Jesse Tyler Ferguson wants to find ‘Modern Family’ background actor who was ‘talking to thin air’

Jesse Tyler Ferguson has worked with his share of background actors, but one of them who worked on Modern Family stands out, even five years after the sitcom went off the air.

“I guess there’s some background actor on Modern Family who — it’s so funny. I love it so much — who’s at a table in the background,” Ferguson told guest Jane Lynch on Monday’s episode of his Dinner’s on Me podcast. “And I guess they were probably given instruction to like, you know, have a conversation, like make it look natural, but she’s not sitting at a table with anyone.”

The actor recalled seeing the moment on YouTube or TikTok.

“But she must’ve [been] like, ‘Well, I guess that’s what they told me to do.’ She’s talking to thin air right behind me,” Ferguson said. “Like it’s right off my, like my left shoulder and it’s me having a scene with, I don’t know, Claire [Julie Bowen] or whatever. And then there’s this person behind me talking to an empty chair… a lot. And it’s one of my favorite things. I’m like, I wanna find this girl. And give her a special award for this.”

Ferguson didn’t specify the episode of the Emmy winner that he was referring to, and he was credited in all 250. The ABC series about the relationship between three different but related families aired from 2009 to 2020. Along with Bowen, who portrayed the sister of Ferguson’s character, Mitchell Pritchett, the cast also included Ed O’Neill, Sofia Vergara, Ty Burrell, and Eric Stonestreet.

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The subject of background actors came up because Lynch was praising her former show The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which she was on after her hit Glee ended in 2015. She recalled that “the background people were lovely.” Lynch added, “Being a background actor is is an art. Because if it’s not good, you notice, and it can destroy what you’re doing.”

Ferguson agreed. He imagined that the background actor talking to the chair had simply been doing what she was told: “You said make conversation.”

Listen to the full episode above.