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[title]He’s so convincing as Cameron Tucker—the flamboyant, life-embracing half of the gay couple on ABC’s hit Wednesday-night sitcom Modern Family—that it’s jolting when straight actor Eric Stonestreet calls from L.A. “You’re a guy-guy,” I tell him, minutes into our conversation. To which the native Midwesterner and onetime Chicagoan responds, guyishly, “Yeah.”
I find it a little heartbreaking you’re not actually gay.
I get that from guys all the time. I think it’s awesome. I never thought I would be somewhat of a gay icon.
More than somewhat, I’d say. How does your mom feel about being interpreted as a gay man on TV?
[Laughs] She loves it. I told her, “I got Cameron by impersonating you.” And her response was this: “Oh! My God!” I said, “Yep, pretty much just like that.”
What was she like growing up?
She was an only child, so she never understood when my brother and sister and I would fight. She would always be like, “I just want everybody to get along! I just want the holidays to be good!” She baked a lot.
I imagine the public’s spotting Cameron more and more?
Everywhere we go. Jesse [Tyler Ferguson] and I out together is scary. We just went to see my girlfriend’s show, she’s on Broadway in Rock of Ages, and this girl comes out of nowhere and plops on my lap. She goes, “I’m sorry! I got dared to do this!”
On your site you have pics of your dog, Coleman Hawkins. Given his namesake, did you hear a lot of jazz when you lived in Chicago?
Yeah, I loved to go to Kingston Mines. I used to live at Broadway and Addison.
The pulsing heart of Boystown.
You want to know the funniest thing about that? I had no idea I lived in Boystown until the Gay Pride Parade came marching down my street. I was in my bed sleeping and I’m like, “What the hell is going on?!” I go down to look and I see men in leather and chains. I’m like, holy cow!
How long had you been living there?
Well, I moved there in late May, so I knew by then I was near Boystown—but I didn’t know I was at ground zero.
Why’d you stay in Chicago for just two years?
I was at the Conservatory at Second City studying. Tina Fey was my level-two teacher. She was awesome. I had this moment of, like, now’s the time to go to L.A. because I can always come back to Chicago.
And before the city, you were a farm boy in Kansas.
We lived on 40 acres of land, and we had pigs and cows. I was in 4-H. My girlfriend was a cheerleader, I was a football player. After school, I had to go to the pasture and hoe thistle. My dad would tell me, “Go do 200 of ’em.”
At Kansas State, you studied to be a prison administrator. How’d you arrive at that interest?
My dad had a retail business in Leavenworth, Kansas, and there’s a whole bunch of prisons there, so it was a backdrop of my childhood, these ominous prisons sitting off the road. I wasn’t a great student; I was lazy. But when I was in sociology class, I listened. And then the high-school cheerleader I dated, we broke up and I was depressed, and my best friend, Paul, he dared me to audition for a play.
So what in your upbringing led to your comfort in being a gay icon?
Growing up, one of my cousins was an out gay man. And being an actor in a college theater program, the bulk of my friends were gay. One of the guys, Tim, he always loved messing with me. He’ll still send me random text messages of things he wants to do to me.
You and Jesse aren’t pretty gays but ordinary looking. As a big guy, you may be the first bear in mainstream American culture.
Yeah. [Laughs] I love that so much. Some people are not as kind and say we’re unattractive, but ordinary is the perfect way to say it.
There’s not much physical affection between the couples on the show. In that way, Modern Family, for all its progressiveness, is as traditionally sitcomy as The Brady Bunch.
The creators want to focus on what it is to be all hands on deck raising children. I’m glad you noticed it’s not just Mitchell and Cameron that aren’t making out. No one is. Jesse gets a lot of it on Twitter because he’s a gay man, I think, from other gay men: “You guys never kiss.” I’m not gonna make excuses or defend. All I’m gonna say is that’s not the focus of our relationship.
But we can’t even see a peck? Just one?
We’re not gonna be a show that advertises: “This week, Mitchell and Cameron kiss! On Modern Family.” Like they’ve done on other shows. The show’s gonna be on for a long time, and all the viewers are gonna get everything they want out of this relationship.
The season-one finale of ABC’s Modern Family airs May 19 at 8pm.