We've been loving the new comedy Modern Family this season, with its eclectic mix of characters and clever intercutting. But while we love all the family members (well, almost everyone) we're really surprised at how much we crack up at Ty Burrell, who plays Phil Dunphy. He's had some trouble landing successful, long-running sitcoms in the past (some might even say he's been a bit of a showkiller), but here he's pitch-perfect as the dopey, tech-obsessed dad. We got a chance to talk to Burrell on the phone recently to find out how he's adapting to being on a hit show.
TWoP: Are you surprised by the positive reaction to this show?
Burrell: Yeah, I am, actually. I think maybe I developed sort of a thick skin or maybe even a cynicism about shows, and about how quality doesn't necessarily mean viewership. So I was very jumpy. I think we all were really excited about the script and we were all having a blast working together. I just knew from the pilot that to have it go the way that it's gone has just been the most bizarre pleasant surprise.
TWoP: Yeah, you've had bad luck on a couple TV shows. This one seems poised for a long run.
Burrell: Yeah, I've been lucky. I just feel very, very lucky.
TWoP: It seems like such a great cast. What's it like working on the set with all these different personalities?
Burrell: It's incredible, actually. It's funny, I've come to realize that every show says that they love working together, but at ours, we have a real, authentic affection for each other, and we are an odd little family off-camera. We just don't have a bad egg on set, and that's counting the writing staff and the directors. We've gotten really, really lucky as far as people just being really game; everybody's just kind of up for it, whatever it is. In the past, I feel like the main issue comes from just the basic resistance. If somebody is ever going to be a problem on set -- and that's not just necessarily the actors, it can really be anybody who's putting up resistance to the process -- and really, there's just nobody on set who's doing anything other than saying "yes" to whatever it is.
TWoP: How is it to suddenly have this big TV family with all these kids? Is working with them challenging? They seem like good actors.
Burrell: Oh, they're great actors. I think it's one of those rare shows where the kids carry scenes on their own. I don't know how often that happens. And they're all twice as experienced as we are. That's the most hilarious thing about kid actors; most of them started before they had any consciousness, and now they walk around telling you all the union rules, giving you sage and wise advice.
TWoP: Now you, specifically, have been getting a lot of buzz for your role. Is it nice to be the one getting a lot of attention?
Burrell: I don't know that I am getting more attention. I feel like we're pretty straight across the board. I definitely feel really grateful to play this part. It's invigorating to play because he's so positive. It gives me a tremendous amount of joy, and I hope that some of that comes across, because it's a joyful experience.
TWoP: Do you think you have a lot in common with Phil?
Burrell: When we first started, I really think I did have a lot in common with Phil. But the more I play Phil, the more I realize I'm getting a huge break from my neurotic brain by playing Phil. Recently, I've been equating Phil's brain to those noise machines you buy for your bedside-- there's a babbling brook, white noise, and wind in the trees. That's essentially Phil's noggin; It's just really peaceful and a simple respite from the bees buzzing in my head. That's, in part, why it's so fun to play him; He's turning out to be a lot more different than I am, which I'm actually grateful for. He is wonderfully reckless. I love how little he knows about the mess that he's leaving behind him. He's just super-positive, very happy, and literally, in that Buster Keaton way, things are just missing his head and landing right behind him, and somebody else is generally cleaning them up.
TWoP: And you have the great facial expressions to pull this off. I think that's what makes your character so appealing. Especially in the episode when he discovered his high school friend had a crush on him. The look on your face was perfect.
Burrell: [Laughs.] Well, I appreciate that. That one was particularly fun to do. I just really love getting to do the physical stuff. And Judy [Greer] and I had done a play together in New York a few years ago, so we already have had a blast performing together, so that was just really a joy.
TWoP: So, aside from Phil, do you have a favorite character on the show?
Burrell: At the moment, I'm starting to become more appreciative of my entire family. I love everybody, obviously, on the whole set, but when you work everyday with people, you really start to appreciate the work that they do, starting with Julie [Bowen], who's just totally game for anything. She's the most awesome of all the awesomeness that ever lived. And the kids! I think I'm really starting to -- as is the viewing audience -- everybody's sort of getting, by virtue of 24 episodes, a deeper look at Sarah, Ariel and Nolan. The stuff I've been doing with Nolan has been just a blast, kind of finding the parallels between the two of us.
TWoP: I hope he has a good stunt person, because he seems like he's always getting into trouble.
Burrell: [Laughs.] I know, it's so good. He's another great example of just being totally up for whatever it is.
TWoP: Since your immediate family's shot separately from all the other characters most of the time, do you know what's going on in the rest of the show?
Burrell: To a degree. It's kind of cool in that, in some point of the episode, we're usually with some member of the family and occasionally the whole family. But also, it's cool when we're not spending a ton of time with the family. We're all at the same table read, but often times, when we get to watching the episode, I get to just watch Mitch/Cam and Jay/Gloria with the rest of America. And I'm a just huge fan of those two families.
TWoP: Now, the Emmys are coming up. Are you hopeful you're going to get nominated?
