Judy Greer didn’t want to play Claire Dunphy on Modern Family

Eleven seasons on ABC’s popular sitcom Modern familyHer fans knew and loved actress Julie Bowen as the character Claire Dunphy. But on a recent episode of Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s podcast Dinner is on meJudy Greer revealed that she actually turned down an audition for the role of Claire.

“I thought, ‘I don’t think I’m going to audition for this.’ “I was really torn, but obviously in the end it wasn’t that way,” said Greer Ferguson, who played Claire’s younger brother Mitchell Pritchett Modern family. “Who knows if I would have even gotten it? I just thought, ‘I don’t know if I want to be America’s mother yet.'”

The actress best known for her supporting roles in popular 2000s films such as: 13 Next 30, What women wantAnd 27 dressesShe explained that she was tired of being on a family sitcom while also playing a matriarch because it “felt so limiting compared to what I was already doing.”

“It’s not just about the perception of who you are as an actor, but also the lifestyle,” she said. “I thought to myself, ‘Well, I really like traveling, I like making all these movies, I like going to all these places and I like meeting all these people.'”

Greer said she was hesitant to work on the television series Modern family because she was in her 30s at the time and said she was already playing characters who were mothers and she didn’t want to be pigeonholed.

“In a movie, people kind of see it and then forget about it,” she said. “On a TV show, it’s just like being a mother. This is it.”

Modern familyThe epic 2009 television series lasted from 2009 to 2020 and earned high ratings, 22 Emmy awards and a total of 250 episodes. Bowen also won two Emmys for her performance as Claire.
“I loved this job and I love the work, but I always thought that if Claire Dunphy was the last job I ever had, then I’ve had a good life,” Bowen said recently People.