February 2, 2020 • 40 mins
On this special bonus episode of Next Question with Katie Couric, Katie's in Miami for Super Bowl LIV! Recording from the bustling media center on Miami's South Beach, Katie talks with Kansas City Chiefs superfan Eric Stonesteet — Cam from "Modern Family" — about hometown pride, the seed of his football fandom, and, of course, the upcoming series-end of the the hit TV show, "Modern Family." Eric shares what he thinks makes the show so successful and how he's learning to say goodbye this dream role and dream job.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi everyone, I'm Katie Kurrig and welcome to Next Question.
It's a special day in a special bonus episode because
I'm in Miami, everybody for Super Bowl fifty four. It's
the Kansas City Chiefs versus the San Francisco forty Niners.
Two teams, was something to prove to their die hard fans.
(00:25):
The forty Niners are headed to their seventh Super Bowl.
We support archy hard times, the low time. It's been
so long, so many bad years. Are taking it all
the way, are you. It's been fifty years since the
(00:46):
Kansas City Chiefs were lasting the Super Bowl. After a
lifetime watching the Chiefs, this is an incredible within sple.
This just means so much, not only to me, citizens
Iron City fans for both teams have been streaming into
this city all week, all wearing red and gold. By
(01:09):
the way, because for the first time in Super Bowl history,
the teams share the same colors, even though the forty
Niners are a little more on the scarlet side. While
the crowds are gathering all around Hard Rock Stadium, I've
set up shop nearby and the Sleep Number booth at
the Media Center, a giant space where their camera crews
(01:31):
and makeshift studio set up. People milling around a lot
of football players and it's kind of crazy here, but
a lot of fun. My guest today is a devoted
football fan. In fact, he might be the biggest Chiefs
fan of all time, and he's here wearing head to
toe Kansas City Chiefs gear. Eric stone Street, who plays
(01:53):
Cam Tucker on Modern Family. It is time for some
farm justice back home. When we have two alphableles, we
lock them in a pin and let them fight it out.
This is between Nanny and Luke. Come on, let's go.
Oh and help yourself to a gingerbread person. They're both
gluten and gender free. Hi, Eric stone Street, I am
(02:17):
so happy to see you, so happy to see one
of the nicest people on the planet. You are well,
thank you. That means a lot coming from you, because
you're one of the nicest people we try. Don't wait,
and you are obviously pretty darn jazzed, Eric, because you
are here to cheer on your team, Kansas City chief
(02:40):
So excited you got your hat on? Oh, I got
everything on? But but about come September or October. This
is basically all I wear in my wardrobe. Really, you know, look,
it's comfortable, it's it's it makes a statement. It represents
what I love football Kansas City. But no, I'm very excited.
I've been a fan of the Chiefs since I was
(03:02):
a little kid. You know. My aunt and uncle got
me um to go in their season tickets, and then
my dad got me season tickets when I was maybe
in eighth or ninth grade. I had season tickets all
through college. Then of course moved away to Chicago and
Los Angeles. But I've always maintained my Chiefs fandom. Um
and knowledge, you know, I football knowledge, you know. I
(03:23):
just I mean, I recognize all these guys walking around legends.
I just saw, Oh my god, there's John Randalls, like
there's Anthony Munos. You know. So I know so much
about football. So being here and now representing the Chiefs
and representing my team and having a reason to be
at Super Bowl is so fun. Now, did you play
football when you were younger? I did. I just told
Anthony Munio so I had a poster of him in
my room, even though he was a Cincinnati Bengal and
(03:44):
I was a Chiefs fan. I said, I had a
poster in you in my room because I wanted to
be an offensive tackle, but I never got big enough
or good at football. I played in high school and
you know I was fine, but never to the level
that I would ever have garnered any kind of stuff.
You grew, I mean, you grew to love the sport
to play it, but also just as a super fan,
(04:05):
just a just a fan and just love the game
and love love everything about it. And you've met a
lot of players, I know, Eric, when you were younger
growing up in Kansas City. And there's one actually very
moving story. You met a young player at a mall's
signing named Joe Delaney. Can you tell us that story? Yeah,
I was at I was at Indian Springs mall and
(04:26):
there were two players out signing autographs, him and J. T.
Smith I believe was the other one. But I got
Joe Delaney's autograph, and that sort of was the moment
that you know, you look back of like when did
your fan fan hood start? For me? And it was
were you then well six, I mean seven, seven or eight,
you know, um, because I don't remember what year he
(04:47):
passed away, um. But then of course I got his
autograph and he played I think that next season, and
then he passed away trying to you know, save a
kid and uh who was drowning and drowning and he
drowned and self. Yeah, I mean he was going to
be that was so heartbreaking, going to be one of
the greatest that was back in I guess three or something, right,
I'm not sure what the year was. Yeah, yeah, he
(05:09):
died in nineteen three, so I would have been probably
uh ten when that when I met him, And so
it was shortly thereafter where this accident took place, just
a year or so afterwards after that. You know, I
can't help but ask you one question about this, Eric,
because I just came from Los Angeles because I was
at a stand up to cancer scientific summit and Eric,
(05:32):
by the way, has been incredibly supportive of the work
we're doing its stand up, but boy, Los Angeles was
just uh it just like if a city could cry,
Los Angeles was crying stunned. I was in Kansas City
when I found out the news, and immediately reflected on,
you know, as we all do, what our personal experience
(05:54):
was and has been with people that we've lost or
passed away, And the story that came to mind for
me was, um, he came to the set of Modern
Family one day. He we got word that hey, Kobe's
coming to Modern Family. We're like what, And so he
comes and watches this rehearse and shoot and he was
just sitting there, just taking it all in. And I said, so,
(06:15):
what do you think, Kobe, And he goes, well, it's
cool how you guys rehearse because it's like us setting
an offense. You know, you have to be here so
she can be here, and then if you move that way,
then this person counters and does this. So it's really
neat for me to see all this happen. And then
at the end, I said, so what made you, you know,
come today? And he goes, you know, I woke up
this morning and I just I felt like I wanted
to watch something funny. And what I thought that he
(06:37):
was so cool is like most people just turn on
the TV and watch something or but Kobe Bryant's like, no,
I'm gonna go to a set in the sound stage
and watch something. And then he says, and plus, you
told me to stop by sometime. And I'm like, Kobe,
and he goes, you did last year he told me
to stop by, And I'm like, well, yeah, but like,
who knows if he was serious. I know I told
him to stop by, but he knows I he was
(06:58):
serious about probably in passing, like yeah, fine, but the
fact that he remembered that and then referenced and made
a joke about it, but came and so hungry to learn,
and and he referenced that, you know, why would I
go to any other show? You guys are the best.
I want to watch the best do what they do.
And and every time I saw him was just so
delightful and such a nice person, and always with his
(07:19):
family and would always introduce and ppictures and whatever. Just
heart heartbreaking, tragic, and so sad for all those families,
all those families, and those young girls, and a lot
of the surviving children left that one family without a
mom or a dad or a sister. It's just I
don't know. But obviously we're continuing to keep Vanessa Briant
(07:43):
in our prayers because, uh, it's going to be a
long difficult road for her. And I thought, what what
Barack Obama? President Obama said? You know, he was just
getting started on his second act, and I do believe
he would have done great things. But I hope. Absent
of that, you know, people will be inspired to do
great things. But that's what he did. I think that's
(08:04):
what he did while he was living, and I think
that's his legacy. He'll continue to do that, um after
he's gone. Yeah, Well, getting back to I'm going to
talk to you about modern family, which is ending soon
and I'm sure you're sad about that, but but let's
let's get back to football just for a few minutes. Um.
You you go to almost every game? How do you
(08:24):
do that with your schedule? Well, this season with Patrick Mahomes,
I just decided that this was a year I wasn't
going to miss a game. So I went to every
Chief's home game this year. UM, with the notion that
we would be here. I having gotten to know the
general manager of the Chiefs, Brett Beach and Andy Reid,
the head coach a little bit, and marked on him
and the president. You know, I just really felt like,
(08:45):
given what I listen to them say, this was we
were going to make it to the super Bowl this year.
And there's plenty of documentation of me saying that. And
I'm not a cocky guy. I don't like to put
the cart before the horse is type of thing. But
it just felt like we were so close last year.
Our roster got better this year, so given that we
(09:07):
shouldn't make we should go to the super Bowl. Now
it's called any given Sunday for a reason. Any team
can beat any team any day. But I just felt
like we were going to be here now when you
went to those games where you're do you still have
family in Kansas City? And you do? So are they
all so into it? Are they coming to the super Bowl? No? Well,
just Lindsay and I are here at the super Bowl. Um,
(09:27):
but my mom would come to all the home games,
would get her there, and my sister would come and um,
and what about like friends from high school? Friends from
are you still close to them? Some? Some? For sure
we stay in touch. I have a lot of friends,
and I'm still in touch with college buddies a lot.
