Judy Greer had a very specific reason for turning down an audition Modern family.
The actress, 49, revealed this on a recent episode of Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s podcast Dinner is for me that she was offered an audition to play the Dunphy family matriarch Claire – eventually played by Julie Bowen – but passed up the opportunity because she didn’t want to play a mother.
“I was asked to audition for Claire,” Greer said on the podcast, noting that this was at a point in her career where she started playing characters with children.
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The Archer alum then explained her thought process behind playing a mother on television versus in a movie, stating that the episodic medium stays with audiences longer.
“In a movie, people see it and then they forget,” she said. “On a TV show, it’s like, ‘You’re a mom. That’s it.’ ”
Greer noted that she “didn’t even want kids” in real life, saying it “wasn’t even on the table for me.”
She continued, “I was like, ‘I guess I’m not going to audition for it.’ I was really devastated, but in the end it clearly wasn’t. Who knows if I would have even gotten it? I thought, ‘I don’t know if I want to be America’s mother yet.’ ”
Greer was in his 30s at the time and felt the role was “so limiting compared to what I was already doing”. She also worried that this would hinder her nomadic lifestyle.
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“Beyond just the perception of who you are as an actor, it’s also lifestyle,” she said. “I thought, ‘Well, I like to travel a lot, and I like making all these movies, and I like going to all these places, and I like meeting all these people.’ ”
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Greer next appeared in a guest role in the series’ first season Modern familywhich aired on ABC from 2009 to 2020. In the episode “Truth Be Told,” she played Phil Dunphy’s (Ty Burrell) ex-girlfriend, Denise, who tried to come between him and his wife Claire.
The actress later worked with show creator Steve Levitan on the short-lived Hulu series Rebootreleased in 2022.
“I adore him,” Greer said of Levitan later in the podcast episode.
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In November the Best Christmas parade ever star took a trip down memory lane with PEOPLE in an exclusive interview, revealing the prop she “stole” from the set of her 2004 film 13 Goes through 30.
She said she swiped a coffee mug with the logo on it Balance magazine, where her character Lucy teamed up with Jennifer Garner’s Jenna.
“I totally stole it,” she said. “And I love it so much. I used to even drink coffee from it, but not anymore because I’m afraid I’ll break it.”
