Julie Bowen Recalls Thinking She Wasn’t ‘Funny’ Ahead of ‘Modern Family’ Role

Julie Bowen wasn’t convinced she could “tell a joke” before her Emmy-winning performance as Claire Dunphy in Modern Family.

During a Tuesday, Oct. 15 appearance on The Three Questions with Andy Richter podcast, the 54-year-old actress reflected on her journey toward joining the long-running sitcom, which premiered in September 2009 and wrapped in April 2020 after 11 seasons.

While discussing her stint on NBC comedy-drama Ed for four seasons in the early ’00s beforehand, Bowen explained that her team would send her on “comedy auditions,” but she wasn’t so sure she was up for playing purely comedic characters.

“I said, ‘I can’t tell a joke, I’m not funny. Don’t give me those three-jokes-a-page kind of things.’ I couldn’t do them,” she said. “And my managers, who were always very supportive were like, ‘You know what, Helen Hunt isn’t funny.’ I go, ‘What?’ They’re like, ‘Not technically.’ I said, ‘She just won like five Emmys.’ ”

Bowen’s managers ultimately told her that Hunt was “wildly funny” in a “different way,” and not necessarily “three-jokes-a-page funny.”

“You’ll notice I didn’t do too many jokes,” Bowen initially said of her time on Modern Family. “I fell down a lot.”

While reflecting on her chances at starring in Modern Family, Bowen also told Andy Richter that she was “testing for two pilots” at the time before eventually landing the hit series.

“The other show, the character was pregnant. And I was like, ‘I’ve got a shot at that one.’ So I put the other one in first position,” Bowen said. “And I’ll never forget [co-creator] Steve Levitan calling me like, ‘Are you out of your mind.’ ”

“And I said, I’m never gonna get Modern Family. You guys keep calling me and staring at my giant stomach,” she added. “I was like, I would love to do that job… You need the job that’s gonna pay the bills. I said, ‘If I put you in first position, then I might not have anything.’ ”

As Bowen told Richter, of course, “it all worked out.”

Bowen’s performance as Dunphy earned her the Emmy for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series in both 2011 and 2012. As for the show itself, Modern Family scored a total of 22 Emmys during its lengthy run on ABC.

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Elsewhere during her conversation on Richter’s podcast, the mother of three — who shares teenage sons Oliver, 17, and twins John and Gustave, 15, with ex-husband Scott Phillips — revealed her best parenting advice for dealing with teenagers. “Make fake cookies in the kitchen no one’s ever gonna eat. They start coming in and out. You start having conversations with teenagers. Being around works,” Bowen said.

“But planning, trying to be like, you know, ‘It would be fun if we had a super awkward meal at Chipotle together, where you never look up from that weird hair that’s in your face.’ You gotta think ‘No, what would they like to do?’ And you’re like, nothing. They would like to do nothing,” she continued.

“So you just sort of have to, you’ve gotta sort of be there in order to catch the runoff and sometimes it’s freaking magic and great.”