And um, where'd you go to college? Kansas State? Oh god,
my god, you are hardcore Kansas you know. But there's
(09:47):
something to that, though, and something that I think you appreciate,
can appreciate and other people can appreciate it. I'm proud
of where I'm from, you know, I'm my parents chose
to raise me in Kansas because that's where they're from.
And I don't like it when places get painted with
with broad brushes. I'm not a fan of broad strokes
in that way. I don't want people to just think
that everyone from Kansas is a certain way or any
(10:08):
everyone from that part of the country. There are good
people everywhere. I agree with you. I love to put
the spotlight on where I'm from and draw attention to
where I'm from because they're great food there, there's great entertainment,
there's great culture, there's great people, great sports, obviously with
the Royals and the Chiefs. So I love being from
Kansas and I love telling people about it. That's so nice,
(10:29):
and I think you should be and there's no reason
to be proud. But I think in the current culture
and landscape that we're in, you know, people people that
I identify, we're so tribal, and we make assumptions about
people that are completely untrue, and you know, I just
wish everybody would be not not be so hard on
each other. You know, has your relationship with the game
(10:52):
changed at all? Obviously the game has gotten some some
tough press, and understandably so, with the number of injuries
with ct E and and on field collisions and traumatic
brain injuries, and I'm just curious, Um, you know, has
it changed your relationship with football at all? You know
it has It hasn't for me. I haven't played the game.
(11:13):
Of course, I'm empathetic to people that you know, have
suffered you know, health issues because of playing football. I
think of the people that have suffered that. And of
course I don't know this for a fact. I'm just
basing it off. My interviews that I've seen would all
say they would do it again, like they would all
play the sport again the same way because of what
(11:36):
they got out of it, you know, So I have
to yield to players. I think the NFL is is
doing a lot to make the game safer. They are,
They're improving helmets, there are some changes in the rules,
and a lot of resources have been devoted to making
the sports safer. Um. And it starts with youth football.
It starts with you know, a generate teaching this new
(11:57):
generation of kids how to tackle and how not to
put yourself in the situation to potentially get you know, injured.
So hopefully they're making the right strides and um uh,
you know, I feel like concussions in general in all
sports are taken are treated much more seriously. Now. I
was talking to someone the other day. They said, oh,
you bang your head and be like, give them smelling salts,
(12:20):
get back out their kids. And now, of course I
think that there's so much more medical information that that
people take it much much more serious. I think so.
And I think as long as the NFL, and I
know they are in colleges and everyone's you know, making
strides and using the technology for good to make the
game safer than I think that's obviously moving in the
(12:42):
right direction there. So, um a Super Bowl prediction from
Sleep Number. By the way, because we're here in the
Sleep Number booth. Um, you know, Sleep Numbers working with
a lot of NFL teams, including the Fansas City because
they're really trying to help sleep is kind of very
underrated and it's so critically important and it's a lack
of sleep is an epidemic in this country. So according
(13:05):
to Sleep Number, Kansas City is a slightly more well
rested city than San Francisco. So they're putting their money
on the Chiefs. What do you think of that? I
love it. I love it. I know a lot of
the Chiefs players, and they all have their sleep numbers.
They all use them. Really, as we're talking, Travis Kelsey's
right above us talking about his sleep number. Yeah, isn't
that great? And uh others I think that's his mom
(13:27):
or something. Yeah, that's awesome. Uh. I'm happy to hear
anyone predict the Chiefs to win from any angles. So
what are the what are the bookies or whatever they are?
They one and a half point favorite, which is essentially
a coin toss. Yeah, it's a good It's gonna be
a great game, that's what we have. Do you think
it'll be high scoring? I do. I think it's going
(13:47):
to be in the thirties because I guess people were
a little bit disappointed last year, right because it was
such it was a defensive battle. I don't think this
is gonna be a defensive battle. I think it's going
to be an offensive juggernaut. I think we're gonna go
back and forth on each other a little bit. I'm
just so nervous. I'm so excited. It's just a control thing,
you know. It's the same reason you get nervous, you know,
(14:08):
doing things that you don't have any flying for example.
You know, you get nervous about that because you're you're
not making any of the decisions. I'm not I'm not
a coach, so everything's in the hands of and it's
a good thing. I'm not a coach. Let's be very
clear about that. Would you'd like to be a coach,
but you are You're not a coach, but you play
one on TV. And speaking of that, we're going to
talk about the last season of Modern Family. We're gonna
(14:33):
We're done. We're going to do it right after this.
We're back with Eric stone Street. We're here. If you
guys are hearing some ambient noise, we're in the media
center for the Super Bowl. So we've got a lot
(14:56):
of crews milling around, a lot of football players, uh,
people with microphones kind of in search of right anything
to them. So, um, let's talk about Modern Family. I
can't believe it. You must eleven years and twenty two Emmys,
including two for you, my friends. Um you, I mean,
(15:18):
you must be feeling so many different emotions, right and
it has to do with what we just talked about,
which is football, which is the most exciting time in
my sports life. The Chiefs are in the Super Bowl,
while at the same time it's one of the saddest
moments in my professional life. Saying goodbye to a dream
role in a dream job for the last eleven years. Well,
(15:39):
I mean, how lucky, right, What is Dr Seussa say,
don't cry because because it's over, smile because it happened. Yeah,
something like that. Yeah, yeah, And that's definitely our approach,
like we are most definitely thankful and grateful that it happened. Um,
it's gonna be hard. You know, I've kind of said
I didn't go to acting school, but I know one
(15:59):
thing they don't teach you in acting school is how
to be on the show eleven years and develop a
hundred and some odd different relationships with crew and cast,
and then all of a sudden say goodbye to that.
You don't learn how to do that. You have to
do that. And you know, you've said goodbye to jobs
and people that you've loved and worked with for years
and years. This is the first time I've ever had
(16:20):
this extended period of time in my life with the
same people for nine some eleven some five six years.
So I'm just gonna try to keep my heart and
mind and eyes open and enjoy every moment of it
and let the emotions hit me when they hit me. Um,
and they've started to most definitely. You know, was Cam
(16:42):
the role of a lifetime for you? Eric? Oh? I
think so there's you know, people have always said like, oh,
aren't you worried about being typecast? And you know, and
that's a popular question, I guess for people to ask.
But if that, if that's it, I mean, it's great.
I mean, it's just I never imagined it for my career.
(17:04):
I was going to ask you, how did you get
that role? And it was it was it competitive? You know,
how did it happen? It was competitive. I came into
the process late. They had cast a few of the
other parts, and I you know, had four auditions for
the for the for the for the role, you know,
which is an uncommon in Hollywood to keep kind of
having to jump through hoops. But you know, Stephen Chris,
(17:26):
the creators of the show, they had an idea of
what maybe Cam looked like. And I don't think I
was it at first, and so they you know, passed
on me, not meaning I was a terrible actor or
terrible performer, but they just didn't think it. But to
their credit and thankfully to them, they kept being reminded
(17:46):
by my audition and they kept their minds open and
their hearts open, and they were like, you know what,
bring that guy back in because we keep thinking about
his audition. And then they decided to test me. And
I tested it twentye and tested at ABC and got
the party and us that's the rest of the story.
So in two thousand nine, when this show started, Eric,
(18:07):
it was truly groundbreaking, and I was so thrilled that it.
You know, it showed all kinds of underrepresented people on
television living normal lives. How did that evolve? Because I
feel like the country has evolved and attitudes have evolved,
perhaps in some ways because of of what you did
(18:30):
on Modern Family. How did you continue to kind of
update and push the envelope during the course of the show. Well,
just as life happens, you know, that's the beauty of
the blueprint of that show is is that as a family,
you know, it ebbs and flows right right. Tragedies happened,
Shocking things happen, growth, you know, job changes, financial issues, whatever,
(18:54):
those all things, those things all happened. So with Mention Cam,
the goal always was from the beginning, that make people laugh.
You know, we want to make We want these characters
to make people laugh. We want these characters to be
a mirror for everyone, not just a mirror for gay people,
just a mirror for a lesbian couple, but a mirror
for everyone. And I think the writers did such a
(19:14):
good job of putting us in situations that that weren't
defined by our sexuality. I always said from the beginning,
Mitch and Cam's goal was to prove that they could
be terrible as terrible parents as anyone else. And as
as you know, it's like gay marriage. People would say,
why can't gay people be as miserable as the exactly
(19:34):
and and and you know, we just wanted what defined
Minch and Cam to be that they were men, that
they were partners, that they were fathers, and they were sons,
and they were you know, all these other things, and
let the fact that they were gay be one of
the things that they are. But certainly isn't at the
top of the list of what everybody needs to know
about them. You know, it's like it's not important. I
(19:57):
was gonna ask you how much of you was in camp,
because listen, you know, you grew up on a farm.
