Modern Family's Jesse Tyler Ferguson has revealed why his on-screen husband Cam looks so sad in the show's infamous portrait hung above Lily's bed.
The sitcom included many awkward family situations, but the painting bearing the likenesses of Ferguson and his co-star Eric Stonestreet as Mitchell and Cam was on another level. Particularly as the couple thought it appropriate to have the scantily clad angels resembling them located right in their daughter Lily's bedroom.
While Lily would later reveal that she understandably hated it, the painting hung in her room for quite some time.
Only recently, however, Ferguson clarified why Stonestreet's Cam has a forlorn expression in the portrait. As it turns out, the photo used for the painting was taken at a time when he was convinced he'd be fired.
"When we did that very first table read for the network," Ferguson said on his Dinner's on Me podcast in a chat with co-star Ty Burrell.
"[Eric] had said there were some laughs he just didn't get and bombed. He was convinced he was being fired.
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"And right after we finished that table read, they pulled Eric and I into the hallway to take a photo of us because they needed to have a template to paint the mural that Mitch and Cam paint over Lily's bed.
"And basically, they were gonna impose our faces onto this mural."
Luckily, Stonestreet's fears didn't materialise, and his concerned glare would be immortalised on the show for several seasons.
"And Eric took these pictures in a panic," Ferguson recalled. "In his eyes, you could just see, 'I don't know why they're taking this picture. I'm gonna be fired anyways.' And so, of course, he wasn't fired."
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The actual art stayed up until season 8, when Lily voiced her dislike for the odd choice of bedroom art.
"I don't know how long that mural stayed up for the show because at one point they painted over it," Ferguson said.
"But he's like, those are the eyes of an actor who thinks he's being fired. But those eyes are attached to Cam as an angelic angel in the sky."
"The eyes of Mitchell are just steely confidence," he then added. "I nailed it."
Reporter, Digital Spy
Stefania is a freelance writer specialising in TV and movies. After graduating from City University, London, she covered LGBTQ+ news and pursued a career in entertainment journalism, with her work appearing in outlets including Little White Lies, The Skinny, Radio Times and Digital Spy.
Her beats are horror films and period dramas, especially if fronted by queer women. She can argue why Scream is the best slasher in four languages (and a half).
