the bartend, the bartender got it.
Speaker 4: But then the thing is, after like I mentioned to you,
Speaker 4: I mean, it was a short run in the park.
Speaker 4: It was a few months, and then after that I
Speaker 4: didn't have a job. So I went back. I went
Speaker 4: back to the Winter Garden, I went back to like
Speaker 4: the gift shop I was working on. It's had several jobs,
Speaker 4: back to Starbucks, Like you know, I did whatever I
Speaker 4: could do to make some money. It wasn't I mean,
Speaker 4: it was a huge break and obviously people were now
Speaker 4: aware of me, and it I.
Speaker 3: Think boomed me into other opportunities.
Speaker 4: But I was still like in a place where I
Speaker 4: had to pay my bills.
Speaker 1: Do you have your tribe from those years, because I
Speaker 1: find that my friends that are actors, yeah, they have that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I do.
Speaker 4: You know Via Delaria who starred opposite of me and
Speaker 4: on The Town she played my girlfriend.
Speaker 3: Can you believe that that is? Is that great? Great?
Speaker 1: Great?
Speaker 4: I mean this twenty one year old kid and like
Speaker 4: this forty something year old lesbian playing love interests and
Speaker 4: we had.
Speaker 3: Such good chemistry.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 4: Well she's remained one of my very very close friends.
Speaker 4: George Wolf is still a very good friend of mine.
Speaker 4: A lot of people who are in that show, but
Speaker 4: then also other friends of mine who were up and
Speaker 4: coming actors, and you know sort of I would see
Speaker 4: auditions and become friends with them, and they're they're part
Speaker 4: of my closest friends still so to this day.
Speaker 1: So right, yeah, that's an amazing when you're in New
Speaker 1: York now, you know, having been raised there and it's
Speaker 1: changed so much to the city and it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's still my heart. It's still my favorite place in
Speaker 1: the world. But like I see, it's like almost like
Speaker 1: I say, ghosts, but like on the corners, Like do
Speaker 1: you do you? You know, you know, like you have
Speaker 1: like now how you live. You have an apartment. You
Speaker 1: you're successful, so you live a certain way. But like, yes,
Speaker 1: when you.
Speaker 4: The Starbucks on eighty fourth and Broadway, that's where I
Speaker 4: used to work and I walk in there and I'm like,
Speaker 4: I used to work here and like no, I'm ordering
Speaker 4: your coffee and you know it's but I always tell
Speaker 4: them it's like I used to be behind there, Like
Speaker 4: I used to work there all the time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all the time.
Speaker 4: I mean when I go into the Golden Theater, which
Speaker 4: is where Falsetto's played, right, whenever I see a show
Speaker 4: in the Golden I'm like, this is where I sat
Speaker 4: right on my.
Speaker 1: First you from that day.
Speaker 3: I don't know if I do.
Speaker 4: I mean, I definitely photos of me that we or right,
Speaker 4: I don't know if I have a photo of me
Speaker 4: outside of falset Know. I think I took a photo
Speaker 4: of the Marquis, photos of pigeons on that trip.
Speaker 3: You don't watch in Albuquerque, New Mexico, right, I guess not?
Speaker 1: You don't, don't you Like when you first saw what
Speaker 1: is this most ugly bird you've ever seen?
Speaker 3: Was just fascinatd buy it.
Speaker 4: I mean it's sort of like when you travel to
Speaker 4: other I mean I was just in Morocco and there's
Speaker 4: cats everywhere, and I was kicking photos of cats, like
Speaker 4: I must look like such a tourist right now.
Speaker 3: But it was the photos of that week in.
Speaker 4: New York, my first week, And you're ridiculous because it's
Speaker 4: just a lot of Theata marquees and pigeons.
Speaker 1: That is you need, you need to make it back
Speaker 1: to that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I think I even took a photo of
Speaker 4: like the gap because it was like, I've never seen
Speaker 4: a gap that wasn't inside the mall, like a gap
Speaker 4: that actually a butt of a sidewalk.
Speaker 1: Cars. That's crazy, that's so funny. Yeah, because things that
Speaker 1: used impress me. Right. Thanks for joining us on Table
Speaker 1: for two. Before the break, our guest Jesse Tyler Ferguson
Speaker 1: was telling us about his journey from Albuquerque to Broadway.
Speaker 1: I'm curious to hear about some of Jesse's most interesting
Speaker 1: experiences on stage. There's nothing quite like sitting in a
Speaker 1: dark theater when the lights go down and the curtain
Speaker 1: goes up. The experience that you guys deliver.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's my favorite thing.
