Jesse Tyler Ferguson: I Was the Puzzle Piece That Didn’t Fit

Mayim Bialik's Breakdown

Mayim Bialik

Mental Health, Society & Culture, Wellness, Health & Fitness, Comedy, Thebigbangtheory, Spirituality, Selfimprovement, Mentalhealth

4.7 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 May 2023

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family, Dinner’s On Me Podcast) discusses why Modern Family was a pop culture touchstone, being bullied as a child and typecast as an adult, and the importance of having well-rounded gay characters. Jesse reveals he used to have a crush on Mayim as a kid, he and Mayim discuss being on competing shows at the same time, and their shared friendship with Jim Parsons. He opens up about why he resonated with Modern Family’s premise and cast, the show’s fears about showing displays of affection between its gay characters, and meeting his husband at the start of the series. He reflects on getting arrested for shoplifting porn as a child, his awareness of his sexuality at a young age, why community theater and debate club were a positive outlet for him, and why winning a Tony award had a deep impact on him.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I was caught stealing gay porn when I was a teenager.
0:08.8	So I feel like I always felt like that was a pretty solid sign.
0:14.0	But like my parents, you know, were called and like they were shown the nature of the material
0:19.2	I was stealing.
0:20.7	So I sort of feel like guys.
0:22.5	Wait, wait, hold on one second.
0:24.8	Who found it?
0:26.6	School?
0:27.6	No, I'm not.
0:29.6	No, I'm not.
0:30.6	No, so what happened was I had been sort of stealing gay porn for a while and I had
0:36.0	hidden in a box in my room and then this was in my teenage years.
0:41.9	And then I got very nervous about it.
0:44.6	So I hid it in this alleyway that we had behind our house and my dad saw me climbing
0:49.8	over this wall with a box and I'm sure it was like, oh god, he's stashing his drugs
0:54.5	that he's selling or something.
0:55.7	Of course that's where his mind goes.
0:57.2	So he goes to find this box that I stashed away and it's like, you know, naked men.
1:03.5	He definitely said, I found this, explain it and I was like, I think I said I was holding
1:08.4	onto it for a friend of mine.
1:10.3	You know, like obviously a lie, but in my dad's mind, he's like, okay, that's enough.
1:14.8	I believe that story.
	...

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