Family Friends

Matt LeBlanc Almost Starred in Modern Family

The actor turned down the role of Phil, but said he loved the script.
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Hollywood is a world full of could-have-beens, alternate universes where the shows and movies we love have completely different casts. For example: the alternate universe version of ABC’s enormously popular sitcom Modern Family could have had a new patriarch. Instead of Ty Burrell, Friends star Matt LeBlanc almost played the part.

While talking with USA Today, LeBlanc revealed that he was sent a copy of the script when Modern Family was still in its early stages. “I remember reading it thinking, this is a really good script, (but) I’m not the guy for this,” he said. “I’d be doing the project an injustice to take this. I know what I can do, I know what I can’t do. Plus, I’m having too much fun laying on the couch.”

LeBlanc said he could tell that it had been written with someone else in mind, which is true. The producers were all set on Burrell, but a few execs at ABC had taken some convincing.

LeBlanc does have a close relationship with the show, however. Back in 2012, when the Modern Family cast were planning a sickout to protest a salary dispute with 20th Century Fox, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who plays Mitchell on the show, called LeBlanc for some advice. LeBlanc and his Friends co-stars had staged a similar protest years before.

LeBlanc told Ferguson, “You have to walk out, or they won’t take you seriously. If you stick together, you have power.” But on the day of the protest, as the Modern Family cast was waiting to hear if their mass exit had worked, LeBlanc jokingly texted Ferguson: “I said, ‘Hey, I killed it as Mitch today at the table read, thanks for the opportunity!’”

Classic Joey move.