Openly gay Modern Family co-star
Jesse Tyler Ferguson has called his on-screen boyfriend Eric
Stonestreet “gay for pay.”
Ferguson and Stonestreet are one of the
three couples featured in ABC's Wednesday night comedy Modern
Family. On the show, the two men are in a committed relationship
and raising their adopted daughter. Producers have hinted that the
dads might get a second child in the show's third season.
Stonestreet, who
last year won an Emmy Award for his portrayal of Cameron, is
openly straight, while co-star Ferguson, who plays Mitchell, is
openly gay.
During
a recent cabler Bravo's Inside the Actor's Studio,
Ferguson explained what he meant by “gay for pay.”
“He's straight in real life,”
Ferguson told host John Lipton, “and they pay him an x amount of
dollars to be gay. And wouldn't anybody?”
When Lipton asked, “Was there a time
when you were closeted and then came out?” Ferguson, in a reference
to this childhood, answered: “I was locking myself in my bedroom,
you know playing the soundtrack of Les Miserables, so ...”
“I get it,” Lipton responded.