Can grew up on a farm. You guys have a
lot of similarities. You like to clown? Do I use
that as a verb? Yeah? Yeah, yeah. What does that mean? Clowning? Yeah, clowning.
It means you like to dress up as a clown. Well,
but clowning is comedy. I was I was clowning earlier
(20:19):
because I keep tripping on this carpet out there for
some reason, and I literally tripped leaving that way, and
then when I came back, I tripped at the same place.
I'm like, how did I trip at the exact same place?
And then there was a group of firemen there, and
I knew that they were listening to me, So then
I said, I tripped at this same exact place, and
then I tripped again just for their benefit. That's like
an example of clowning, you know, uh, just having fun
and you know, entertaining people. I wanted to do that
(20:41):
when I was a kid. I wanted to be in
the circus and to get to be on Modern Family
and play Bisbo the clown in the greatest circus of
all time Hollywood. Um was just a complete, complete dream
come true. But did the writers take some aspects of
your personality and background and really incorporate them into the character.
Oh yeah, all of us. You know, they sat down
with us and just listened and we talked and they
(21:03):
just mind what they wanted and left some behind. And UM,
so thankful for that. Grounds of characters. Yeah, and you
you know, one of the things I wanted to ask
you is about this new attitude about casting certain people
for certain roles. Like now, people are offended or take
issue when a character who does not identify as similarly
(21:27):
as the character is cast. For example, a trans person
should play a trans person, not a non trans person.
A gay person should play a gay person gay character,
you know, latinos should play latinos, on and on and on.
And I wonder if you've gotten any pushback because you
are not gay for playing a gay man. I think
there are definitely people out there that have a problem
(21:49):
with it, and did when I got the part. I don't.
You know. Here's the thing, Hollywood has a tried and
true method of how they cast parts. Right, they bring
people in and then the crew leaders and producers of
the show decide who they think is best. Now, did
a lot of gay people audition for the role of
cam Right. You know, I did a lot of straight people, absolutely,
(22:12):
and I think it's a real slippery slope when we
start saying, okay, we just want you to check this
box to tell me if you're gay or not before
we let you audition for this part. I mean, how
would that even work? Like, how would you even say, like, no,
I swear I'm gay. It's like, and what about people
that aren't comfortable with being out? But are you know,
quietly gay? It's like, well, no, but I'm gay. But
I can't say that I'm gay because I don't want
(22:34):
my parents to know yet. But no, I'm gay. I
can audition for this part. It just doesn't make sense.
I mean, we have to just obviously give everyone a chance,
and I think opened the doors for for for people
who haven't haven't had opportunities. I don't know. I mean,
this is my opinion. I Ope, it doesn't get me
in trouble, but I feel like actors, that's what acting is.
(22:55):
You take on the persona of someone else. Well, that's
the gift to me from a performer. The gift to
me is to be able to play someone like that
like that. That's the exchange I bring who I am
and what's in my heart to that character, and that
character then returns a tremendous amount to me. That's the
exchange we have, and me bringing my life experiences to
someone else is what we should sort of be celebrating. Um,
(23:19):
but I just think, you know, you don't want to
go down that road because uh so, then I just
think it's opportunity as long as everyone's getting an opportunity
to audition. And look, I can make the case that
for twelve years before I got on Modern Family, I
didn't get a tremendous amount of opportunities. But maybe because
of the way I looked, I didn't maybe get Cam
(23:41):
because of me being a heavy set guy. They didn't
think that that was who Cam was. And so there
are all kinds of reasons people don't get parts. There's
only usually one reason they do, you know. There's it's
because somebody decided that that's who they want to play
the part. As long as there's opportun unity and people
are allowed to be in the room equally, which I'm
(24:04):
supportive of, you gotta yield to the creative process, which
is this is who we want to play this part.
And I think just be aware of your implicit biases
and make sure that people are open to the possibilities,
just as you had to open their eyes that you
could play cam as well as somebody who looked different
than you, you know. And my mom always, you know,
(24:25):
said when they when the Chauffeur started, they were like,
people would say, oh, well are you what do you
think of your son playing you know, a gay guy
on TV? And I told her she said, well, what
am I supposed to say to that? I don't care?
And I said, Mom, what you need to say to
them is that you watched your son murder people on TV.
And no one ever asked that question, what's it like
to watch your son murder someone on TV? You know,
that never was a question anyone never thought to ask.
(24:48):
But bringing that back to what your initial question was
is like, so you know, you're going to have to
find people with real life experiences and everything if you
start using that line and cast, so you have to
cast convicted villains, which murders. Again, if you're out of
jail and they've done your time, you should and you're
an actor and now you have an agent, come on
into the audition. You know, for that murderer show us
(25:11):
how it's done. What does Eric really think of his
Modern family castmates. You'll find out when we come back
and we are back with Modern Families Eric stone Street,
So eleven seasons, Is there any Are there any particularly
(25:35):
intense memories you have, either funny poignant of experiences you
had on the show, there are so many. I mean
the Fizbo episode, crying calling my parents and telling them
that there's an episode called Fizbo the Clown that we're
shooting next week. It was a pretty big emotional moment.
But I would say when why was that so emotional? Well,
(25:57):
because I wanted to be a clown. My dad gave
me the name Fizbo the Clown when I was a kid,
and now you know here I showed the writers an
article about me as a kid, and now it's an
episode of television. Um, I would say, I always go
back to when we found out the show was picked
up for what's called It's Back nine. You know, when
I got the job, audition for the job and got
(26:17):
the job. That was awesome. I was very excited, but
you know that's my job to get those jobs. So
I was like measured Well, now we have to, and
then the show got picked up, and it's like, well,
that's out of my control. That's not up to me.
I did the best I could. Now it's up to
the show creators and the networks and the studio to
see if this fits on TV. Not not under my control.
So that was a great That was a great day,
but not the biggest day. But the day that the
(26:38):
show got picked up for the back nine, meaning we
were going to do a complete season of twenty four
episodes on ABC, that started to pay pave away from
my mind to imagine, oh man, we're gonna be on
TV a long time, because if we do one full season,
they're never gonna do one full season and just cut us.
They're gonna do a second season. And if they're gonna
do a second season, now we're getting kind of if
(27:00):
in syndication, so they're not gonna let it go after
two seasons. So we're gonna do three. And if we
do three, ways four and oh my gosh, four five.
So then you started managing like I'm going to be
on TV for a while. So I think still to
this day, the day the Back nine got picked up
is the most important day and is what is responsible
to leading me here right now. I want to name
(27:20):
some of the people in modern family. I just want
you to kind of give me a short instantaneous reaction. Okay,
Ed O'Neill, legend, just down, just down home. All he
wants to do is have something in his crock pot
and an mm A fight on TV, holding holding one
of his collectible knives, just sitting at home. Ed O'Neill
(27:41):
right now, no doubt, is cooking something, holding one of
his knives in his house and watching a sporting event.
That's Ed O'Neill. It's super nice, so very funny or
not that life very funny, very funny, very funny. Different
kind of funny than Jay. Yes, different. I mean at
(28:02):
seventy some years old, he's from Ohio. I mean he's
got different life perspective and he sometimes catches you off
guard with what his humor is. Yeah. Sophia Vegara generous, beautiful,
inside out, nice, um hilarious, self deprecating. Rico Rodriguez, who
plays Manning sweet just a good kid. Can't get any
(28:25):
better than then. Rico Julie Bowen energy goes twenty four
hundred miles a day. I mean she is a mile
a minute, good mom, carrying, polite. I always really liked her.
Oh yeah, she's great, isn't she graz smart too? Very brown,
brown graduate. Yeah. Tyrell uh ty Burrell is so uh.
(28:52):
He's like a what do you call it? A U
when a guy can do everything. He wants to make
his own sausage, he wants to brew his own beer.
He wants to do this, he wants met him at
an event and he was super nice. And I met
his wife. They were lovely. She's a baker, I mean,
he's he's he's just they sound very crunchy. Well, they're
from Utah. They live they live up in Utah. And
(29:14):
he's just he's an awesome, friendly, awesome guy. Sarah Highland talented.
I've blown away by Sarah's acting. When I got on
the show and I started seeing her in episodes, I'm like, oh, wow,
she's great. She's really good, aerial, Winter sweet nice. Um.
(29:35):
Do you worry about child actors? I do not. These kids.
Nolan could smart. He's you know, he's a mensa and
he plays a dumb character. Yeah, he's very smart. I
should be I should be too. Yeah, let's let's let's
let's let's look. I think we need to we we
(29:56):
should just start a petition. Well, we need to get
them to lower the standards, and then we'll get in.
And finally I want to ask you, well, actually to
two more. Your name's on here, but I'm humble, incredibly challenged,
wonderful lover. Yeah, I enjoy him in bed. I enjoy
(30:19):
him very much, all of him in bed. He's a
wonderful guy. Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Oh man, Jesse's you know,
are you guys super tight? You know we are super tight.
