Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who plays Mitchell on the ABC primetime television show “Modern Family,” told The Daily Caller that he feels “more connected” with President Barack Obama on gay rights issues than any past president that he can remember. Ferguson said he “obviously” wants “more” from Obama, but said he is “very encouraged.”
“I’m certainly not in a place to criticize. Obviously we always want more from our president. I think he’s doing as much as he can do right now,” said Ferguson at the White House Correspondents Dinner.
“I’m very supportive of him and very encouraged by him and I do feel that he will do more in the future and I feel more connected to him with those issues than I have with many of the other past presidents that I can remember. I’m still very young, you must remember this. I’m very, very young. I don’t remember very many presidents. I was born in the Clinton era so. I can’t tell if you are humored by me or just confused.”
TheDC asked Ferguson, 36, how effective he thinks “Modern Family” has been in portraying social issues.
“I think that we are dealing with social issues just by default but we’re certainly not, we don’t have like a checklist of things that we’re trying to get through but you know obviously I think we’re contributed to tolerance for marriage equality and gay couples raising kids but we never look at it as being sort of a lofty subject,” he said.
“We obviously want to make people laugh first and if we can sneak in some agendas, we certainly don’t, agenda’s the wrong word but if we can change the minds of anyone it’s always a good thing.”
TheDC also asked Ferguson for his response to critics who argue that the show focuses on stereotypes too much.
“Any half hour comedy is going to have its fair share of stereotypes. I’ve heard the criticism that Cameron and Mitchell are gay stereotypes. Mitchell is really just me who’s a little smarter and happens to be a lawyer so if I’m a stereotype I take offense kind sir,” he said.
“For Cameron, I know many guys who are just as feminine as Cameron so we’re representing a very small part of the gay community. It’s certainly not representing the whole community but we could never do that with these two characters. So I think we do what we have set out to do very well.”
“Modern Family” was reportedly viewed by over 10 million in its 9 p.m. slot on Wednesday.