‘Modern Family’ star Jesse Tyler Ferguson exposes cruel jab fans keep throwing at him

Jesse Tyler Ferguson recently got candid and remembered the Modern Family lines people repeat to him the most.

On Monday, March 23, Ferguson attended the opening night of Giant on Broadway in New York City, where he talked to PEOPLE magazine about his famous television sitcom Modern Family.

Reflecting on his show, which ran for 11 seasons on ABC from 2009 to 2020, the 50-year-old American actor opened up about the most quoted lines he often hears from people.

He told the outlet that there is one word “Shame” he hears the most while out and about, as his character, Mitchell Pritchett, would often say it out loud.

The Cocaine Bear star shared, “People are always saying ‘shame’ to my face.,” adding, “And also, ‘Where’s Lily?’” because he and his onscreen husband Cam Tucker, played by Eric Stonestreet, had trouble keeping track of their daughter, Lily Tucker-Pritchett, played by Aubrey Anderson-Emmons.

As the conversation shifted to his latest project, the play TRU, Ferguson, who is playing celebrated author Truman Capote, said, “I’m doing this play very immersively for 99 people a night in a brownstone … a Gilded Age brownstone on the Upper East Side.”

“So that alone really intrigued me — to be able to do a play really intimately. Last summer I did Shakespeare in the Park for 2,000 people a night, so to do something for 99 people a night just feels so different and so scary,” he admitted.

Notably, Ferguson always looks for things that “scare” him as well as give him a “challenge.”

“And then to do it intimately and then also let it be Truman Capote, which is in itself such a hard thing to tackle, it’s been a good thing for me, because I rarely get scared now,” he unveiled.

“I’ve done things that have really scared me and they always pay off in dividends, so I’m always looking for the next thing that scares me and this was certainly it,” Jesse Tyler Ferguson shared.