Speaker 1: Has there ever been like when you're on stage, what's
Speaker 1: the funniest and weirdest thing that annis members are kooky?
Speaker 1: Especially like they like what I can't hear you totally anything,
Speaker 1: Any stories that you've been like, oh no.
Speaker 4: Well, you know Take Me Out, which was the last
Speaker 4: show I did on Broadway, and they did involve a
Speaker 4: lot of male nudity. It's about a baseball team and
Speaker 4: a lot of the the scenes take place in the
Speaker 4: locker room, specifically the showers, and they're very integral scenes
Speaker 4: because it's about homophobia and masculine toxic masculinity and behave
Speaker 4: and how like someone coming out of the closet changes
Speaker 4: the whole dynamic of the locker room antics and behaviors
Speaker 4: and relationships. I was not in any of these naked scenes.
Speaker 4: I played Jesse Williams, who played the star player Darren Lenning.
Speaker 4: I played his account business manager, so no one needed
Speaker 4: to see the business managers, you know. Although I always
Speaker 4: begged Richard Greenberg just to write a scene of one
Speaker 4: last scene where it's just Mason Marzak showering at home
Speaker 4: by himself, sadly, just all by himself.
Speaker 1: Life has gone.
Speaker 4: But because I guess I just I think theaters audiences
Speaker 4: have changed so much, and and I just feel like,
Speaker 4: I just feel like such a lack of respect for
Speaker 4: what it means to be in a sacred space and
Speaker 4: a lot of you know, I mean, we did everything
Speaker 4: we could to protect his cast, but there were photos
Speaker 4: that leaked out of some of the cast members.
Speaker 1: Of course, when Joe did it, I'm known how a
Speaker 1: phone I was taking a sneak in a.
Speaker 3: Picture taking of they had to sneak in a whole camera.
Speaker 4: But I think because some photos did lead the audience
Speaker 4: members that then started coming because it was a big
Speaker 4: press thing, you know. It was like they have the
Speaker 4: Tony nominations. Both Jesse Williams and myself and another cast member,
Speaker 4: Michael Oberholtzer all got nominated in the same category, and
Speaker 4: then that was immediately overshadowed by new pictures leaking out, right,
Speaker 4: And I just felt so bad for the company because
Speaker 4: it was a celebrated revival. Now the conversation was about penises, right,
Speaker 4: and but that did bring a lot of different people
Speaker 4: into the theater who didn't necessarily come to see the play.
Speaker 4: They wanted to see the spectacle and I was like, Wow,
Speaker 4: you're gonna guys are gonna be so bored by about
Speaker 4: two and a half hours of really important thoughts and.
Speaker 3: Conversations for like two minutes of nudity. And I remember.
Speaker 4: Having to navigate that behavior amongst audiences, you know, the
Speaker 4: whistles that would have and sometimes when Jesse would walk
Speaker 4: out even fully clothed, like just on the anticipation like
Speaker 4: what's coming, and that was that was always really really rough,
Speaker 4: and I was I don't know if I ever handled
Speaker 4: it super well. I would usually like shoot really evil
Speaker 4: looks towards those parts of the audience, but I do, Uh,
Speaker 4: you know, I've had many mishaps on stage that have
Speaker 4: have nothing to do with with misbehaving audiences, are completely
Speaker 4: my own faults.
Speaker 1: Right, Well, that's the fun of it, Yeah, in the
Speaker 1: weird way as as you know, I assume as the performer, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because each night is not going to be the same, right,
Speaker 1: and so something can go wrong, something cannot be where
Speaker 1: it's supposed to be, someone can forget the line, you
Speaker 1: can trip, you can fall, and you sort of have
Speaker 1: to figure out how to navigate this and not have
Speaker 1: necessarily the audience be sol away.
Speaker 4: Right, right, Well, nothing's worse than when you completely go
Speaker 4: up and you don't know what's next, and there's a
Speaker 4: whole lot of God was wondering if beat or not.
Speaker 4: It's it's awful that hasn't happened to me a lot,
Speaker 4: Like personally, I'm gonna this is gonna make me like
Speaker 4: I'm gonna sound like I'm like really trying to I'm
Speaker 4: not the problems, you know what I'm saying. But there
Speaker 4: was a moment and Take Me Out. Take Me Out
Speaker 4: was Jesse Williams first Broadway show, and he was unbelievable
Speaker 4: in it, incredible, and he had such an ease on stage.
