Famed for his role as Joey Tribianni in Friends, Matt Le Blanc has gone on to do a number of shows including Friends spin-off ‘Joey’, ‘Episodes’ and even joined the team on Top Gear for a short stint.
However, there’s one sitcom that he was almost cast in and while we’re happy with who eventually got the role, it’s hard to not think about what could have been for the loveable comedy star.
Yes, that’s right, Matt Le Blanc was actually offered a role in another huge sitcom: Modern Family! Back when the show was starting out, Matt was actually offered the role of the iconic Phil Dunphy.
I KNOW.
Why Matt Le Blanc turned down the role of Phil Dunphy
Speaking to USA Today, Matt revealed that after his show Joey was cancelled, the Modern Family script landed on his desk with an offer to play the role of dorky dad Phil Dunphy.
He said: “I remember reading it thinking, this is a really good script, (but) I’m not the guy for this, I’d be doing the project an injustice to take this.”
As any Modern Family fan would tell you, he did both the show and Ty Burrell — the actor who landed the iconic role — a favour because, at this point, can you imagine anybody more perfect to play that role?
It’s thought that while the producers were dead-set on Ty, there were concerns that he wasn’t famous enough from people higher up. We’re glad the producers got their way!
Matt stayed close to the Modern Family team, though
There was never anything but affection between the Friends star and the Modern Family cast and, in fact, when the cast staged a sickout and sued 20th Century Fox in a salary dispute, star Jesse Tyler Ferguson called Matt for negotiating advice as the Friends cast had been through something similar.
He told Jesse, who plays Mitchell Pritchett: “You have to walk out, or they won’t take you seriously, iIf you stick together, you have power.”
Of course, Matt couldn’t resist being a little cheeky. On the day that the cast huddled together after refusing to work, Matt texted Jesse saying: “Hey, I killed it as Mitch today at the table read, thanks for the opportunity!”
Ah, he’s great.