Jesse Tyler Ferguson's career has taken what he describes as "weird side paths"—and the latest one took the actor to the airwaves. The Modern Family alum is the host of Sony Music Entertainment's new weekly podcast Dinner's on Me with Jesse Tyler Ferguson, which premiered May 23.
The Tony winner, 47, admittedly has a hard time taking leaps of faith for himself into new ventures, but when he was approached with the idea for Dinner's on Me, he thought, "Yeah, why not? Let's do it."
"It combines things that I really already love, like going out and eating at wonderful restaurants, and spending time with people that I adore and love or admire. And that was just enough for me. It was exciting to try something new," Jesse told HELLO! over Zoom. "My career has taken these weird side paths, and I've been given opportunity in places where I didn't necessarily think I would be given opportunity."
Surprisingly, television was one of them. "I never thought I'd be on TV," Jesse confessed. "Being a reality show host and being able to host Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on HGTV, when they did a reboot of that, that was a weird thing that came out of left field, so this [podcast] just feels like another great opportunity and a chance for me to try my hand at something different."
He added, "I'm always looking to be stretched and challenged and it felt like a really interesting, exciting, new artistic adventure, and so I've had a really great time doing it."
The cookbook author intends to be "more choosy" with projects now that he is a father. However, Jesse, who shares sons Beckett, 2, and Sullivan, 6 months, with his husband Justin Mikita, noted, "I want my kids to see me not just being a father, but also being successful and happy in the things that I love doing."
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Continue reading for HELLO!'s exclusive interview with Jesse Tyler Ferguson about his new podcast, fatherhood and his tenth wedding anniversary plans…
I'm curious, with the market saturated with so many celebrity podcasts, did you have any concerns with this venture? Why should listeners tune in to Dinner's on Me?
Jesse Tyler Ferguson: Yes! I'm a consumer of podcasts. I love listening to them, but there are a ton of celebrity podcasts. I've been on a lot of them, you know? And it's hard to set yourself apart from what's available already. And finding your in and finding your voice. There are a lot of really unique voices out there. Yes, they're actors. Yes, they're celebrities. But individually, they're all really interesting people and I consider myself to be one of them as well. I think I have a unique way of talking to people. I have an interesting perspective. And I think that the concept itself — of us going to restaurants — sets us apart from other podcasts that are out there. There's a rawness to our podcast and a great ambient quality because we are at these restaurants. You hear the waiters come to our table. You hear us talk about the specials… You do feel like you're a third person sitting at our table, enjoying dinner with us. I think it sets itself apart in a lot of really interesting ways. I've been very excited to talk with a lot of these people, many of them who don't do a lot of podcasts. So, I think we're hearing people sort of speak in a long-form conversation in ways that we haven't heard before.
Was there one conversation that surprised you?
JTF: I'm constantly being surprised. I just came back from New York and I sat down with four different friends in New York and great restaurants there. And Padma Lakshmi, who's been a dear friend of mine for 10 years now, we had a really interesting conversation about culinary appropriation, which was kind of an uncomfortable conversation to actually have, as well. I was interested in hearing her perspective on it, and it was a really honest and frank conversation about what culinary appropriation means and honoring the cultures that created a lot of these dishes that we love so much, especially as two people who have both written cookbooks. t was a very interesting conversation and I really am so grateful that she was so honest and open and just eloquent about the whole topic.
What do you hope listeners take away from Dinner's on Me? Do you hope it starts any conversations?
JTF: Yeah, I hope it does start conversations, but also I want them to go away with a deeper understanding, not just of my guests that I get to talk to, but also of me. What I am loving about this is I'm talking almost as much as my guests are, telling stories about myself. It's a conversation, this isn't an interview show. Sometimes my friends' conversations spark a memory that I have about something and I'm sharing a lot about who I am. So, I know I have fans who know me from Modern Family that I was lucky enough to be on for 11 years. Some people know me from my career on Broadway, but I think that this opens up an interesting sort of portal. It's who I am as a person and what makes me tick and a lot the stuff I grew up worrying about and where I came from and my roots. So it's also a window into who I am as well. So I hope people come away with a deeper understanding of my guests and of me.
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Did you learn anything about yourself through this experience?
JTF: Yeah, of course. Jesse Williams brought up an interesting story about him and his relationship with his father and I ended up sharing some stuff about my relationship with my dad and it ended up being this really nuanced, beautiful conversation about fathers and sons. And it surprised me and I was sharing things that I hadn't necessarily voiced before. But I thought it was really profound and interesting and certainly something I brought to my therapy session that week [laughs].
It's all coming to the surface!… The first episode features one of your former Modern Family co-stars. Can we expect more throughout the season, or is Julie Bowen it for this first season?
JTF: I definitely have one more Modern Family co-star this year. There might be more. I am hoping to get all of them at some point. I would love to sit down with all of them separately. I also want to space them out a little bit. I don't want to be too obvious and just bang out all the Modern Family co-stars, although that might be really fun, too [laughs].
I have to imagine when you told them that you're doing a podcast that they were all like "I want to be on it"...