Speaker 4: I was like, how is this possible? Like how are
Speaker 4: you this comfortable on your first Broadway outing? But there
Speaker 4: were sometimes where he was so relaxed he really did
Speaker 4: forget what was next.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: And there's a tradition on Broadway where they record for
Speaker 4: the archives of LINC considered archives a lot of these
Speaker 4: performances and they're not available for public concention. You have
Speaker 4: to like have a reason to see them. You have
Speaker 4: to go to the library, you have to watch them
Speaker 4: in a cubicle, but they a lot of these shows
Speaker 4: are archive. You can watch incredible performances. I have lin
Speaker 4: considered library. So we who had the honor of having
Speaker 4: our show recorded for Lincoln. That's great, that's very very exciting.
Speaker 3: And Jesse of.
Speaker 4: Course was, you know, not too worried about it, and
Speaker 4: like there's nudity involved in this as well, and like
Speaker 4: you know that was all gonna be recorded, and like
Speaker 4: they knew that they would, everyone would be protected and
Speaker 4: the stuff and not leak. And anyway, he was walking
Speaker 4: to the theater and next door at the Saint James,
Speaker 4: Bradley Cooper was recording, was working on Maestro. They were
Speaker 4: doing scene scenes from Mestre at the Saint James Theater.
Speaker 4: So there were massive, you know, film trucks outside basically
Speaker 4: sharing the street with Vice. And so Jesse's walking down
Speaker 4: the street to our stage door and seeing all these
Speaker 4: like huge film trucks and he's from the world of
Speaker 4: Hollywood and straighten out of me and he's like he
Speaker 4: knows what a film truck looks like, the trailers and stuff,
Speaker 4: and he's like, this is a way bigger deal recording
Speaker 4: this thing for Lincoln set up, And I thought he
Speaker 4: didn't know that Bradley Cooper was next door doing my struck.
Speaker 4: So we came in already like freaking out, like what
Speaker 4: is happening here? So you put him at ease, like
Speaker 4: that's not actually for us, this like tiny little band
Speaker 4: is for us.
Speaker 3: That's all you know, someone else.
Speaker 4: But we could do a big scene between Jesse and
Speaker 4: I and Jesse completely goes up and he thinks I'm
Speaker 4: upset with him because he assumed that I'm annoyed because
Speaker 4: of we're recording this for you know.
Speaker 3: The archives.
Speaker 4: Sure here he is sort of like his mind goes everywhere,
Speaker 4: but like what the next line is. It's like, oh god,
Speaker 4: Jesse epsot with me, this is the recording that's gonna
Speaker 4: be the library in the middle of a scene and
Speaker 4: he's just not saying anything. He's just tail spinning right,
Speaker 4: and somehow we get back on. But it was a
Speaker 4: it was like a good forty five seconds of just
Speaker 4: pure terror for.
Speaker 3: Both of us.
Speaker 1: Feel like forever, forever, forever. Do you sometimes then have
Speaker 1: to sort of say, like give the hint, like say
Speaker 1: something that's not written to sort of hopefully trigger Bruce.
Speaker 4: I went so far to my body, I don't remember
Speaker 4: what happened. I was like also like watching myself from
Speaker 4: the ceiling. I was like, what are we doing?
Speaker 3: What are we doing? No one's talking, No one's talking.
Speaker 4: And I think we both kind of like repeated lines
Speaker 4: a few times, like said things that we'd already said,
Speaker 4: sort of time to.
Speaker 3: Fill the space, and and.
Speaker 4: Jess was like rubbing his head and like, you know,
Speaker 4: it was like it was a lot of there was
Speaker 4: a lot of It was like a.
Speaker 1: Really long I bet that's nerve wrecking. That's certainly nerve wrecking.
Speaker 1: And it's you know, my feeling is from an audience member,
Speaker 1: like the decorum that people come now, but all over life,
Speaker 1: so it's not just theater, but like how you dress.
Speaker 1: And Matthew Broderck always says this, like when you go
Speaker 1: to the theater, like who were a tie? Yeah, Like
Speaker 1: he has a very specific feeling about people that don't
Speaker 1: dress to go to the theatre. You know, it's right,
Speaker 1: and I get it, Yeah, totally, No, for sure, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you're going out.
Speaker 4: I have a funny sort of Matthew though, it's like
Speaker 4: kind of that it's gonna be a little counterintuitive to.
Speaker 3: What he just said. Okay, Oh, I was at his very.
Speaker 4: First performance in New York of Plaza Suite and Matthew and.
Speaker 3: I our buddies. We actually work out at the same
Speaker 3: gym sometimes we train together.
Speaker 1: Love him left him so much. I mean, there's nobody like.
Speaker 3: Hi, there's nothing.