Burrell: You know, I'm mainly just glad to be on a show that's staying on the air. It may sound like setting the bar low, but considering my personal experience on TV and viewing the landscape, I'm just really focused on keeping the show as good as we all can, and just enjoying the joy of making the show hopefully for a long time. And if the show gets nominated, that would be a wonderful bonus. But it truly is just a bonus.
TWoP: You're not staying up sleepless nights wondering what you're going to submit or anything?
Burrell: No, no. I'm not. I'm really thrilled to be on the show.
TWoP: Well, I think it'll be on for a while. It's the show that whenever you ask anybody what they're watching, they're like, "Oh, I love Modern Family!" It seems to have a good cross-section, a big demographic, from moms to teens.
Burrell: That's been the greatest feedback that any of us have gotten. When you pass a whole family on the street and they say they all watch it together. Occasionally, you'll even have three generations saying it. That's just been amazing. I would love if that continues to grow, that broad fanbase.
TWoP: So, an upcoming episode has you going to Hawaii. Are there any weird Tiki necklaces or giant spiders a la The Brady Bunch that come up?
Burrell: No, but it's funny, because that was my reference point, too. I was like, "Well, if we're going to Hawaii, this has got to be a Brady Bunch sort of deal." But it's much less '70s than that. Because it's a single-camera show, it's just another episode that happens to take place in Hawaii. I think we set this precedent, that I guess a lot of other single-camera shows have, that when we say we're going to do something, the audience really gets to see it. We're not doing that thing that used to happen in the '70s and '80s, and it still happens on multi-camera shows, where we would just come back through the front door with Hawaiian stuff on.
TWoP: With your leis and your luggage.
Burrell: Right, exactly, and just describe it to people. So far, on the show, if we say we're going to a basketball game or to Manny's fencing -- we go to an NBA game, even, in this season, which we went to the actual NBA game -- that was a big factor. Actually, it ended up being a big factor, because they hadn't written the Hawaiian episode when they wrote the airport episode. And after the airport episode, basically the writing staff was like, "You know what, people are going to wonder about this trip and why we're not on this trip." It's not like an old-fashioned show that way. But it's basically just another episode that happens to take place in a hotel in Hawaii.
TWoP: Are you surfing at all in the episode?
Burrell: No. I'm not in the water.
TWoP: Hmm, for some reason I just pictured you and Luke surfing together.
Burrell: Oh, that would've been good! We gotta go back!
TWoP: The Top Chef: Masters came to cook for your show. How was that? Are you a foodie?
Burrell: You know, I used to think I was a foodie, and then my wife went to culinary school and basically explained to me that I was just a guy that likes to eat. I really don't know as much about food as I thought, but I really enjoyed doing that. It was an incredible meal they made for us and the entire crew-- the dinner was for two hundred. It was just incredible, the food was wonderful, and everybody was just really great. It was fun.
TWoP: Anything else you can tease about the rest of the season? Have you finished filming yet?
Burrell: We have finished. In an upcoming episode, we go to an NBA game and, as usual, Phil is a bull in a china closet. I won't give much more away than that. But it was an incredible experience out at the Staples Center in L.A.
TWoP: Is the end a big cliffhanger?
Burrell: No, luckily. I'm really glad that we're not that kind of a show; there are no pesky, narrative through-lines. It's just the joy of simpleness week to week. I would hate that burden of having to take it too literally.
TWoP: So you've had some great guest stars on the show already. Is there any dream person you'd love to have come on?
Burrell: I'm a huge Steve Martin worshiper. If that could ever work out, my mind would be blown. He doesn't really do that sort of thing, so I can't imagine it would ever happen, but that would be great.
TWoP: What do you tune in to, TV-wise, when you're not working?
Burrell: I'm a big fan of Mad Men. And I watch Saturday Night Live religiously, I have since I was a little boy. I watch it basically like one of my favorite sports teams. It's like, I'm a Mets fan, a Rams fan, a Portland Trailblazers fan, and a Saturday Night Live fan.
TWoP: So it would be a dream of hosting that show one day?
Burrell: Oh, yeah, that would be incredible.
TWoP: What are you working on during your hiatus? Are you just taking time off?
Burrell: I'm working on a film called Butter. I'm actually in Louisiana right now, filming it. It's a really brilliant script by a writer called Jason Micallef about butter carving in the Midwest, and a power struggle over the throne of champion. I'm playing who, in all of our minds, is the world champion, but it really is just in Iowa. And Jennifer Garner is playing my wife and she really wants the crown, and she ends up in a power-struggle with wonderful young actress, Yara [Shahidi], who is playing this prodigy, really gifted butter sculptor. It's awesome.
TWoP: How does one become a butter sculptor?
Burrell: You know, you stumble into it. I had a long conversation with the foremost food sculptor in America about that very thing. And he was a sculptor, he went to art school and truly stumbled into some sort of food carving and realized he could actually make a living doing it. Pretty soon, he was going state fair to state fair. It was pretty great.
Read our list of Brady Bunch plots we think the show should update.
See what Ed O'Neill had to say about the future of Modern Family and find out whom Fred Willard would pick to play Phil's mom..
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