'Modern Family' star Jesse Tyler Ferguson speaks at Penn

Clad in a brown sweater, collared shirt and matching pants, he could have been mistaken as his alter ego, Mitchell Pritchett.

But actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s fiery personality was unmistakable Wednesday night in Zellerbach Theater at the Annenberg Center for Performing Arts.

“Well I’m very talented,” he joked nonchalantly about his acting career.

Best known for his role on the award-winning sitcom Modern Family, Ferguson began his career on Broadway, creating the role of Leaf Coneybear in “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” and playing Frances Flute in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer’s Night Dream.”

It all began when Ferguson saw a performance of “Alice in Wonderland” at age six.

“I was a really shy kid,” he said. “I don’t know why I wanted to stand in front of strangers and recite … lines.”

After charging his parents for countless performances in his living room, Ferguson went on to attend the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City. “It was a lot of pretending to be the color orange,” he said.

Despite his job being such a huge presence in life, he said “it doesn’t feel like work.”

Although he’s proud of Modern Family’s success, Ferguson still enjoys his relative anonymity. He said he doesn’t mind going to a coffee shop to read a book or taking himself out to dinner every now and then.

At one point, the actor noticed a sea of Blackberrys and iPhones pointed toward him in the audience. Aware that the students were sneaking photos of him, Ferguson addressed the crowd, saying, “[that’s why I’m] constantly smiling for a picture.”

Ferguson said that he liked playing characters who have a sense of humor but take themselves a little too seriously, referring to his character Mitchell.

As funny as Mitchell can be in Modern Family, there is a seriousness to the role, too, Ferguson said.

“It’s because we’re representing [the gay community] and there is such a spotlight on us,” he said, himself a member of the gay community. “We’re representing that [group] in a network television sitcom.”

Ferguson has always been vocal about his sexuality and said he likes the legitimacy it adds to his character.

College freshman Theodore Schneider said that his favorite part was hearing about how much passion Ferguson has about his character and the show as a whole. “You can really tell that the cast and crew have become his family,” he said.

Wharton junior Ranti Odujinrin, a Social Planning and Events Committee Film Society director, said they chose to bring Ferguson to campus because of Modern Family’s popularity and Ferguson’s textured career.

“Even when [we were] abroad, a lot of my friends still kept up with [the show] and it was very popular on campus,” Odujinrin said. “He [also] hits lots of backgrounds,” she added.

Relating to the audience of college students in the auditorium, Ferguson offered some seasoned advice. “I kind of wish I had slowed down and just relaxed a little more,” he said of his late teenage years. “And don’t eat Ramen noodles more than three times a week.”

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.