Julie Bowen has revealed that she felt that she and co-star Sofía Vergara were unfairly pitted against each other when they were filming Modern Family.
The 54-year-old actress tells this week’s issue of Stellar Magazine that the pair are actually very close friends.
‘A lot of times, people will be like, ‘Why did you not get along?’ And I’m like, ‘”re you kidding? I love Sofia, and as far as I know, she loves me”’ she said.
Julie said she actually became close to her costar, 52, despite feeling pressured to ‘hate each other.’
‘I was texting with her this morning. It’s ridiculous that when two or more women are gathered, there’s some sort of scarcity mindset that comes up from the women themselves about competing for resources, [those] being, I guess, men’ she continued.
‘There’s also this idea that when women get together, from the male perspective, they’re like witches… ‘They’ll become too powerful… What if they find out that they don’t need us?”
‘Either way, I call BS. I love women. I love all different kinds, shapes, sizes, and a woman like Sofia, who’s so comfortable in her skin, is so who she is and has such a great sense of humour. I bow down. I love her’.
Julie, who portrayed Claire Dunphy in the long-running sitcom, said elsewhere in the interview that she is all in for a Modern Family reboot.
Julie Bowen has revealed that she felt that she and co-star Sofía Vergara were unfairly pitted against each other when they were filming Modern Family. Both pictured
‘I’m in. Can you round up everybody else? You can be a producer and be on set every day. You’d have so much fun’ she said.
On a recent episode of Jennie Garth’s podcast I Choose Me, she opened up about her relationship with Vergara — who recently said that she is up for a reunion with her costars to make a Modern Family reboot.
‘They were just determined to pit us against each other, like we hated each other,’ she said. ‘It’s this scarcity mindset that there’s only one woman who can be happy at a time.
‘And I was like, “Oh no. I love Sofia, and I love how different we are,”‘ she added before highlighting the qualities she adores about her costar.
‘And I love — she is funny and self-effacing and bawdy, and she loves life, and she loves dancing and eating cake and all these things,’ she said.
‘A lot of times, people will be like, ‘Why did you not get along?’ And I’m like, ‘Are you kidding? I love Sofia, and as far as I know, she loves me” she said. Pictured in September 2012
‘I felt it on Modern Family,’ she recalled. ‘The press kept trying to make me and Sofia, sort of, Betty and Veronica.’
Bowen also compared the nonexistent conflict in her friendship with Vergara to the tabloid narratives Garth and the late Shannen Doherty faced when they were filming Beverly Hills, 90210.
‘And I know they did that with you and Shannen. I mean, I remember it,’ she told the podcast host.
The two-time Emmy winner also said she could not fathom why there is a belief that two women can’t coexist together and share the spotlight simultaneously.
‘I don’t understand why society doesn’t have room,’ she said. ‘It goes back to the witches, like, we’re too scary if we’re all together.’
Julie, who portrayed Claire Dunphy in the long-running sitcom, said elsewhere in the interview that she is all in for a Modern Family reboot
She also touched on feud rumors that continued into the eighth season of Modern Family.
To shut down ongoing speculation, she said she made a bold statement during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
‘Every night I get a call or email that says, ‘So-and-so trash mag will be running a story that you are icy to Sofia Vergara because you are jealous of her fame,’ she recalled.
‘So I email her last night and then we talk,’ she continued. ‘And I’m like, ‘What should I say? Because we’re friends.”
She recalled Vergara telling her: ‘Please, just borrow my blouse.’
Bowen said that she felt saddened by the false claims surrounding her and her castmate-turned-close friend.
‘I found that to be really disappointing on the part of the press, but I just never fed into that,’ she said.
‘I’m in. Can you round up everybody else? You can be a producer and be on set every day. You’d have so much fun’ she said. Pictured in September 2012
‘That’s a scarcity mindset, and there’s no such thing as, like, ‘Oh, if one woman is doing well, that means others have to step back.’
‘I can’t support that,’ she said.
And since then, Bowen said she had Vergara have remained close even after their long-running series concluded with its 11th and final season in 2020.
‘I learned so much from being around her about what it is to be a really powerful, completely in herself woman,’ Bowen said about the America’s Got Talent judge.
‘No one would mistake her for, like, a 14-year-old boy from behind like they do me all the time,’ she added.
Recently, Bowen celebrated her friend’s 52nd birthday in July by making a sweet public tribute and posting a throwback photo of them sharing a hug at Vergara’s 2015 Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony.
Read more in Stellar Magazine