But here's the thing that's so great about Jesse and I.
His relationship were so different, like and we are a
great example of how people can be completely different and
(30:41):
have a great friendship. Like there's no doubt that I'm
here at the greatest sporting event of all time and
he's probably at Barber streisand tonight. You know, like we
do completely different things, and we have so many operate
moments from our past. We're all tweet out or instagram
out a picture of me at brock Lessner's mm A
FI and he's seeing Lady Gaga in Las Vegas for
(31:02):
the thirtieth time. Uh, what is m m A. It's
don't mis martial arts. Sorry, I knew I was thinking.
I couldn't remember the mixed part. But my point is
is we we have a fantastic relationship. We've only really
been mad at each other a couple of times, Like
where we when did you get mad? At the second
second season we got mad at each other for something
and I don't remember what it was, but it was stupid,
(31:26):
and we both just went to each other and we're like,
you know, what are we doing? We're gonna be working
together forever, so we can't be mad at each other.
But who who who made the first move to apologize?
Jesse's the type of person that I can't stand if
he's upset. He's got that kind of personality where I
might have a personality. We're like, oh, Stone Streets mad, Good,
let him sit there for a while, you know, you
know what I mean? You know those people where Jesse's
(31:47):
the type of person. It's like, I don't want Jesse
to be mad at me. I don't want Jesse to
be upset, so I need to bridge this gap here.
So you were the bigger person, not always, I'm not always.
I don't even remember in that moment what it was.
But I just know that we had a conversation, which is,
we don't have time to be mad at each other,
so let's just be super upfront and honest with each other.
(32:08):
But you know, the other thing about our show that
made it, all of us get along so well as
we don't work together all the time. You know, we're modulars.
So I'm working with Jesse the most, which means I'm
not working with Ti and Julie. I'm not working with
Ed and Sophia, so we don't have a lot of
time for each other to really get on each other's
nerves much as other ensemble shows. And finally, Aubrey Anderson
(32:30):
Emma's who played Lily your daughter. Yeah, well she's come
a long way. You know, we had two twins that
did not want to be that. We had a set
of twins that did not want to be there. They
cried all the time. So we fired their asses. Uh no,
we wed. Yeah, we did what a family would do,
and we removed them from a situation that they clearly
(32:50):
weren't having a good time and it was not worth it.
And they found they found um Aubrey and you know,
she she's so cute, so sweet when she got there,
but you know she she had her own struggles with
wanting to be there and doing it and she's really
come into her own as a young lady now. I'm
so proud of who her personality has become and what
(33:11):
she is. And what do you think the secret sauce
of the show was, Eric, I mean, just great writing,
great characters, very modern family. I mean the secret sauce
of the show is is families are universal. No matter
where you are, what country you're in, we all suffer
the same drama, the same stuff back and forth, and
(33:31):
it just it's it's all relatable. And even when we
would we would write something, you know, we would write
something on and I would think, like, there's nobody that's
gonna get that joker, nobody's gonna like that joke. We
would inevitably be out somewhere and be like, oh my god,
when you said that, that happened in my family, That
exact same thing happened. And that's where you know writers
(33:51):
are brilliant. They're like chefs. You know, you don't sit
down at a restaurant and look at the menu and
think like man Elk and blueberry jam and fog. It's
gonna go great together. It takes somebody to tell you
that's going to be good, and then you taste it,
you're like, that's really good. And that's what comedy writers do.
They they create the taste of what is funny. And
we've had the best writers maybe in Hollywood history, on
(34:14):
that long of a run of a TV show. So
what's ahead for you? When you think about, Okay, what
am I going to do next? Are you and your
cute girlfriend Lindsey going to take some time off? We're
talking about you, Lindsey. Um, she was sort of stacy
for a minute. I don't know what we're I don't
know what I'm gonna do. I'm not. But here's the
thing is what modern families afforded me the opportunity to
(34:35):
do is not worry about it. I don't want to
go away forever, because you know how Hollywood is. I
go away and people forget, you know, who I am
or what I've done, and they'll miss you even more
well potentially. And that's the other thing about getting to
play the character I got to play. People got to
know me, you know, for playing a character they don't
know they haven't gotten to know me, and usually people
don't like me as much as they like my character.
(34:57):
That's what I feel that must always be. Well, not
always is, but you know, it's hard to talk in
real life and be as funny as as as you
are when you're reading comedy writer's words, although you're pretty
damn funny that they have a completely different sense of
humor than my character does, which always catches people off guard.
But I'll find something to do that's meaningful and funny.
(35:19):
You're not you're not thinking about it, or you think,
n G, I'd love to do a play, or are
you just going to kind of savor the end of
this run. I'm gonna savor it and then jump in
and find something that is exciting. I've never done a
multicam comedy, like a traditional sitcom that that sounds fun
to me to do that, because it's like doing a
play every every week, and now there's so many opportunities
(35:41):
with so many outlets, which I guess the conversely, you
think it's so much content, how can anything breakthrough? It's
it's it's it's an incredible time but a challenging time
right now, right But I'm excited. That's the good news
is I'm thankful, I'm grateful, and I'm excited to see
what's next. Well, before we go, you have to tell
me quickly about this video you did with the Chiefs.
(36:01):
Randy Reid. Yeah, okay, explain to people who may not
Understandy reads the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs,
and I wanted to do a video celebrating Andy Reid
in the chief So I played his brother, Randy Reid,
seeing what he does, seeing what these guys do. It's
a lot different than what I do. I have a
jet ski business in Oxnard, California, and it's just something
my friend jered Well came up with the idea a
(36:22):
few years ago, and then my friend Jerry Collins, I
asked him if he wanted to help me write it,
and he came up with, you know a lot of
the stuff, and then we just went to training camp
and improvised it. But it was very popular in Kansas
City and Coach Reid was in it, and him being
in it really grounded it and made it feel real
and a lot of people Patrick Mahomes girlfriend as she
watched it apparently and was like, man, Andy Reid's brother
(36:44):
is he's something else and she's like, Patrick's like, that's er,
that's not. But that was happened a lot, a tremendous amount. Yeah,
she wasn't one of the only ones that I got
that message about. But it was just meant to be
a love letter to my favorite you know football team,
Kansas City Chiefs. Where are you to be sitting for
the Super Bowl? Do you have good seats? I'll tell
(37:05):
you where I'm sitting, and then you tell me if
you think they're going to be good seats with the
Commissioner of football. Oh oh, aren't you the one that'll
be fun? So are you going to be in a box?
You're gonna be in You don't want to be in
the stands. I picture you as want to be in
the stands. I mean to focus, I need to go
to the bathroom. When I need to go to the bathroom,
(37:25):
I don't want I love the stands. You're probably not
going to be super sociable because you're going to be
I'm not sociable. I'm not sociable. You are a football games.
I'm not. I want to just watch the game. I
don't want to chit chat. But no. The reason I'm
sitting with Roger is because five years ago he invited
me to the Super Bowl because his wife and he
and his daughters are big fans of the show. He
called me and said, we'd like you to come to
(37:47):
the super Bowl and I said, no, thank you, that's true.
You said no thing. I said, no, I'm not coming
to the super Bowl until the Chiefs are in it.
And he said, very funnily funny, that's not a word.
I think it might be. I just made it up.
He said, in a very funny way. Okay, if you
want to wait that long, that's up to you. And
I was like, okay, Roger, game on. And so the
(38:09):
last two years I've been Roger, the Chiefs are in
the a f C Championship rain check time, and this
year we won. So I'm he's made good on his
invitation to the to the super Bowl, and I made
good on me never coming to the super Bowl and
tell the Chiefs are in it, well, awesome. Well I
am rooting for the Chiefs because I love you, so
by extension, I love the chief Sorry to but they've
(38:34):
had a lot of fun. Are you the most famous
band Paul Jason skis. Are they all coming, Rob Wriggle,
I'm sure they'll all be here, but we're all fans. Well,
thank you, love seeing you. And that does it for
the special bonus episode of Next Question from Miami. Thank
you to sleep Number for the cozy podcast booth, and
(38:57):
thanks to my guest Eric stone Street for the on conversation.
I just love that guy, and thank you all for
taking the time to listen to this before the big game.
Enjoy the super Bowl. Check out my commercial. I think
it happens in the first quarter and what can I say?
I was brilliant. But don't blink because you'll miss me
until next time and my next question. I'm Katie Couric.
(39:23):
Next Question with Katie Kurik is a production of I
Heart Radio and Katie Curic Media. The executive producers are
Katie Currik, Courtney Litz, and Tyler Klang. The supervising producer
is Lauren Hansen. Our show producer is Bethan Macaluso. The
associate producers are Emily Pinto and Derek Clemens. Editing by
Derrek Clements, Dylan Fagan, and Lowell Berlante. Mixing by Dylan Fagan.