Speaker 4: So, you know, he's on the stage with his wife,
Speaker 4: the incredible Sara Juska Parker. They're in the scene and
Speaker 4: I notice Sarah looking down at his wrist, and the
Speaker 4: Plaza Suite takes place in nineteen forties, you know, at
Speaker 4: the Plaza Hotel. Matthew Broderick is wearing his Apple Watch
Speaker 4: on stage and then it starts chiming no alerts on stage,
Speaker 4: so she's just like, are you I could tell like,
Speaker 4: She's like, are you kidding me?
Speaker 3: Right now?
Speaker 4: He very quietly sort of takes off the watch and
Speaker 4: puts it into his you know, nineteen forties briefcase and
Speaker 4: just leaves. He can't leave the stage to them on stage,
Speaker 4: but I was like, I laughed so hard, like you
Speaker 4: were incredibly unprofessional that so he can't be exclaining too
Speaker 4: much about people not dressing right, you know what, He's
Speaker 4: wearing his Apple watch on stage for a sold out
Speaker 4: performance Applausea.
Speaker 6: Suite, Jesse, you end up being on one of the
Speaker 6: most successful sitcoms and everyone is next level in this
Speaker 6: and that clearly the chemistry and the just connection is
Speaker 6: so real.
Speaker 1: How did that jump happen? And when did you kind
Speaker 1: of guys realize, oh shit, we're in thing big here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's you know, I never anticipated I mean, here
Speaker 4: we have. You've heard me talk so much about theater,
Speaker 4: and truly that's where I thought my career was going
Speaker 4: to stay. And I never anticipated moving to Los Angeles,
Speaker 4: never anticipated doing a sitcom. But I did have the
Speaker 4: opportunity to to be a part of a show called
Speaker 4: The Class pretty early on, and it was an incredible
Speaker 4: company of people, starting Jason Ritter, Lizzie Kaplan, John Burnenthal
Speaker 4: who just went an enmy for the Bear, had some
Speaker 4: incredible theater talent, Julie Houlston, Sam.
Speaker 3: Harris, and I.
Speaker 4: It was a great show, and I moved to LA
Speaker 4: to do that and it was canceled after a year,
Speaker 4: and I was sort of that place where I was
Speaker 4: deciding whether or not it was just going to move
Speaker 4: back to New York and you know, pick up where
Speaker 4: I left off with theater and do what I knew best,
Speaker 4: or if I was going to stick it out for
Speaker 4: a little while here and just sort of see what else.
Speaker 3: Might come up.
Speaker 4: And then the writers strike happened, the rider strike previous
Speaker 4: to the last one we had, and it shut down
Speaker 4: the industry just like this last one did.
Speaker 3: And I sort of felt like I needed to see.
Speaker 4: It through and I ended up booking a job shortly
Speaker 4: after the strike was resolved. But it was kind of
Speaker 4: in a moment of panic, and it was I think
Speaker 4: a lot of people were scrambling for work just because
Speaker 4: everyone needed to do something to take money.
Speaker 3: And the show I ended up doing.
Speaker 4: It was problematic because I think, first of all, it
Speaker 4: was written and created by one of my dear friends,
Speaker 4: Abraham Higabotham, who also was a writer on Modern Family,
Speaker 4: but he was a first time show runner, and I think,
Speaker 4: you know, he didn't have the ability to sort of
Speaker 4: take charge of what he wanted the show to be,
Speaker 4: and it kind of just disintegrated and it ended up
Speaker 4: being the first show canceled that year. And so I
Speaker 4: was really at a place where I was like, I
Speaker 4: think my tail has been doing my legs, like it's
Speaker 4: time to go back. It's time to go back to
Speaker 4: New York. And then the script from Modern Family came
Speaker 4: to me, and I was my agent, knew I wanted
Speaker 4: to move back to New York, and like, you know,
Speaker 4: you probably don't even want to audition for this, knowing
Speaker 4: you want to go back to New York, but just
Speaker 4: take a look at it. And I remember reading it
Speaker 4: on my like first generation iPhone in a coffee shop
Speaker 4: and falling in love with it and really seeing opportunity
Speaker 4: for to be a pop culture touchstone for, you know,
Speaker 4: the fight for marriage equality, which we were in the
Speaker 4: in the depths up. I thought, these are two incredibly
Speaker 4: well drawn characters. I think that this could really resonate,
Speaker 4: this could make this could make change. It felt unlike
Speaker 4: anything I'd ever read before, because it was obviously incredibly
Speaker 4: hilarious but grounded in so much.
Speaker 3: I just could tell how much how much there was
Speaker 3: to mind.
