Modern Family's Michell Pritchett, played by Jesse Tyler Ferguson, is one of the most popular gay characters in television history. But this popularity came with it's own struggles. Playing any queer character was extremely challenging until a few years ago, and for some shows, it still is.
Playing Mitchell, a gay married man with a Vietnamese baby, Lily in Modern Family, was not easy for Jesse Tyler Ferguson. He opened up about his challenges on the episode "Tom Daley – On learning to lose and being changed by fatherhood" of his podcast Dinner's on Me.
Jesse Tyler Ferguson on the struggles of playing a gay man in Modern Family
One of the many perils of playing a gay man is the pressure of playing the role 'correctly'. The queer community rightfully expects there to be a "correct" representation of the community, but one cannot please every one. While Ferguson was widely popular for his portrayal of Mitchell in Modern Family, he stated in the episode:
"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,"
He continued,
"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."
While it's okay to learn from criticisms and he did, one has to recognise that there isn't one definite way to be gay. Thus, while not everyone liked how he portrayed a gay man, Ferguson isn't necessarily at fault. But the actor does note that perhaps his portrayal did not resonate with everyone. He said,
"maybe I didn't represent their idea of what a gay relationship was, or a gay man was."
The other thing Ferguson noted was that he wasn't on the show to represent all gay men, because let's be honest, one person cannot possibly represent all facets of a community. He was representing only one character, one gay man and his life. Ferguson noted,
"I'm representing one person[...] I'm in charge of this one character."
While Ferguson pointed out the struggles of playing the character, on an earlier episode of Dinner's on Me, he had mentioned how he felt protected by the role. In the episode titled, "NICOLE BYER — coping with disappointment and how not to spread a loved one's ashes," Ferguson said,
"There was some weird superpower that I felt like I was being protected by this role that I was also playing,"
He continued,
"It kind of gave me this coat of armor, and I had this protection of being this character that people also loved,"
It is true that Mitchell was a much-loved character in Modern Family and still is, and perhaps the love somewhere made up for the criticism. Irrespective of how it helped him, it's good to know that the actor who was criticised for the way he represented gay men, somewhere felt protected by all the love he received on the other hand. Ferguson expressed:
"I don't know. It was really weird."
Irrespective of how good an actor is, it is not possible to please everyone and that's alright. What matters is that the role is played with authenticity. Jesse Tyler Ferguson did that when he played Mitchell, and thus the character remains a favourite even years after it first aired.
Modern Family is streaming on Hulu.
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