(39:47):
Our researcher is Gabriel Loser. For more information on today's episode,
go to Katie kurik dot com and follow us on
Twitter and Instagram at Katie Kurik. For more podcasts for
my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hi everyone, I'm Katie Kurrig and welcome to Next Question.
It's a special day in a special bonus episode because
I'm in Miami, everybody for Super Bowl fifty four. It's
the Kansas City Chiefs versus the San Francisco forty Niners.
Two teams, was something to prove to their die hard fans.
(00:25):
The forty Niners are headed to their seventh Super Bowl.
We support archy hard times, the low time. It's been
so long, so many bad years. Are taking it all
the way, are you. It's been fifty years since the
(00:46):
Kansas City Chiefs were lasting the Super Bowl. After a
lifetime watching the Chiefs, this is an incredible within sple.
This just means so much, not only to me, citizens
Iron City fans for both teams have been streaming into
this city all week, all wearing red and gold. By
(01:09):
the way, because for the first time in Super Bowl history,
the teams share the same colors, even though the forty
Niners are a little more on the scarlet side. While
the crowds are gathering all around Hard Rock Stadium, I've
set up shop nearby and the Sleep Number booth at
the Media Center, a giant space where their camera crews
(01:31):
and makeshift studio set up. People milling around a lot
of football players and it's kind of crazy here, but
a lot of fun. My guest today is a devoted
football fan. In fact, he might be the biggest Chiefs
fan of all time, and he's here wearing head to
toe Kansas City Chiefs gear. Eric stone Street, who plays
(01:53):
Cam Tucker on Modern Family. It is time for some
farm justice back home. When we have two alphableles, we
lock them in a pin and let them fight it out.
This is between Nanny and Luke. Come on, let's go.
Oh and help yourself to a gingerbread person. They're both
gluten and gender free. Hi, Eric stone Street, I am
(02:17):
so happy to see you, so happy to see one
of the nicest people on the planet. You are well,
thank you. That means a lot coming from you, because
you're one of the nicest people we try. Don't wait,
and you are obviously pretty darn jazzed, Eric, because you
are here to cheer on your team, Kansas City chief
(02:40):
So excited you got your hat on? Oh, I got
everything on? But but about come September or October. This
is basically all I wear in my wardrobe. Really, you know, look,
it's comfortable, it's it's it makes a statement. It represents
what I love football Kansas City. But no, I'm very excited.
I've been a fan of the Chiefs since I was
(03:02):
a little kid. You know. My aunt and uncle got
me um to go in their season tickets, and then
my dad got me season tickets when I was maybe
in eighth or ninth grade. I had season tickets all
through college. Then of course moved away to Chicago and
Los Angeles. But I've always maintained my Chiefs fandom. Um
and knowledge, you know, I football knowledge, you know. I
(03:23):
just I mean, I recognize all these guys walking around legends.
I just saw, Oh my god, there's John Randalls, like
there's Anthony Munos. You know. So I know so much
about football. So being here and now representing the Chiefs
and representing my team and having a reason to be
at Super Bowl is so fun. Now, did you play
football when you were younger? I did. I just told
Anthony Munio so I had a poster of him in
my room, even though he was a Cincinnati Bengal and
(03:44):
I was a Chiefs fan. I said, I had a
poster in you in my room because I wanted to
be an offensive tackle, but I never got big enough
or good at football. I played in high school and
you know I was fine, but never to the level
that I would ever have garnered any kind of stuff.
You grew, I mean, you grew to love the sport
to play it, but also just as a super fan,
(04:05):
just a just a fan and just love the game
and love love everything about it. And you've met a
lot of players, I know, Eric, when you were younger
growing up in Kansas City. And there's one actually very
moving story. You met a young player at a mall's
signing named Joe Delaney. Can you tell us that story? Yeah,
I was at I was at Indian Springs mall and
(04:26):
there were two players out signing autographs, him and J. T.
Smith I believe was the other one. But I got
Joe Delaney's autograph, and that sort of was the moment
that you know, you look back of like when did
your fan fan hood start? For me? And it was
were you then well six, I mean seven, seven or eight,
you know, um, because I don't remember what year he
(04:47):
passed away, um. But then of course I got his
autograph and he played I think that next season, and
then he passed away trying to you know, save a
kid and uh who was drowning and drowning and he
drowned and self. Yeah, I mean he was going to
be that was so heartbreaking, going to be one of
the greatest that was back in I guess three or something, right,
I'm not sure what the year was. Yeah, yeah, he
(05:09):
died in nineteen three, so I would have been probably
uh ten when that when I met him, And so
it was shortly thereafter where this accident took place, just
a year or so afterwards after that. You know, I
can't help but ask you one question about this, Eric,
because I just came from Los Angeles because I was
at a stand up to cancer scientific summit and Eric,
(05:32):
by the way, has been incredibly supportive of the work
we're doing its stand up, but boy, Los Angeles was
just uh it just like if a city could cry,
Los Angeles was crying stunned. I was in Kansas City
when I found out the news, and immediately reflected on,
you know, as we all do, what our personal experience
(05:54):
was and has been with people that we've lost or
passed away, And the story that came to mind for
me was, um, he came to the set of Modern
Family one day. He we got word that hey, Kobe's
coming to Modern Family. We're like what, And so he
comes and watches this rehearse and shoot and he was
just sitting there, just taking it all in. And I said, so,
(06:15):
what do you think, Kobe, And he goes, well, it's
cool how you guys rehearse because it's like us setting
an offense. You know, you have to be here so
she can be here, and then if you move that way,
then this person counters and does this. So it's really
neat for me to see all this happen. And then
at the end, I said, so what made you, you know,
come today? And he goes, you know, I woke up
this morning and I just I felt like I wanted
to watch something funny. And what I thought that he
(06:37):
was so cool is like most people just turn on
the TV and watch something or but Kobe Bryant's like, no,
I'm gonna go to a set in the sound stage
and watch something. And then he says, and plus, you
told me to stop by sometime. And I'm like, Kobe,
and he goes, you did last year he told me
to stop by, And I'm like, well, yeah, but like,
who knows if he was serious. I know I told
him to stop by, but he knows I he was
(06:58):
serious about probably in passing, like yeah, fine, but the
fact that he remembered that and then referenced and made
a joke about it, but came and so hungry to learn,
and and he referenced that, you know, why would I
go to any other show? You guys are the best.
I want to watch the best do what they do.
And and every time I saw him was just so
delightful and such a nice person, and always with his
(07:19):
family and would always introduce and ppictures and whatever. Just
heart heartbreaking, tragic, and so sad for all those families,
all those families, and those young girls, and a lot
of the surviving children left that one family without a
mom or a dad or a sister. It's just I
don't know. But obviously we're continuing to keep Vanessa Briant
(07:43):
in our prayers because, uh, it's going to be a
long difficult road for her. And I thought, what what
Barack Obama? President Obama said? You know, he was just
getting started on his second act, and I do believe
he would have done great things. But I hope. Absent
of that, you know, people will be inspired to do
great things. But that's what he did. I think that's
(08:04):
what he did while he was living, and I think
that's his legacy. He'll continue to do that, um after
he's gone. Yeah, Well, getting back to I'm going to
talk to you about modern family, which is ending soon
and I'm sure you're sad about that, but but let's
let's get back to football just for a few minutes. Um.
You you go to almost every game? How do you
(08:24):
do that with your schedule? Well, this season with Patrick Mahomes,
I just decided that this was a year I wasn't
going to miss a game. So I went to every
Chief's home game this year. UM, with the notion that
we would be here. I having gotten to know the
general manager of the Chiefs, Brett Beach and Andy Reid,
the head coach a little bit, and marked on him
and the president. You know, I just really felt like,
(08:45):
given what I listen to them say, this was we
were going to make it to the super Bowl this year.
And there's plenty of documentation of me saying that. And
I'm not a cocky guy. I don't like to put
the cart before the horse is type of thing. But
it just felt like we were so close last year.
Our roster got better this year, so given that we
(09:07):
shouldn't make we should go to the super Bowl. Now
it's called any given Sunday for a reason. Any team
can beat any team any day. But I just felt
like we were going to be here now when you
went to those games where you're do you still have
family in Kansas City? And you do? So are they
all so into it? Are they coming to the super Bowl? No? Well,
just Lindsay and I are here at the super Bowl. Um,
(09:27):
but my mom would come to all the home games,
would get her there, and my sister would come and um,
and what about like friends from high school? Friends from
are you still close to them? Some? Some? For sure
we stay in touch. I have a lot of friends,
and I'm still in touch with college buddies a lot.
And um, where'd you go to college? Kansas State? Oh god,
my god, you are hardcore Kansas you know. But there's
(09:47):
something to that, though, and something that I think you appreciate,
can appreciate and other people can appreciate it. I'm proud
of where I'm from, you know, I'm my parents chose
to raise me in Kansas because that's where they're from.