Speaker 4: From these characters, right, you know, I played and read
Speaker 4: many different gay roles, and it just felt like this
Speaker 4: was really going so much deeper under the surface than
Speaker 4: anything else IDE ever read for, or auditioned for or played.
Speaker 4: And so yeah, I went into that process obviously deeply
Speaker 4: wanting it, but kind of also feeling like I was
Speaker 4: so incredibly right for it. I wasn't it wasn't that
Speaker 4: a nice feel it was it was also I think
Speaker 4: because I felt like I was I was like, listen,
Speaker 4: if this doesn't work out, I'm just going to go
Speaker 4: back to New York and do theater. Like I really
Speaker 4: have a great backup plan. I'm I feel like I'll
Speaker 4: be welcome back with open arms. And so I just
Speaker 4: I didn't feel a ton of pressure around the whole experience,
Speaker 4: which is incredible because it's the experience that changed my
Speaker 4: entire career.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the process is so now you're going to audition.
Speaker 1: Are you auditioning with different other actors to see what
Speaker 1: the couple will look like a little bit? And yeah,
Speaker 1: what was that like? And then when did you know?
Speaker 3: You?
Speaker 1: Guys hit? I mean the relationship between the two of you, Yeah,
Speaker 1: is amazing. And you're also playing the less sort of
Speaker 1: flame boying and he's straight and he's playing the more.
Speaker 4: It's like, you know, yeah, how well, ironically, they would
Speaker 4: only want to see me for Cam, which was the
Speaker 4: part that Eric Ston Street ended up playing. They didn't
Speaker 4: want to see me for Mitchell, which is the well
Speaker 4: I did a play, right, So I went in an
Speaker 4: audition for Cam, but I read it as if I
Speaker 4: was from the viewpoint of Mitchell, so I think the
Speaker 4: casting within moments they realized, oh, he's in for the
Speaker 4: wrong part. Even though I told him I was coming
Speaker 4: in for the wrong part, right, they still made me
Speaker 4: read for Cam and so I auditioned again for Mitchell.
Speaker 4: And after that it happened very quickly. I was I
Speaker 4: auditioned for Mitchell in front of the creators. I didn't
Speaker 4: have to have a pre screen or anything. And right
Speaker 4: after that, I tested for the network and I booked it.
Speaker 4: So I was one of I think I was the
Speaker 4: first cast member nailed down. Sophia Aagara had a development
Speaker 4: deal with ABC and Fox, so she was already being
Speaker 4: talked about for the role of Gloria. They were tailoring
Speaker 4: the role for her. But beyond that, I was the
Speaker 4: first person that they knocked down. So because I was
Speaker 4: cast as part of this couple, I then got to
Speaker 4: do chemistry reads with so many different people and I
Speaker 4: auditioned for different cams. And it's interesting because it was
Speaker 4: the role I initially went in for, so I knew
Speaker 4: I knew the vantage point of like, you know what
Speaker 4: the material he was reading as well very well, but
Speaker 4: everyone find Josh Gadd auditioned fl it to actually some
Speaker 4: people who ended up being our friends in the show,
Speaker 4: like they Audi reported it. Initially, I remember reading with
Speaker 4: just you know, so many different sizes and types and gay, straight, black, white,
Speaker 4: and something about when Eric Snunzer came in it just
Speaker 4: felt I don't know, it was we had immediate chemistry
Speaker 4: with him.
Speaker 3: I really enjoyed his take.
Speaker 4: It was incredibly I don't know, it was so big
Speaker 4: but yet grounded at the same time. Later I found
Speaker 4: out here he was basing it off of his mother,
Speaker 4: and so it's someone that he knows so well. So
Speaker 4: even though he was completely flamboyant and was based in
Speaker 4: this like real person, it deeply cares for and it
Speaker 4: just I don't know, it just it just really clicked
Speaker 4: and it felt. It felt really it felt really right.
Speaker 4: You know, Eric and I always talk about, like if
Speaker 4: we were they were passing the show today, if he
Speaker 4: would have a shot at that role because he is
Speaker 4: a straight man.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I don't know if he would. I
Speaker 3: don't know if he would.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I also can't imagine that couple with anyone else other
Speaker 4: than him.
Speaker 1: How do you feel about that? I'm very Yeah, I
Speaker 1: feel like we can go back at a time and
Speaker 1: you kind of sounds like you came as an actor
Speaker 1: pursue a career when you didn't have to hide being gay.
