After years playing a bad guy Ty Burrell became famous for playing the world's most embarrassing dad Phil Dunphy in the Emmy-winning hit US sitcom Modern Family.
With movie credits include Black Hawk Down, Dawn of the Dead, The Incredible Hulk, and more recently, children's movies Muppets Most Wanted and the animated Mr Peabody and Sherman, at 45 he trying his hand at writing comedy for 20th Century Fox TV. As part of a 10-day sightseeing tour to the capital, he spoke to aspiring actors and filmmakers at NYU Abu Dhabi Wednesday night at the invite of Abu Dhabi-based film production company Image Nation.
Playing ball
I had a very devoted ritual I would follow before going on stage to perform in plays. I would throw a wiffle ball against the wall for an hour. It somehow got me focused. My interest in performance is waning these days. With TV work, I don’t really have a ritual. I just try to be prepared for anything.
The villain
Before I started working on Modern Family six years ago, the roles I was offered were nearly always as the bad guy. I played the guy who, when he walks on screen, you just know he's going to be shot or fired – he gets his comeuppance somehow.
Out of Practice
I played plastic surgeon Dr Oliver on the CBS show Out of Practice for a year (2005-6). I was still playing the smarmy guy role, so it was the last vestiges of parts I was playing before that. But it was the first comedy I was hired to do, so it was life-changing. I discovered I loved comedy more than anything. That's where I met [the writer] Christopher Lloyd. He was also one of the writers on Frasier, and he helped create Modern Family. He's such a remarkable master storyteller.
Almost quitting
I was unemployed for six months before Modern Family. My wife and I sat down at one point and said: 'maybe it's time to think about trying something else for a living'. But I can't do anything else except act. I can't do construction, and I'm not a good cook. I am terrible at everything! So I thought 'I'd better stay with acting'. But I was never a supremely confidant actor. The longest I had been employed in any one job was four months. So when I was offered Modern Family, I was very happy to have some security. I've been on the show now for six years.
The hapless Phil
I will never not like playing Phil. He’s a dog that can talk. He’s the dog who’s so happy, he walks into the room of people wagging his tail and knocking stuff over on the coffee table. Playing him is a great way to wake up in the morning. When my alarm goes off at 5am, we all shuffle in with our coffees to rehearse our first scene with no laughs – when you see stuff on the show that you think is not funny, it’s probably the scenes that were shot at 6.15am – but I’m always happy to play Phil Duffy.
Old-fashioned laughs
The benefit of having the camera pretending to land on something in the style we do on Modern Family is that you can do old-fashioned comedy. As we get more sophisticated around the world, to prevent people from seeing where the jokes are coming from, sitcom-makers go into a more detached style of comedy. Shows like The Office – they're funny, but they're not warm. Modern Family is done in a warmer style, but they can disguise where the jokes are coming from with the camera work and make it seem more spontaneous. I love the old slapstick style. It's been a privilege to be part of a show that does that.
Muppets Most Wanted
The Muppets are real jerks! It was hysterically fun. I’m good friends with Eric Jacobson who played Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Sam Eagle and Animal. He makes what I do seem way too easy. He has to act, be funny, inhabit a character and do incredible technical things. And all this in a small square, with a mechanical hand. It’s remarkable. To me, Muppets guys are like athletes. It’s a lot of physical work. They have to ice their shoulders.
The writer
I discovered at the age of 45 that I wanted to learn to be a writer. Modern Family has given me that opportunity. Now, I have a deal with Fox to write. Through my writing I'm learning again, and that's been incredible. It's fun being in that place that's so new and exciting and humbling. I really feel alive, having to strike out and constantly having to reappraise how I do something. Now I'm mostly being told 'no' and it's awesome. I would like to stay in that role.
I learnt how to do voiceover in my 40s. It's a very precise medium, and I'm not very good at it. For Mr Peabody and Sherman, it took 100 takes for one line. It can get crazy. You don't know what you're saying, you just see the mouth moving. For a guy coming in later in life, it's just so exciting. I'm living my second childhood.
Kids
My two adopted daughters are African-American. I did one episode of the kids TV show Doc McStuffins, because I wanted to have cred with them when they get older. I'm much less mature than my eldest, who is five years old. My kids don't fully understand what Modern Family is but I sit and watch it with them.
Choosing Roles
We started doing Modern Family in 2009 and we adopted our first child in our first season. So that's affected what roles I want to do. Now that I have kids, I don't say yes to as many things. I was tempted to say yes to anything before. Now, I think 'is this worth being away for six weeks at a time?' I also get offered things that are much more family-driven. But I wouldn't have it any other way. There's something about having kids that makes you want to be a part of what they're interested in.
• Modern Family screens in the UAE on Fox Series Mondays at 10pm
artslife@thenational.ae