And I don't like it when places get painted with
with broad brushes. I'm not a fan of broad strokes
in that way. I don't want people to just think
that everyone from Kansas is a certain way or any
(10:08):
everyone from that part of the country. There are good
people everywhere. I agree with you. I love to put
the spotlight on where I'm from and draw attention to
where I'm from because they're great food there, there's great entertainment,
there's great culture, there's great people, great sports, obviously with
the Royals and the Chiefs. So I love being from
Kansas and I love telling people about it. That's so nice,
(10:29):
and I think you should be and there's no reason
to be proud. But I think in the current culture
and landscape that we're in, you know, people people that
I identify, we're so tribal, and we make assumptions about
people that are completely untrue, and you know, I just
wish everybody would be not not be so hard on
each other. You know, has your relationship with the game
(10:52):
changed at all? Obviously the game has gotten some some
tough press, and understandably so, with the number of injuries
with ct E and and on field collisions and traumatic
brain injuries, and I'm just curious, Um, you know, has
it changed your relationship with football at all? You know
it has It hasn't for me. I haven't played the game.
(11:13):
Of course, I'm empathetic to people that you know, have
suffered you know, health issues because of playing football. I
think of the people that have suffered that. And of
course I don't know this for a fact. I'm just
basing it off. My interviews that I've seen would all
say they would do it again, like they would all
play the sport again the same way because of what
(11:36):
they got out of it, you know, So I have
to yield to players. I think the NFL is is
doing a lot to make the game safer. They are,
They're improving helmets, there are some changes in the rules,
and a lot of resources have been devoted to making
the sports safer. Um. And it starts with youth football.
It starts with you know, a generate teaching this new
(11:57):
generation of kids how to tackle and how not to
put yourself in the situation to potentially get you know, injured.
So hopefully they're making the right strides and um uh,
you know, I feel like concussions in general in all
sports are taken are treated much more seriously. Now. I
was talking to someone the other day. They said, oh,
you bang your head and be like, give them smelling salts,
(12:20):
get back out their kids. And now, of course I
think that there's so much more medical information that that
people take it much much more serious. I think so.
And I think as long as the NFL, and I
know they are in colleges and everyone's you know, making
strides and using the technology for good to make the
game safer than I think that's obviously moving in the
(12:42):
right direction there. So, um a Super Bowl prediction from
Sleep Number. By the way, because we're here in the
Sleep Number booth. Um, you know, Sleep Numbers working with
a lot of NFL teams, including the Fansas City because
they're really trying to help sleep is kind of very
underrated and it's so critically important and it's a lack
of sleep is an epidemic in this country. So according
(13:05):
to Sleep Number, Kansas City is a slightly more well
rested city than San Francisco. So they're putting their money
on the Chiefs. What do you think of that? I
love it. I love it. I know a lot of
the Chiefs players, and they all have their sleep numbers.
They all use them. Really, as we're talking, Travis Kelsey's
right above us talking about his sleep number. Yeah, isn't
that great? And uh others I think that's his mom
(13:27):
or something. Yeah, that's awesome. Uh. I'm happy to hear
anyone predict the Chiefs to win from any angles. So
what are the what are the bookies or whatever they are?
They one and a half point favorite, which is essentially
a coin toss. Yeah, it's a good It's gonna be
a great game, that's what we have. Do you think
it'll be high scoring? I do. I think it's going
(13:47):
to be in the thirties because I guess people were
a little bit disappointed last year, right because it was
such it was a defensive battle. I don't think this
is gonna be a defensive battle. I think it's going
to be an offensive juggernaut. I think we're gonna go
back and forth on each other a little bit. I'm
just so nervous. I'm so excited. It's just a control thing,
you know. It's the same reason you get nervous, you know,
(14:08):
doing things that you don't have any flying for example.
You know, you get nervous about that because you're you're
not making any of the decisions. I'm not I'm not
a coach, so everything's in the hands of and it's
a good thing. I'm not a coach. Let's be very
clear about that. Would you'd like to be a coach,
but you are You're not a coach, but you play
one on TV. And speaking of that, we're going to
talk about the last season of Modern Family. We're gonna
(14:33):
We're done. We're going to do it right after this.
We're back with Eric stone Street. We're here. If you
guys are hearing some ambient noise, we're in the media
center for the Super Bowl. So we've got a lot
(14:56):
of crews milling around, a lot of football players, uh,
people with microphones kind of in search of right anything
to them. So, um, let's talk about Modern Family. I
can't believe it. You must eleven years and twenty two Emmys,
including two for you, my friends. Um you, I mean,
(15:18):
you must be feeling so many different emotions, right and
it has to do with what we just talked about,
which is football, which is the most exciting time in
my sports life. The Chiefs are in the Super Bowl,
while at the same time it's one of the saddest
moments in my professional life. Saying goodbye to a dream
role in a dream job for the last eleven years. Well,
(15:39):
I mean, how lucky, right, What is Dr Seussa say,
don't cry because because it's over, smile because it happened. Yeah,
something like that. Yeah, yeah, And that's definitely our approach,
like we are most definitely thankful and grateful that it happened. Um,
it's gonna be hard. You know, I've kind of said
I didn't go to acting school, but I know one
(15:59):
thing they don't teach you in acting school is how
to be on the show eleven years and develop a
hundred and some odd different relationships with crew and cast,
and then all of a sudden say goodbye to that.
You don't learn how to do that. You have to
do that. And you know, you've said goodbye to jobs
and people that you've loved and worked with for years
and years. This is the first time I've ever had
(16:20):
this extended period of time in my life with the
same people for nine some eleven some five six years.
So I'm just gonna try to keep my heart and
mind and eyes open and enjoy every moment of it
and let the emotions hit me when they hit me. Um,
and they've started to most definitely. You know, was Cam
(16:42):
the role of a lifetime for you? Eric? Oh? I
think so there's you know, people have always said like, oh,
aren't you worried about being typecast? And you know, and
that's a popular question, I guess for people to ask.
But if that, if that's it, I mean, it's great.
I mean, it's just I never imagined it for my career.
(17:04):
I was going to ask you, how did you get
that role? And it was it was it competitive? You know,
how did it happen? It was competitive. I came into
the process late. They had cast a few of the
other parts, and I you know, had four auditions for
the for the for the for the role, you know,
which is an uncommon in Hollywood to keep kind of
having to jump through hoops. But you know, Stephen Chris,
(17:26):
the creators of the show, they had an idea of
what maybe Cam looked like. And I don't think I
was it at first, and so they you know, passed
on me, not meaning I was a terrible actor or
terrible performer, but they just didn't think it. But to
their credit and thankfully to them, they kept being reminded
(17:46):
by my audition and they kept their minds open and
their hearts open, and they were like, you know what,
bring that guy back in because we keep thinking about
his audition. And then they decided to test me. And
I tested it twentye and tested at ABC and got
the party and us that's the rest of the story.
So in two thousand nine, when this show started, Eric,
(18:07):
it was truly groundbreaking, and I was so thrilled that it.
You know, it showed all kinds of underrepresented people on
television living normal lives. How did that evolve? Because I
feel like the country has evolved and attitudes have evolved,
perhaps in some ways because of of what you did
(18:30):
on Modern Family. How did you continue to kind of
update and push the envelope during the course of the show. Well,
just as life happens, you know, that's the beauty of
the blueprint of that show is is that as a family,
you know, it ebbs and flows right right. Tragedies happened,
Shocking things happen, growth, you know, job changes, financial issues, whatever,
(18:54):
those all things, those things all happened. So with Mention Cam,
the goal always was from the beginning, that make people laugh.
You know, we want to make We want these characters
to make people laugh. We want these characters to be
a mirror for everyone, not just a mirror for gay people,
just a mirror for a lesbian couple, but a mirror
for everyone. And I think the writers did such a
(19:14):
good job of putting us in situations that that weren't
defined by our sexuality. I always said from the beginning,
Mitch and Cam's goal was to prove that they could
be terrible as terrible parents as anyone else. And as
as you know, it's like gay marriage. People would say,
why can't gay people be as miserable as the exactly
(19:34):
and and and you know, we just wanted what defined
Minch and Cam to be that they were men, that
they were partners, that they were fathers, and they were sons,
and they were you know, all these other things, and
let the fact that they were gay be one of
the things that they are. But certainly isn't at the
top of the list of what everybody needs to know
about them. You know, it's like it's not important. I
(19:57):
was gonna ask you how much of you was in camp,
because listen, you know, you grew up on a farm.
Can grew up on a farm. You guys have a
lot of similarities. You like to clown? Do I use
that as a verb? Yeah? Yeah, yeah. What does that mean? Clowning? Yeah, clowning.