Speaker 1: You could be gay and walk into the room. You
Speaker 1: go back ten years and I know people that we
Speaker 1: both know that were you know, you couldn't And so
Speaker 1: you go to Milk and you have Champagne playing Harvey Milk, right,
Speaker 1: So you know, Brian, my husband, would say the movie
Speaker 1: wouldn't have gotten made unless you had a movie star
Speaker 1: right like Sean making it. Now, eventually you have to
Speaker 1: get to the place where an openly gay actor gets
Speaker 1: the part or can be a contended part. And then
Speaker 1: you have now people like yourself and people like Matt Boehmer.
Speaker 1: You know, someone like Matt who would never have worked
Speaker 1: if he was an openly gay man because of the
Speaker 1: nature of the roles that he played exactly. I would
Speaker 1: like to think he would be cast today. I would
Speaker 1: like to think that we're getting to a place where
Speaker 1: we want equal distribution, but we also want the best
Speaker 1: person in the role.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, it's it's tricky, and I you know,
Speaker 4: every time I think about this, I don't fully know
Speaker 4: if I have all the right answers, but I mean, listen,
Speaker 4: I always, I always just reflect back upon myself. I mean,
Speaker 4: because my point of view is really the only place
Speaker 4: I can talk about this from.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: I am an actor, and I want the opportunity to
Speaker 4: play roles that are not just gaying. I want to
Speaker 4: play straight part and I have played straight parts. I've played,
Speaker 4: I've played. I have played everything from like a twelve
Speaker 4: year old autistic kid and spelling bee to you know,
Speaker 4: a romantic interest in the class to half of a
Speaker 4: gay couple in modern family.
Speaker 3: I just got to do you know.
Speaker 4: I got to play Truman, Capodi and a reading of
Speaker 4: True you know, just just recently. I love the challenge
Speaker 4: of playing different parts. So to say only gay actors
Speaker 4: should play gay roles sort of kind of contradicts how
Speaker 4: I want people to.
Speaker 3: Look at me.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: I do think that, and I we've gotten better.
Speaker 4: I think we are farther to go, But I think
Speaker 4: it's a lot about representation and having opportunity.
Speaker 3: To at least cast people who have that lived experience.
Speaker 1: I agree.
Speaker 3: I think specifically we have a really long way to go.
Speaker 4: All that we are getting better with a representative representation
Speaker 4: of transactors.
Speaker 3: Yes, I'm I'm so proud.
Speaker 4: Of my friend Jinx Monsoon who is now playing a
Speaker 4: lot of CIS roles on She's playing Mamma Morton in Chicago,
Speaker 4: she played Audrey and Little Shop of Horrors. Like that
Speaker 4: seems like that's movement forward, right, But she's not a
Speaker 4: CIS woman, right. So it's like, I do think we
Speaker 4: have to remind ourselves that we are all actors. We
Speaker 4: should be given opportunities that are not just who we are,
Speaker 4: not the mold of who we are. But also we
Speaker 4: have to make sure that those opportunities are actually indeed
Speaker 4: being given, yes, and that people are being considered.
Speaker 1: Right, And I think, I mean, so it is. It
Speaker 1: is a very it's still it's complicated. It is. There's
Speaker 1: a business piece to it, if you sit on one
Speaker 1: side of the room, there's an artistry piece to it.
Speaker 1: There's just a humanity piece. And I think you're right.
Speaker 1: You want to play roles. You're an actor, that's your feeling.
Speaker 4: I also think about when they're talking about people who
Speaker 4: with some movies, I think about someone like gab Rasadabe
Speaker 4: who no one knew who she was and she comes
Speaker 4: out in this movie that absolutely blows people away. Precious,
Speaker 4: and she's incredible in it. She has an Oscar nomination.
Speaker 4: She was she had no career before that beyond like,
Speaker 4: why can't these opportunities be given to people who are
Speaker 4: part of the LGBTQ community.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like we don't have to know who everyone is.
Speaker 7: Yeah, welcome back to Table for two. Since his time
Speaker 7: on Modern Family, Jesse Tyler Ferguson has started a podcast,
Speaker 7: Dinner Zombie, acted in the play Take Me Out, and
Speaker 7: just released a short documentary called It's Okay about the
Speaker 7: recent drag bands in the United States.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's about a Drag Story Hour.
