Arrive Magazine - January/February, 2012

a recent episode of the megahit ABC sitcom

Modern Family called “Phil on a Wire,” Ty Burrell’s lovably dopey dad, Phil Dunphy, gets inspired to pursue his dream of walking on a tightrope.

“How awesome are people?” Phil asks to no one in particular before buying a secondhand pair of jazz shoes and enlisting son Luke to help him practice his newfound craft in the front yard. “I always saw myself as a guy who could soar through the sky dancing on a wire,” Phil says, ever the optimist.

In real life, Burrell, too, is soaring through the sky, dancing on a wire. His show is not only critically acclaimed; it’s a ratings powerhouse, with 13. 2 million people tuning in each week. After years of forgettable bit parts in movies and TV shows, his career is on fire. In addition to the show, he has two high-profile movies slated for release: Butter, an Election-like black comedy about the competitive world of butter carving (Jennifer Garner plays his wife), and Goats, an adaptation of the coming-of-age story by Mark Jude Poirier in which he co-stars with Vera Farmiga and David Duchovny. Last September, Burrell topped it all off by winning his very first Emmy, for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. Hollywood can be a delicate balancing act, but at this very moment, Burrell is handling the highwire with the greatest of ease.

“I was genuinely surprised [about winning the
Emmy],” says the self-effacing Burrell, during a break
from filming Modern Family in Los Angeles—and you
can tell that he means it. “I’d prepared something to say
because I knew we all had a chance of going up there, but I
definitely thought Ed [O’Neill, as patriarch Jay Pritchett]
was going to win. I’m really hoping he will get one, sym-
bolically, for all the good work he’s done, and also because
he sets the tone for us on the show, performance-wise.”
But while Cliff was a ball-buster (who once told his
son, Theo, “No boy should have a $95 shirt unless he
is onstage with his four brothers”), Mike tied up every
problem with a neat bow and a sage life lesson and
Homer doled out loving insults (“Kids, just because I
don’t care doesn’t mean I’m not listening”), Phil is the
New-Model TV Dad—a guy who turns the doofus ste-
reotype on its ear.

On

S TUAR T PE TTICAN/GE T TY IMAGES
On one hand, Phil is the I-won’t-grow-up Peter Pan
who tries to be his kids’ best friend, slinging hip-hop
lingo, dropping High School Musical references and agree-
ing to be pummeled in the head repeatedly with a basket-
ball in an effort to make a You Tube video that goes viral.
On the other, he’s a man who deeply loves his wife—a
guy who refuses to call the good-looking local paramed-
ics when he thinks he’s dying because he’s worried they’ll
flirt with her—but who’s also got a crush on Gloria, his
father-in-law’s bombshell bride (played by Sofia Ver-
gara). Phil is constantly going all out, embarrassing him-
self regularly and making tons of mistakes by trying too
hard. He’s a former college cheerleader who loves magic
and suffers from coulrophobia, an intense fear of clowns.