It means you like to dress up as a clown. Well,
but clowning is comedy. I was I was clowning earlier
(20:19):
because I keep tripping on this carpet out there for
some reason, and I literally tripped leaving that way, and
then when I came back, I tripped at the same place.
I'm like, how did I trip at the exact same place?
And then there was a group of firemen there, and
I knew that they were listening to me, So then
I said, I tripped at this same exact place, and
then I tripped again just for their benefit. That's like
an example of clowning, you know, uh, just having fun
and you know, entertaining people. I wanted to do that
(20:41):
when I was a kid. I wanted to be in
the circus and to get to be on Modern Family
and play Bisbo the clown in the greatest circus of
all time Hollywood. Um was just a complete, complete dream
come true. But did the writers take some aspects of
your personality and background and really incorporate them into the character.
Oh yeah, all of us. You know, they sat down
with us and just listened and we talked and they
(21:03):
just mind what they wanted and left some behind. And UM,
so thankful for that. Grounds of characters. Yeah, and you
you know, one of the things I wanted to ask
you is about this new attitude about casting certain people
for certain roles. Like now, people are offended or take
issue when a character who does not identify as similarly
(21:27):
as the character is cast. For example, a trans person
should play a trans person, not a non trans person.
A gay person should play a gay person gay character,
you know, latinos should play latinos, on and on and on.
And I wonder if you've gotten any pushback because you
are not gay for playing a gay man. I think
there are definitely people out there that have a problem
(21:49):
with it, and did when I got the part. I don't.
You know. Here's the thing, Hollywood has a tried and
true method of how they cast parts. Right, they bring
people in and then the crew leaders and producers of
the show decide who they think is best. Now, did
a lot of gay people audition for the role of
cam Right. You know, I did a lot of straight people, absolutely,
(22:12):
and I think it's a real slippery slope when we
start saying, okay, we just want you to check this
box to tell me if you're gay or not before
we let you audition for this part. I mean, how
would that even work? Like, how would you even say, like, no,
I swear I'm gay. It's like, and what about people
that aren't comfortable with being out? But are you know,
quietly gay? It's like, well, no, but I'm gay. But
I can't say that I'm gay because I don't want
(22:34):
my parents to know yet. But no, I'm gay. I
can audition for this part. It just doesn't make sense.
I mean, we have to just obviously give everyone a chance,
and I think opened the doors for for for people
who haven't haven't had opportunities. I don't know. I mean,
this is my opinion. I Ope, it doesn't get me
in trouble, but I feel like actors, that's what acting is.
(22:55):
You take on the persona of someone else. Well, that's
the gift to me from a performer. The gift to
me is to be able to play someone like that
like that. That's the exchange I bring who I am
and what's in my heart to that character, and that
character then returns a tremendous amount to me. That's the
exchange we have, and me bringing my life experiences to
someone else is what we should sort of be celebrating. Um,
(23:19):
but I just think, you know, you don't want to
go down that road because uh so, then I just
think it's opportunity as long as everyone's getting an opportunity
to audition. And look, I can make the case that
for twelve years before I got on Modern Family, I
didn't get a tremendous amount of opportunities. But maybe because
of the way I looked, I didn't maybe get Cam
(23:41):
because of me being a heavy set guy. They didn't
think that that was who Cam was. And so there
are all kinds of reasons people don't get parts. There's
only usually one reason they do, you know. There's it's
because somebody decided that that's who they want to play
the part. As long as there's opportun unity and people
are allowed to be in the room equally, which I'm
(24:04):
supportive of, you gotta yield to the creative process, which
is this is who we want to play this part.
And I think just be aware of your implicit biases
and make sure that people are open to the possibilities,
just as you had to open their eyes that you
could play cam as well as somebody who looked different
than you, you know. And my mom always, you know,
(24:25):
said when they when the Chauffeur started, they were like,
people would say, oh, well are you what do you
think of your son playing you know, a gay guy
on TV? And I told her she said, well, what
am I supposed to say to that? I don't care?
And I said, Mom, what you need to say to
them is that you watched your son murder people on TV.
And no one ever asked that question, what's it like
to watch your son murder someone on TV? You know,
that never was a question anyone never thought to ask.
(24:48):
But bringing that back to what your initial question was
is like, so you know, you're going to have to
find people with real life experiences and everything if you
start using that line and cast, so you have to
cast convicted villains, which murders. Again, if you're out of
jail and they've done your time, you should and you're
an actor and now you have an agent, come on
into the audition. You know, for that murderer show us
(25:11):
how it's done. What does Eric really think of his
Modern family castmates. You'll find out when we come back
and we are back with Modern Families Eric stone Street,
So eleven seasons, Is there any Are there any particularly
(25:35):
intense memories you have, either funny poignant of experiences you
had on the show, there are so many. I mean
the Fizbo episode, crying calling my parents and telling them
that there's an episode called Fizbo the Clown that we're
shooting next week. It was a pretty big emotional moment.
But I would say when why was that so emotional? Well,
(25:57):
because I wanted to be a clown. My dad gave
me the name Fizbo the Clown when I was a kid,
and now you know here I showed the writers an
article about me as a kid, and now it's an
episode of television. Um, I would say, I always go
back to when we found out the show was picked
up for what's called It's Back nine. You know, when
I got the job, audition for the job and got
(26:17):
the job. That was awesome. I was very excited, but
you know that's my job to get those jobs. So
I was like measured Well, now we have to, and
then the show got picked up, and it's like, well,
that's out of my control. That's not up to me.
I did the best I could. Now it's up to
the show creators and the networks and the studio to
see if this fits on TV. Not not under my control.
So that was a great That was a great day,
but not the biggest day. But the day that the
(26:38):
show got picked up for the back nine, meaning we
were going to do a complete season of twenty four
episodes on ABC, that started to pay pave away from
my mind to imagine, oh man, we're gonna be on
TV a long time, because if we do one full season,
they're never gonna do one full season and just cut us.
They're gonna do a second season. And if they're gonna
do a second season, now we're getting kind of if
(27:00):
in syndication, so they're not gonna let it go after
two seasons. So we're gonna do three. And if we
do three, ways four and oh my gosh, four five.
So then you started managing like I'm going to be
on TV for a while. So I think still to
this day, the day the Back nine got picked up
is the most important day and is what is responsible
to leading me here right now. I want to name
(27:20):
some of the people in modern family. I just want
you to kind of give me a short instantaneous reaction. Okay,
Ed O'Neill, legend, just down, just down home. All he
wants to do is have something in his crock pot
and an mm A fight on TV, holding holding one
of his collectible knives, just sitting at home. Ed O'Neill
(27:41):
right now, no doubt, is cooking something, holding one of
his knives in his house and watching a sporting event.
That's Ed O'Neill. It's super nice, so very funny or
not that life very funny, very funny, very funny. Different
kind of funny than Jay. Yes, different. I mean at
(28:02):
seventy some years old, he's from Ohio. I mean he's
got different life perspective and he sometimes catches you off
guard with what his humor is. Yeah. Sophia Vegara generous, beautiful,
inside out, nice, um hilarious, self deprecating. Rico Rodriguez, who
plays Manning sweet just a good kid. Can't get any
(28:25):
better than then. Rico Julie Bowen energy goes twenty four
hundred miles a day. I mean she is a mile
a minute, good mom, carrying, polite. I always really liked her.
Oh yeah, she's great, isn't she graz smart too? Very brown,
brown graduate. Yeah. Tyrell uh ty Burrell is so uh.
(28:52):
He's like a what do you call it? A U
when a guy can do everything. He wants to make
his own sausage, he wants to brew his own beer.
He wants to do this, he wants met him at
an event and he was super nice. And I met
his wife. They were lovely. She's a baker, I mean,
he's he's he's just they sound very crunchy. Well, they're
from Utah. They live they live up in Utah. And
(29:14):
he's just he's an awesome, friendly, awesome guy. Sarah Highland talented.
I've blown away by Sarah's acting. When I got on
the show and I started seeing her in episodes, I'm like, oh, wow,
she's great. She's really good, aerial, Winter sweet nice. Um.
(29:35):
Do you worry about child actors? I do not. These kids.
Nolan could smart. He's you know, he's a mensa and
he plays a dumb character. Yeah, he's very smart. I
should be I should be too. Yeah, let's let's let's
let's let's look. I think we need to we we
(29:56):
should just start a petition. Well, we need to get
them to lower the standards, and then we'll get in.
And finally I want to ask you, well, actually to
two more. Your name's on here, but I'm humble, incredibly challenged,
wonderful lover. Yeah, I enjoy him in bed. I enjoy
(30:19):
him very much, all of him in bed. He's a
wonderful guy. Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Oh man, Jesse's you know,
are you guys super tight? You know we are super tight.
But here's the thing that's so great about Jesse and I.
