Sofía Vergara declares Ed O’Neill isn’t allowed to die.
Recently nominated for an Emmy for her lead role in Netflix’s crime drama “Griselda,” the Colombian star revealed in her Variety cover story that she is open to reprising her role as the hilarious trophy wife Gloria Delgado-Pritchett from ABC’s “Modern Family.” However, there’s one condition: Ed O’Neill, who played her husband Jay on the sitcom, must still be alive to join her.
“I’d die to be on that set,” Vergara says. “It’d be so much fun. A TV movie, maybe?”
While she believes now is too soon to bring the Pritchett family back to screens, Vergara regularly jokes with O’Neill about the possibility.
After watching him in the FX miniseries “Clipped,” in which O’Neill portrayed former L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling, Vergara says she humorously told him, “You look fucking old.”
“I always joke with him [saying], ‘Ed, don’t die because if we do the sequel, it will take some time, and you’re the oldest of us. You can’t be dead,’” Vergara told Variety.
The Emmys are not unfamiliar to Vergara. She received four consecutive noms in the supporting comedy actress category, from 2010 to 2013, for her role as Gloria in “Modern Family.” But despite her frequent nods, Vergara has yet to win a statuette — though many believe she deserved to win at least one Emmy during her time on the ABC sitcom.
“That’s what I tell Julie Bowen,” Vergara jokes about her “Modern Family” co-star, who took home the Emmy twice for her role as Gloria’s step-daughter, Claire. “I was nominated four times. Julie was also, and I always rub it in her face, ‘One of those is mine, but I’m just letting you have it in your house.’”
The relationship between Bowen and Vergara is quite different from their characters’ on-screen rivalry. Vergara shared that Bowen sent her a video of herself voting for the Colombian actress on this year’s Emmys ballot. (Vergara’s nomination this year makes her the first Colombian-born actress and the second Latina nominated in the limited series category.)
Vergara noted that the “Modern Family” cast remains close after the series ended in 2020. Co-creator Steven Levitan tells Variety she was always the cast member everyone wanted to sit next to at dinners.
“Sofía has that rare combination of being strong, funny and beautiful,” he says. “Sofía is naturally savvy. She knows how to make people feel good about themselves … She was never pretentious. Despite all her hard-earned success, when she messed up, she was always the first one to laugh at herself, which signaled to everyone on set that it was fine to laugh along with her.”
“Griselda” is now streaming on Netflix.
