After more than 15 years, Judy Greer has opened up about her decision to pass on auditioning for Modern Family.
The actress recently shared that, at the time, the idea of playing Claire Dunphy—a role that eventually went to Julie Bowen—didn’t resonate with her.
Greer admitted that she “didn’t even want kids” then, and the prospect of portraying “America’s mom” on the hit ABC sitcom didn’t appeal to her.
“This was a time in my career when I was starting to [play moms],” Greer explained on Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s Dinner’s On Me podcast.
Reflecting on her mindset at the time, Greer said, “It sounds so silly to say it out loud now, but I’ll be honest. In a movie, I would have a kid.
And then there was this opportunity to audition where I would have three kids, one of them in high school.
And on a TV show… you do have to think of these things in success, and obviously Modern Family was a huge success. In a movie, people kind of see it and then they forget. In a TV show, it’s just like, you’re a mom.”
She went on to explain that having kids was “not even on the table” in her personal life at the time. “I was like, ‘I think I’m not going to audition for it.’ I was really torn about it, but I ended up obviously not.
Who knows if I would have even gotten it anyway, but I was just like, ‘I don’t know if I want to be America’s mom yet.’”
Judy Greer (Photo: Shutterstock)
Greer also felt the role “felt so limiting compared to what I was doing already.” She elaborated: “In addition to just the perception of who you are as an actor, it’s lifestyle too.
I was like, well, I like traveling a lot, and I like doing all these movies, and I like going to all these places, and I like meeting all these people. I wasn’t ready for it, in and out of my career.”
Meanwhile, Julie Bowen recently recounted her audition experience on Andy Richter’s The Three Questions podcast. Bowen confessed she initially thought she had no chance of landing the role of Claire Dunphy.
“I was testing for two pilots and I wanted Modern Family, but the other show, the character was pregnant,” Bowen recalled. “And I was like, ‘I’ve got a shot at that one.’ I’m never going to get Modern Family.
You guys keep calling me in and staring at my big giant stomach. So I said, ‘I need the job.’ Like you need the job that’s going to pay the bills, that’s got legs.”
Bowen added that she thought her audition performance was lackluster. “I thought I bombed because I can’t tell a joke, I’m not funny.”
Created by Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan, Modern Family chronicled the lives of the extended Dunphy-Pritchett clan, including patriarch Jay Pritchett (Ed O’Neill), his grown children Claire and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), as well as their spouses and kids.
The sitcom became a massive success, running for 11 seasons from 2009 to 2020 on ABC. It earned 22 Emmy Awards, including two Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series wins for Bowen.
