living doing regional theater.” His Shakespeare-heavy
repertoire included a disco version of A Midsummer
Night’s Dream.
Burrell met his wife, Holly, when they were both
understudies in T welfth Night in Washington, D.C.
“We had a very sort of Remains of the Day-esque courtship,” he says with a chuckle. “I was shy. I never was a very
good flirter, so we’d kind of brush shoulders ... It was like a
three-month courtship, and then we got together opening
night. How cliché is that?” (The couple now splits their
time between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. Holly is a
pastry chef. Their adopted daughter, Frances, is 2.)
In 1998, Burrell moved to New York and started landing auditions, although at first they didn’t quite pan out.
“I had a week to prepare for this one audition,” he
recalls. “ It was for a play—I forget the name of it—and
it required a British accent. So I spent a week drilling
this British accent into my head. When I got into the
room, the casting director whispered in my ear, ‘Oh
yeah, we’re not using an accent.’ I wasn’t an experi-
enced enough actor to say, ‘I need some time; I’m not
gonna do this audition right now.’ I was trying to change
every word from a British accent to an American accent
on the fly, and it sounded like I had like a combination
of dental appointment and a stroke.”
Later that year, things began looking up when he
started landing roles in TV and film. He was 31. He went
on to appear in productions such as Law & Order: Special
Victims Unit, The West Wing, Back to You, The Incredible
Hulk (the Edward Norton version) and National Treasure:
Book of Secrets, to name a few. The Burrells were living
in Astoria, Queens, and Burrell was chalking up bit part
after bit part in whatever roles came along.
“New York has very much been on my mind recently,
because we’ve been out in L. A. for a couple of years now,”
he says. “We really miss New York. New York to me will
always represent, like, the big adventure. Every night I
would look out at the cityscape, and it would look like a
castle that you needed to storm, with dragons to be slain.
I’d go, ‘Okay, I’m gonna go back in there tomorrow and
take my swings.’ ”
In 2008, when he was 40, Burrell finally got his big
break—a call from writer-producers Christopher Lloyd
and Steven Levitan (who had worked with him on Back to
You), who had him in mind for a part they were writing,
on a show about three di;erent modern-day families.
As Modern Family continues to amaze in its third
season, it’s safe to say that breakout star Burrell has slain
the big dragon. And if the 2011 Emmys are any indication,
he’s going to keep on swinging.
“We went to five or six parties that night—way
too many for my age,” he recalls. “It was just this surreal experience of being congratulated by people you
admire. I’m sure if you’re somebody like Alec Baldwin,
and you’ve gotten like 55 awards, there’s probably slightly
less adrenaline. But for me, I was like a giddy schoolgirl.
We did make it home before the sun came up, but just
barely—it was slightly creeping over the mountain. If we
were vampires, we would’ve been a little bit burned.”
GREGOR Y PACE / BEIMAGES
MY TY
A Q & A with old friend and
occasional co-star Edward Norton
Arrive: How would you explain Ty
Burrell’s onscreen appeal?
Edward Norton: Well, clearly it’s his
annoyingly perfect square jaw and six-pack abs. It’s not like he has the great
comic timing of a classic comedian or
anything.
Q: Why is he so amazing in the role of
Phil Dunphy?
EN: I think the key to Phil Dunphy is
found in his very first self-introductory
line in the first episode: ‘I’m a cool
Dad. That’s my thang.’ Like Ralph
Kramden and Homer Simpson before
him, Phil’s magic lies in the distance
between his perception of himself and
what we see hilariously in evidence
week after week.
Q: What do you love about working
with Ty?
EN: You laugh so much
that your stomach gets
in great shape. I’ve never
been more ripped than
when I did a play with
Ty. He’s better than any
trainer. Plus, he has an
unexpectedly high,
girlish giggle and
it makes every-
thing twice as
hilarious.
Burrell’s good
friend and
fellow actor,
Edward Norton
