Send in the clowns: How Eric Stonestreet won the Emmy

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It’s curious that no press photos exist of Eric Stonestreet thrusting his Emmy joyously in the air after he won best supporting comedy actor for ‘Modern Family’ last year.

Indeed, a lot of paparazzi egged him on to strike that triumphant pose backstage in the Emmy press room, but Stonestreet resisted. In our webcam chat he explains why: ‘A lot of the photographers were like, ‘You! Shove the trophy up in the air!’ But I was sensitive to that because, while I was very proud of winning, two of my castmates didn’t win, so I thought about that and wanted to play those moments as best I could.’

Stonestreet was in a delicate spot being nominated against ‘Modern Family’ costars Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Ty Burrell and, worse, having Ed O’Neill not nommed at all. Most Emmy watchers had expected O’Neill to compete in the lead race, but he graciously dropped down to supporting so he could join his colleagues, then got snubbed.

But Stonestreet handled the victory with supreme diplomacy, sensitivity, and even poignancy, as he began his acceptance speech saying: ‘All I wanted to be was a clown in the circus when I was a kid growing up.’ That was a reference to the episode of ‘Modern Family’ that he’d submitted to the Emmy jury -– a very special one.

‘Fizbo is the clown character I came up with when I was a kid,’ he says. ‘So for me to get to play that, for a script to be written called ‘Fizbo the Clown’ and then for that to be the Emmy submission that I won for -– those are all big dreams there.’

--Tom O’Neil

(top right) Stonestreet, as Fizbo, on ‘Modern Family.’ Credit: ABC