Matt LeBlanc Reveals Why He Turned Down ‘Modern Family’ Role

Matt LeBlanc could have been Phil Dunphy on the hit show “Modern Family.” However, the actor turned the role down, and he is now opening up about the reason why.

The “Friends” alum revealed that before the series premiered in September 2009, he was sent a copy of the script for the pilot episode. Unfortunately, he felt that he wasn’t fit to play the Dunphy patriarch in the mockumentary sitcom. “I remember reading it thinking, this is a really good script … I’m not the guy for this,” the 50-year-old Hollywood actor told USA Today. “I’d be doing the project an injustice to take this. I know what I can do, I know what I can’t do.”

LeBlanc joked that he did not only turn down the role because he believed he wasn’t the perfect actor for it, but also because he was “having too much fun laying on the couch.” Back when he was sent the script, it hadn’t been that long since he starred in the “Friends” spinoff “Joey” from 2004 to 2006.

Though the role was given to Ty Burrell, who even won two Emmy awards for it, it wasn’t a big loss for LeBlanc. He went on to star in Showtime’s “Episodes” from 2011 until this year. Additionally, he currently appears on CBS’ “Man With a Plan,” while also doing a co-hosting gig in BBC’s “Top Gear,” as per Us Weekly.

Even though LaBlanc did not end up working with the cast of “Modern Family,” he divulged that he had an influence on them. Apparently, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who plays Mitchell Pritchett in the series, reached out to LeBlanc when he and the rest of the cast did a sickout amid their salary dispute with 20th Century Fox in 2012.

Since LeBlanc and his “Friends” co-stars did the same thing in the past, he was the right person to offer advice to Ferguson and the rest of the “Modern Family” cast. He told them, “You have to walk out, or they won’t take you seriously. If you stick together, you have power.”