Speaker 4: The director is David France, who directed How to Survive
Speaker 4: a Plague about the AIDS crisis, and also I worked
Speaker 4: with him on a documentary called Welcome to Chechenie about
Speaker 4: the gay purge and Checchnia, and he came to us
Speaker 4: with this idea of doing something about Drag Story Hour
Speaker 4: because it's such a hot button topic.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: You know, there were people armed protesters outside of schools
Speaker 4: where these Drag Story Hours are being held. So we
Speaker 4: have found some kids who had never been to a
Speaker 4: drag Story out before, and we followed them and recorded
Speaker 4: their experience, and it's it's really field reporting. I mean,
Speaker 4: it's it's just we watch what happens with them. And
Speaker 4: these two brothers who we follow have both very kind
Speaker 4: of different experiences with it. The younger one is extremely
Speaker 4: open to it. The older one is a little resistant
Speaker 4: and like, what's happening? What it was saying? We also,
Speaker 4: you probably didn't even notice it. It's something I love
Speaker 4: that David did is he put microphone vests on these
Speaker 4: kids so we could hear their heartbeat and their breathing.
Speaker 4: And that's sort of what is underlaid with the film
Speaker 4: because you do hear their heart, you hear them breathing,
Speaker 4: and it's very intimate this film. Yes it is, and
Speaker 4: uh it's we really hear what's happening to them inside
Speaker 4: their bodies as well. But what I love about the
Speaker 4: film is that the book that Shalida the drag Queen
Speaker 4: who is doing the drag Quen story hours reading, is
Speaker 4: a book that I actually read to my kids, and
Speaker 4: it's just about different types of families.
Speaker 1: What's the book.
Speaker 4: The book is called It's Okay to Be Different, and
Speaker 4: it talks about everyone from like you know, some people
Speaker 4: have all their teeth and some people don't like it's
Speaker 4: all different types of Some people have two mommies, some
Speaker 4: people have one mom, some people have two dads. Some
Speaker 4: people you know, are raised by their grandparents. And it's
Speaker 4: happens to be a book that's.
Speaker 3: That's now being banned in schools, and it's it's just like,
Speaker 3: what a part what about this book is causing so
Speaker 3: much fear in people?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: And so that that happens to be the book that
Speaker 3: she leads reading.
Speaker 4: So you hear her list reading this book, and you
Speaker 4: see these kids enraptured and engrossed and growing and learning
Speaker 4: as they're experiencing this thing. And for them it's like
Speaker 4: not even a man and address reading the book. It's
Speaker 4: like this fabulous princess with sparkles on reading this dress
Speaker 4: reading this book.
Speaker 1: Rather and uh.
Speaker 4: The documentary is very very simple and very quite by
Speaker 4: the way, feel like didn't see the whole Thing's right,
Speaker 4: nothing big happens, And that's what I love about it.
Speaker 8: It's like, it's okay, is there truth to the rumor
Speaker 8: of a little reunion.
Speaker 3: On Modern Family?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 3: I don't think so.
Speaker 1: It's damn.
Speaker 4: I mean, there was you know that I've talked about
Speaker 4: this before, but there was a spinoff written for me
Speaker 4: and Eric.
Speaker 1: Well, I was gonna have to say, like, where's the
Speaker 1: road up? Yea, you know the fell, where's the Fonds?
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean.
Speaker 4: There's a piece of me that sort of feels like,
Speaker 4: are we the right characters right now to you know,
Speaker 4: speaking of opening the doors for other people, letting, you know,
Speaker 4: letting other people sort of start telling me stories people
Speaker 4: make with a bit more diversity or lived experience.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 4: I just don't know if Mitch and Cam or like
Speaker 4: the characters that necessarily need to be listen, I would
Speaker 4: love to explore more. I would love to do something
Speaker 4: with the entire cast. Yeah, I've been begging people to
Speaker 4: put something together. So I don't think it's for lack
Speaker 4: of interest from the cast.
Speaker 1: I think that that is that's the show, and this
Speaker 1: is how I okay telling you. Then you have your neighbors,
Speaker 1: so like that's like you know the couple that is
Speaker 1: you know conservative, you know, but yet you know, then
Speaker 1: you have like, uh, you know, you're kind of it's
Speaker 1: like Maud, you know, you have all these different things,
Speaker 1: but and there's always some sort of message that's not
Speaker 1: like hit over the head, but you go, oh, like yeah,
Speaker 1: and then you have people like Sophia like coming to
Speaker 1: visit because she's in town. Course there's like fun stuff
Speaker 1: to do with it. Absolutely, I mean the repartee and
Speaker 1: and and you're you know, your kid grew up and
Speaker 1: so she's getting older and maybe there's stuff there for sure.
Speaker 4: No, I mean we the the spin off was basically
Speaker 4: based in them moving out of town to a farm. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and it is sort of like, you know, a little
Speaker 4: bit of green Acres, a little bit you know, brilliant,
Speaker 4: and especially Mitch, she's like it really is not good
Speaker 4: at this when.
