After more than 15 years, Judy Greer is reflecting on her decision not to audition for Modern Family.
The actress recently noted that she “didn’t even want kids” at the time, so the opportunity to play mom Claire Dunphy (which ultimately went to Julie Bowen) on the ABC sitcom and become “America’s mom” wasn’t appealing to her.
“This was a time in my career when I was starting to [play moms],” she told Bowen’s co-star Jesse Tyler Ferguson on his Dinner’s On Me podcast.
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“It sounds so silly to say it out loud now, but I’ll be honest. In a movie, I would have a kid. And then there was this opportunity to audition where I would have three kids, one of them in high school,” added Greer. “And on a TV show… and you do have to think of these things in success, and obviously Modern Family was a huge success. In a movie, people kind of see it and then they forget. In a TV show, it’s just like, you’re a mom.”
Explaining that kids were “not even on the table for me,” in real life, Greer recalled, “I was like, ‘I think I’m not going to audition for it.’ I was really torn about it, but I ended up obviously not. Who knows if I would have even gotten it anyway, but I was just like, ‘I don’t know if I want to be America’s mom yet.’”
Greer said the role “felt so limiting compared to what I was doing already. And in addition to just the perception of who you are as an actor. It’s lifestyle too. I was like, well, I like traveling a lot, and I like doing all these movies, and I like going to all these places, and I like meeting all these people.
“I wasn’t ready for it, in an out of my career,” added Greer.
Meanwhile, Bowen recently reminisced about her audition on Andy Richter’s The Three Questions podcast, noting she thought she bombed because she “can’t tell a joke, I’m not funny.”
“I was testing for two pilots and I wanted Modern Family, but the other show, the character was pregnant,” recalled Bowen. “And I was like, ‘I’ve got a shot at that one.’ I’m never going to get Modern Family. You guys keep calling me in and staring at my big giant stomach. So I said, ‘I need the job.’ Like you need the job that’s going to pay the bills, that’s got legs.”
Created by Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan, Modern Family followed the extended Dunphy family, including patriarch Jay Pritchett (Ed O’Neill), his two grown kids Claire and Mitchell (Ferguson), as well as their spouses and kids.
The sitcom ran for 11 seasons from 2009 to 2020 on ABC, winning 22 Emmy Awards, including two Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series wins for Bowen.