His relationship were so different, like and we are a
great example of how people can be completely different and
(30:41):
have a great friendship. Like there's no doubt that I'm
here at the greatest sporting event of all time and
he's probably at Barber streisand tonight. You know, like we
do completely different things, and we have so many operate
moments from our past. We're all tweet out or instagram
out a picture of me at brock Lessner's mm A
FI and he's seeing Lady Gaga in Las Vegas for
(31:02):
the thirtieth time. Uh, what is m m A. It's
don't mis martial arts. Sorry, I knew I was thinking.
I couldn't remember the mixed part. But my point is
is we we have a fantastic relationship. We've only really
been mad at each other a couple of times, Like
where we when did you get mad? At the second
second season we got mad at each other for something
and I don't remember what it was, but it was stupid,
(31:26):
and we both just went to each other and we're like,
you know, what are we doing? We're gonna be working
together forever, so we can't be mad at each other.
But who who who made the first move to apologize?
Jesse's the type of person that I can't stand if
he's upset. He's got that kind of personality where I
might have a personality. We're like, oh, Stone Streets mad, Good,
let him sit there for a while, you know, you
know what I mean? You know those people where Jesse's
(31:47):
the type of person. It's like, I don't want Jesse
to be mad at me. I don't want Jesse to
be upset, so I need to bridge this gap here.
So you were the bigger person, not always, I'm not always.
I don't even remember in that moment what it was.
But I just know that we had a conversation, which is,
we don't have time to be mad at each other,
so let's just be super upfront and honest with each other.
(32:08):
But you know, the other thing about our show that
made it, all of us get along so well as
we don't work together all the time. You know, we're modulars.
So I'm working with Jesse the most, which means I'm
not working with Ti and Julie. I'm not working with
Ed and Sophia, so we don't have a lot of
time for each other to really get on each other's
nerves much as other ensemble shows. And finally, Aubrey Anderson
(32:30):
Emma's who played Lily your daughter. Yeah, well she's come
a long way. You know, we had two twins that
did not want to be that. We had a set
of twins that did not want to be there. They
cried all the time. So we fired their asses. Uh no,
we wed. Yeah, we did what a family would do,
and we removed them from a situation that they clearly
(32:50):
weren't having a good time and it was not worth it.
And they found they found um Aubrey and you know,
she she's so cute, so sweet when she got there,
but you know she she had her own struggles with
wanting to be there and doing it and she's really
come into her own as a young lady now. I'm
so proud of who her personality has become and what
(33:11):
she is. And what do you think the secret sauce
of the show was, Eric, I mean, just great writing,
great characters, very modern family. I mean the secret sauce
of the show is is families are universal. No matter
where you are, what country you're in, we all suffer
the same drama, the same stuff back and forth, and
(33:31):
it just it's it's all relatable. And even when we
would we would write something, you know, we would write
something on and I would think, like, there's nobody that's
gonna get that joker, nobody's gonna like that joke. We
would inevitably be out somewhere and be like, oh my god,
when you said that, that happened in my family, That
exact same thing happened. And that's where you know writers
(33:51):
are brilliant. They're like chefs. You know, you don't sit
down at a restaurant and look at the menu and
think like man Elk and blueberry jam and fog. It's
gonna go great together. It takes somebody to tell you
that's going to be good, and then you taste it,
you're like, that's really good. And that's what comedy writers do.
They they create the taste of what is funny. And
we've had the best writers maybe in Hollywood history, on
(34:14):
that long of a run of a TV show. So
what's ahead for you? When you think about, Okay, what
am I going to do next? Are you and your
cute girlfriend Lindsey going to take some time off? We're
talking about you, Lindsey. Um, she was sort of stacy
for a minute. I don't know what we're I don't
know what I'm gonna do. I'm not. But here's the
thing is what modern families afforded me the opportunity to
(34:35):
do is not worry about it. I don't want to
go away forever, because you know how Hollywood is. I
go away and people forget, you know, who I am
or what I've done, and they'll miss you even more
well potentially. And that's the other thing about getting to
play the character I got to play. People got to
know me, you know, for playing a character they don't
know they haven't gotten to know me, and usually people
don't like me as much as they like my character.
(34:57):
That's what I feel that must always be. Well, not
always is, but you know, it's hard to talk in
real life and be as funny as as as you
are when you're reading comedy writer's words, although you're pretty
damn funny that they have a completely different sense of
humor than my character does, which always catches people off guard.
But I'll find something to do that's meaningful and funny.
(35:19):
You're not you're not thinking about it, or you think,
n G, I'd love to do a play, or are
you just going to kind of savor the end of
this run. I'm gonna savor it and then jump in
and find something that is exciting. I've never done a
multicam comedy, like a traditional sitcom that that sounds fun
to me to do that, because it's like doing a
play every every week, and now there's so many opportunities
(35:41):
with so many outlets, which I guess the conversely, you
think it's so much content, how can anything breakthrough? It's
it's it's it's an incredible time but a challenging time
right now, right But I'm excited. That's the good news
is I'm thankful, I'm grateful, and I'm excited to see
what's next. Well, before we go, you have to tell
me quickly about this video you did with the Chiefs.
(36:01):
Randy Reid. Yeah, okay, explain to people who may not
Understandy reads the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs,
and I wanted to do a video celebrating Andy Reid
in the chief So I played his brother, Randy Reid,
seeing what he does, seeing what these guys do. It's
a lot different than what I do. I have a
jet ski business in Oxnard, California, and it's just something
my friend jered Well came up with the idea a
(36:22):
few years ago, and then my friend Jerry Collins, I
asked him if he wanted to help me write it,
and he came up with, you know a lot of
the stuff, and then we just went to training camp
and improvised it. But it was very popular in Kansas
City and Coach Reid was in it, and him being
in it really grounded it and made it feel real
and a lot of people Patrick Mahomes girlfriend as she
watched it apparently and was like, man, Andy Reid's brother
(36:44):
is he's something else and she's like, Patrick's like, that's er,
that's not. But that was happened a lot, a tremendous amount. Yeah,
she wasn't one of the only ones that I got
that message about. But it was just meant to be
a love letter to my favorite you know football team,
Kansas City Chiefs. Where are you to be sitting for
the Super Bowl? Do you have good seats? I'll tell
(37:05):
you where I'm sitting, and then you tell me if
you think they're going to be good seats with the
Commissioner of football. Oh oh, aren't you the one that'll
be fun? So are you going to be in a box?
You're gonna be in You don't want to be in
the stands. I picture you as want to be in
the stands. I mean to focus, I need to go
to the bathroom. When I need to go to the bathroom,
(37:25):
I don't want I love the stands. You're probably not
going to be super sociable because you're going to be
I'm not sociable. I'm not sociable. You are a football games.
I'm not. I want to just watch the game. I
don't want to chit chat. But no. The reason I'm
sitting with Roger is because five years ago he invited
me to the Super Bowl because his wife and he
and his daughters are big fans of the show. He
called me and said, we'd like you to come to
(37:47):
the super Bowl and I said, no, thank you, that's true.
You said no thing. I said, no, I'm not coming
to the super Bowl until the Chiefs are in it.
And he said, very funnily funny, that's not a word.
I think it might be. I just made it up.
He said, in a very funny way. Okay, if you
want to wait that long, that's up to you. And
I was like, okay, Roger, game on. And so the
(38:09):
last two years I've been Roger, the Chiefs are in
the a f C Championship rain check time, and this
year we won. So I'm he's made good on his
invitation to the to the super Bowl, and I made
good on me never coming to the super Bowl and
tell the Chiefs are in it, well, awesome. Well I
am rooting for the Chiefs because I love you, so
by extension, I love the chief Sorry to but they've
(38:34):
had a lot of fun. Are you the most famous
band Paul Jason skis. Are they all coming, Rob Wriggle,
I'm sure they'll all be here, but we're all fans. Well,
thank you, love seeing you. And that does it for
the special bonus episode of Next Question from Miami. Thank
you to sleep Number for the cozy podcast booth, and
(38:57):
thanks to my guest Eric stone Street for the on conversation.
I just love that guy, and thank you all for
taking the time to listen to this before the big game.
Enjoy the super Bowl. Check out my commercial. I think
it happens in the first quarter and what can I say?
I was brilliant. But don't blink because you'll miss me
until next time and my next question. I'm Katie Couric.
(39:23):
Next Question with Katie Kurik is a production of I
Heart Radio and Katie Curic Media. The executive producers are
Katie Currik, Courtney Litz, and Tyler Klang. The supervising producer
is Lauren Hansen. Our show producer is Bethan Macaluso. The
associate producers are Emily Pinto and Derek Clemens. Editing by
Derrek Clements, Dylan Fagan, and Lowell Berlante. Mixing by Dylan Fagan.
(39:47):
Our researcher is Gabriel Loser. For more information on today's episode,
go to Katie kurik dot com and follow us on
Twitter and Instagram at Katie Kurik. For more podcasts for
my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Host
Katie Couric
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