“Let’s not do that anymore.” Sofia Vergara's position in Modern Family was so strong that another actor had to change his original plan
One reaction from Sofia Vergara was enough for the makers of Modern Family to convince another actor to change his original plan.
The hit comedy series Modern Family in the fifth season, to improvise.
Devine told this story to People.
I when they hired me, Steve Levitan, who's one of the creators and producers, he was like, “We want you to be the breath of fresh air. You're coming in season 5. Maybe you can improv a little and keep people on their toes.”
Following their suggestions, the actor immediately began improvising during their first scene together with Sofia Vergara, which did not go his way. It turned out that the actress was not only unprepared for it, but also unconvinced to deviate from the script.
And I'm like, “All right.” It was the first scene, I go in and I improv a little something with Sofia Vergara. I she just had a blank [expression] and looked over to the producer village where all the producers sit, and she just goes, “What?” She was so confused by what the hell I was doing because it wasn't part of the script.
Shortly after this, Devine heard, “Let’s not do that anymore.” He was told to stick to the script, however, and not to improvise. This situation shows how important it was for the creators to make sure that Modern Family's stars were happy with the way things were going. In a TV series whose script is filled with humor and requires the actors to act already fast, introducing confusion through improvisation was unnecessary and could only create problems. This was proven by Vergara, whose reaction was enough for the producers to change their minds quickly.
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