Judy Greer turned down Modern Family audition for role of Claire

Judy Greer wasn’t ready to settle down just yet.

During a recent podcast appearance, the Halloween Kills and Best Christmas Pageant Ever actress revealed that she turned down an audition for a lead role on the hit sitcom Modern Family because she didn’t want to be known as as “America’s mom” at that point in her career.

Sitting down with Modern Family alum Jesse Tyler Ferguson on his Dinner’s on Me podcast, Greer recalled being asked to try out for the role of Claire Dunphy, the matriarch ultimately played by Julie Bowen. “This was a time in my career when I was starting to [play characters with children],” she said.

“It sounds so silly to say it out loud now, but I’ll be honest,” Greer continued. “In a movie, I would have a kid. And then there was this opportunity to audition where I would have three kids, one of them in high school, and on a TV show… and you do have to think of these things in success, and obviously Modern Family was a huge success. In a movie, people kind of see it and then they forget. In a TV show, it’s just like, you’re a mom.”

Noting that she “didn’t even want kids,” Greer explained, “That was not even on the table for me. I was like, ‘I think I’m not going to audition for it.’ I was really torn about it, but I ended up obviously not. Who knows if I would have even gotten it anyway, but I was just like, ‘I don’t know if I want to be America’s mom yet.'”

The actress was in her early 30s at the time, and the role “felt so limiting compared to what I was doing already,” she said. “And in addition to just the perception of who you are as an actor. It’s lifestyle too. I was like, well, I like traveling a lot, and I like doing all these movies, and I like going to all these places, and I like meeting all these people.”

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Greer added, “I wasn’t ready for it, in an out of my career.”

Modern Family would run for 11 seasons, from 2009 to 2020, following the lives of the blended Pritchett-Dunphy family. The show won 22 Emmys, including five for Outstanding Comedy Series and two for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (both for Bowen).

Though Greer didn’t join the cast, she did guest-star in a season 1 episode as Denise, an ex-girlfriend of Claire’s husband, Phil (Ty Burrell). In the episode, Claire becomes jealous of Denise after she reconnects with Phil on Facebook.

Elsewhere on Ferguson’s podcast, Greer discussed how “stressful” auditioning can be and called Julia Roberts her “North Star” of what a movie star is. Listen to her full episode above.