“Fashionable Household” youngster star was advised to play Manny as ‘Antonio Banderas in a child’s physique’ however solely knew him as Puss in Boots

Rico Rodriguez will always remember his audition for Manny on Modern Family — in all probability as a result of he acquired suggestions with a reference he didn't get on the time.

Rodriguez's costar Jesse Tyler Ferguson requested him about it when the previous stopped by Ferguson's Dinner's on Me podcast recently.

Rodriguez defined that he had "very fast success within the trade" to start out with, reserving all three of his first auditions, and getting shut on a number of subsequent tryouts. However Fashionable Household was a distinct story — at the very least at first.

"My dad and mom at all times instilled a maintain going mentality. Like, 'Hey. You realize what? It's okay. It occurs. We transfer on. We maintain going to the subsequent one,'" he stated. "After which Fashionable Household rolled round, which on the time was [called] My American Household."

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So, Rodriguez went to the primary audition, and had a really totally different imaginative and prescient for the character initially. "I bought the audition, and so it was kinda loopy as a result of I had went in with a very totally different tackle Manny. He was like a participant and he was too cool for varsity. And it was, like, actually the exact opposite to what we all know of him at this time," he defined.

Rodriguez continued, "And Jeff [Morton, producer] appreciated it and he was like, 'That was nice.' However he goes, 'We see Manny as an outdated soul, like Antonio Banderas in a child's physique.' And I’m going, 'Oh.'"

At this level, Ferguson interrupted the dialog to ask if a younger Rodriguez knew "that reference."

"I didn't know. I used to be like, 'Oh, okay. So he desires me to be Puss in Boots,'" he recalled, referring to the animated character from the Shrek franchise voiced by Banderas.

Fortunately, Rodriguez nonetheless "bought a callback" for the position of Manny, although, as he put it, he "got here in with the exact opposite take."

The producers nonetheless made him sweat it out, although. In line with the star, he didn't hear again for "like a month" after the second audition, although he acquired good suggestions that point. "I used to be like, 'Effectively, okay. That was one other one I didn't get. No matter'," he stated. "Little did I do know they have been casting, ensuring they have been placing Sofia [Vergara] in. They're casting all the remainder of them."

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Rodriguez, after all, went on to play Manny for all 11 seasons of Fashionable Household, which aired on ABC from September 23, 2009, to April 8, 2020.

Elsewhere within the podcast, Ferguson and Rodriguez additionally talk about who took the latter below his wing on the Fashionable Household set, and the way outdated he was when he lastly realized that he made greater than his allowance steered.

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