JTF: Either that or they're like "Oh god he's gonna ask me to be on it." [Laughs]
Do you guys have a lot of reunions or a group chat that you guys all keep in touch with?
JTF: There is a group chat, actually… Every once in a while it lights up with someone sending us either a photo of their kids or telling a funny story. It's really hard with that big of a cast to try and find time to see each other as a group. Sarah Hyland's wedding was an opportunity for a lot of us to come together, and then a few weeks after that Steven Levitan, who's one of the co-creators of Modern Family, got married and we were able to come together again, but we have yet to find an opportunity for all of us to come together at the same time.
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Hey, maybe on a podcast episode! You never know.
JTF: Right? A big reunion episode.
That'd be awesome. Do you have a dream guest that you didn't have this season that you'd like to have in the future?
JTF: Yeah. There's lots of people I'd love to. I'd love to talk with like Michelle Obama. Adele. I would love to talk with Hillary Clinton. I mean the list is very, very long. Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Carol Burnett!
I feel like this is a podcast that could easily be adapted into a TV series. Is that something you could see down the line that you'd be game for?
JTF: Yeah, maybe! I mean, you know, there is that thing of like, we're gonna feed you and then we're also gonna film you eating. I guess, you know, Hot Ones does that, where they're giving you hot wings and you're sweating while you're being recorded. There's something about being filmed eating that I feel like some people are like, "Um, maybe not," but I think it'd be a great thing to become a TV series. Who knows!
Since becoming a parent, do you find yourself more selective with the projects you say yes to?
JTF: You know, it's interesting. I became a parent during the pandemic, so there was nothing happening. And then the next thing I went into was a Broadway show that had been delayed. It was supposed to happen before the pandemic, so I saw that opportunity through. And that was a very hard thing to be away from the family. Family was with me for part of the time, but specifically, when our second child was born, Justin and Beckett moved back to L.A. to be here and I continued on with the show in New York, and that was a really hard thing for me to be away from family for that amount of time, especially in those early months of Sullivan's life. And so it was a rude awakening and a reality check about what it means to work and be a dad. I certainly want to instill this precedent that, you know, we should all be doing what we want to do. I want my kids to see me not just being a father, but also being successful and happy in the things that I love doing. So I want to set [an] example, but at the same time, am I gonna like to do something in Vancouver for three months if I don't love it? Probably not. I'm gonna have to really love things to go away. And also find opportunities to try and bring them with me as much as possible. So they're still at that age where it's easy enough to sort of pick up and go and not be too disruptive, but I know with every passing day that gets harder. So yeah. That was a really long way of saying yes, I'm gonna be more choosy with things.
Next month is going to be your first Father's Day as a father of two… How do you think fatherhood has changed you?
JTF: It has, I think, broken open my heart a little bit in a good way. To have these two human beings on this planet that are my responsibility is a really profound thing. It's made me, I think, a better husband as well. I've had to learn how to be more patient. I've had to learn how to be more- patient is a really good word [laughs]... You have to breathe through things a little bit more. You can't be quite so reactionary. We set an example with our behavior now and like we have to really think about how we're acting in front of our kids and like what that means and what they're absorbing. These kids are such sponges and, you know, any sort of disagreement with Justin sort of has to be handled in a different way. But I think they all have been like good changes for me. I think they've all been positive. And it's just a different way of sort of behaving and acting. I certainly love the responsibility of being the caretaker to these two sweet boys.
How would you describe their personalities?
JTF: [Beckett] is really outgoing. He loves to ask everyone what their names are. He's very sweet. He's learning about manners, and, you know, he's not great at them all the time, but he's, I think, doing a pretty good job for his age. Sullivan seems to be at this point a little quieter than Beckett was. A little more low-key. A little more introspective. He's six months old, so I'm just like sort of putting all these adjectives on him [laughs] without his consent… I'm really excited for the moment when Sullivan starts to show personality a little bit more and watching how Beckett responds to that. That'll be really interesting and fun to see.
Is there one activity that you love to do as a family?
JTF: Those things normally take place at our own home… We took Sullivan out for his very first outing to a restaurant a few nights ago to celebrate Mother's Day. So, you know, most of the stuff we do is at the house by the pool, having meals together… Even though Sullivan's not eating the food that we're eating, having him sit at the table with us. We have a lot of family that lives really close. So there's a lot of big family gatherings. And I love that because I just sort of pass the baby around and I don't really have to worry about like who's got the baby, because literally someone's holding that baby at all times because he's the most popular family member at the moment. So I love spending time with the extended family, for sure.
Do you guys have any fun summer plans?
JTF: Justin and I are celebrating our 10-year anniversary in July, so we're going to New York to celebrate the actual holiday. We're having a big dinner with some friends and then we're going on to Mykonos where we're meeting some other friends and having like a week in Mykonos for a little dads' getaway.
I was gonna ask if you're taking the kids, but it's a dads' getaway!
JTF: No, grandma's gonna take the kids. Yeah [laughs].
Listeners can subscribe to Dinner's on Me with Jesse Tyler Ferguson each week on all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity