Modern Family's Jesse Tyler Ferguson on the Upcoming Story Line That Moved Him to Tears

The cast is playing this family with so much history and so many complicated relationships. Was there any kind of team-building retreat before you started shooting?

No, is the short answer. It's amazing that such a large ensemble could gel so easily. I mean, they really did take their time finding the right people. But we were never all in the same room with one another. We had readings with our significant others on the show. I had readings with about ten different guys that auditioned to play Cameron -- I like to remind Eric that I was cast first every week. But I never met Julie Bowen or Ed O'Neill until the first day of the table read. And it takes a while to build that, but it did not take that long. When I say "a while", I mean maybe 30 minutes, to feel like we really gelled as a cast -- which was really miraculous.

There is a lot of tension between certain characters on the show, especially between Julie Bowen's and Sofia Vergara's characters, that has extended into certain press interviews with the actresses. Is that tension real, are people afraid of them on set?

It's completely not. We all have this amazing, kind of unruly sense of humor. Sofia and Julie have this hilarious dynamic between the two of them. They go out to dinner and they are very good friends but they make fun of each other all the time. When that whole thing happened with the Chelsea Lately show, it was funny, because that is just how the two would be interacting to each other's face. But people with too much time on their hands in front of their computers suddenly created this controversy between the two of them [Ed. note: Those people are so pathetic!], but they were laughing about it together. So there's no tension between the two of them.

Your show has had great luck with guest stars. I know that Fred Willard and Minnie Driver are going to guest star later this season but are there any other guests you're pushing for?

Right -- that's as far as we've gone so far but we have dream casting. I know that Eric would love to see Kathy Bates on the show as his mother. We have people we'd love to see come in but we also don't want to destroy the dynamic of the family. We're very fortunate that these amazing people want to be on the show and I feel like they've all enhanced the show in a brilliant, positive way. 30 Rock also does a great job of utilizing stars on its show, but I do think that sometimes it can overshadow the show itself, so we're trying not to get too many illustrious guest stars. It's also just so great to see unknown talent like Eric, who has never been a series regular, given the opportunity to play this amazing part, and he is popping so much on the show. So I think it would be great if we could see more unknown people come in and get a shot. [Cheekily] I speak for the little people.

Will Eric's family be introduced the first season?

I don't know about the first season. We literally just started up on the back nine, so I don't know how far they've plotted out the rest of the season. I do know that we will meet them at some point.

Can you tell us anything about the rest of the season -- any big surprises or dance numbers?

[Laughs] Yeah, we adopt another baby. Just kidding. Can you imagine? There's this great episode that actually really hit close to the heart for me. We deal with my dad's uncomfortability with my character's sexuality. Ed O'Neill's character ends up introducing Cameron to his friends as "a friend of my son, Mitchell's." And I get really upset about it, naturally and say, "You would never introduce Phil as a friend of Claire's." It kind of opens up this can of worms between him and me and how much support he really offers me. It ends up being very moving and very touching. Obviously, through the eyes of Chris Lloyd and Steve Levitan and the writer of that episode, it is handled with such care and humor. It actually made me tear up when I read it. Especially in this era of marriage equality, it gave a simple, clear voice to a father and his son. And by the end of the episode, <span

class="pullquote right">I think it might take a step towards changing a lot of people's minds on marriage and equality and how they view people that are different from them.

I noticed on your Twitter feed that you're a fan of Adam Lambert. And ABC canceled another one of his performances because of the AMA controversy. Do you think that Modern Family would ever welcome him for a cameo?

He's awesome. I don't know how we would really incorporate Adam Lambert into the show. [Laughs] Adam Lambert is in concert and we have to go see him! He can't really disappear into a role because he's Adam Lambert and he's fabulous and he wears eyeliner. But I met him at a TV Guide party and I'm just a huge fan of his and a huge fan of what he stands for. I am saddened to see that there is some negativity coming out of this really positive and fantastic part of his life. I think that anyone who is that clearheaded about their vision and their artistic integrity is going to ruffle some feathers because it's not going to be everybody's cup of tea. I'm a little disappointed that some of his appearances have been canceled because there is a double standard that they can support a show that has such a gay, positive influence, like Modern Family and then turn around and not support someone like Adam Lambert that is sad to me a little bit. He seems to be handling it really well though and letting it roll off his back so I'm going to take his lead and not worry about it so much. I think he is wonderful and fantastic and he comes from the theater world which I always applaud and he's great. I really want to be his best friend.

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