Speaker 1: He was rapped with the thing on the boat yea,
Speaker 1: yea yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4: So I mean it had a lot of a lot
Speaker 4: of potential. And yeah, I think you know, if there's
Speaker 4: probably one thing. I mean, Modern Family was about a family.
Speaker 4: So it's like we were mostly white. Yeah, Sophia and
Speaker 4: en Rico obviously and and Lily are exceptions. But I
Speaker 4: think you know that was a criticism that we got
Speaker 4: a lot is that it was a very white show,
Speaker 4: which you know, we weren't entirely white, we were, but
Speaker 4: the dumpy Pritchet clam was pretty white. But I think
Speaker 4: even in the opportunities to cast other roles in Michigan
Speaker 4: camps where they know, they were really looking toward, you know,
Speaker 4: being extremely more you know, way more diverse, And yeah,
Speaker 4: I think that's something that everyone should be conscious about
Speaker 4: right now.
Speaker 3: Versity.
Speaker 1: Yes, I agree. I think that show has the capability
Speaker 1: of having a lot of diversity in the neighborhood on
Speaker 1: the farm and I love.
Speaker 3: It, and diversity with politics too.
Speaker 1: So yeah, anything on the horizon that a little inside
Speaker 1: skinny table for two lunch.
Speaker 3: I just did.
Speaker 4: I was just mentioning this Truman Capote thing I did.
Speaker 4: I did this reading of it in Tangier.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you kept having Morocco. That's what I'm meant to say, Like,
Speaker 1: what were you doing there?
Speaker 4: I was doing this reading of True, which is a
Speaker 4: play about Trim Capote. It's a one one man show
Speaker 4: and I did it with Rob Ashford and Tangier to
Speaker 4: benefit local chair he wanted to been being a local
Speaker 4: orphanage and we raised a lot of money.
Speaker 3: Was really incredible, but the experience was so good. Yeah,
Speaker 3: play together.
Speaker 4: I'm sort of now wondering if that's something that I
Speaker 4: should maybe be looking at you know.
Speaker 1: Yes, what a great character.
Speaker 3: Oh, when I'm going to do Shakespeare the Park next summer. Oh,
Speaker 3: you are going back.
Speaker 1: To the delacort Okay, yes, just you know that is
Speaker 1: my favorite thing in the world and my favorite I'd
Speaker 1: look forward to it every year. So what are you
Speaker 1: going to do now?
Speaker 4: The Delacorte Theater has been closed this past summer because
Speaker 4: there's renovation. So Oscar used to the artistic director of
Speaker 4: the Public Heada really wants to open it back up
Speaker 4: with a big bang.
Speaker 3: So he's chosen Twelfth Night, which is a great play.
Speaker 1: Great I saw that years ago.
Speaker 3: Yes, with Anne Hathaway.
Speaker 1: Maybe I almost want to say Michelle Fife for Bettle
Speaker 1: maybe a different one that was like an eighty nine.
Speaker 4: Right, Well he attached Thus far, it's very exciting myself,
Speaker 4: the pitt in Neango, Sandra Oh and Peter dinklih God.
Speaker 4: So that's all I know of so far that I've
Speaker 4: committed to it. But that's what I'm doing next time.
Speaker 4: It's the next summer summer of twenty twenty five. Yeah,
Speaker 4: that's a big you'll see me there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's gonna be a good one.
Speaker 1: Well, this has been a true joy. Thank you for
Speaker 1: having Jesse Tyler Ferguson for having lunch with me today here.
Speaker 1: I mean just enjoy our beautiful SoCal day and I
Speaker 1: dig you digo. Thank you everyone for pulling up a shair.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you for pulling up a chair.
Speaker 5: I love our lunches and never forget the romance of
Speaker 5: a meal. If you enjoy the show, please tell a
Speaker 5: friend and rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. Table
Speaker 5: for two with Bruce Bosi is produced by iHeartRadio seven
Speaker 5: three seven Park and Airmail. Our executive producers are Bruce
Speaker 5: Bosi and Nathan King. Our supervising producer is Dylan Fagan.
Speaker 2: Our editors are Vincent to Johnny and Cas B.
Speaker 1: Bias.
Speaker 2: Table for two is researched and written by Jack Sullivan.
Speaker 2: Our sound engineers are Jo B. Klein, Jess Krainich, Evan Taylor,
Speaker 2: and Jesse Funn. Our music supervisor is Randall Poster. Our
Speaker 2: talent booking is done by Jane Sarkin. Table for two
Speaker 2: Social media manager is Gracie Wiener. Special thanks to Amy Sugarman.
Speaker 1: Uni Scherer, Kevin Yvane, Bobby Bauer, and Alison Kanter Graber.
Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.