The cast of Modern Family truly felt like a tight-knit family. Rico Rodriguez, who portrayed the endearing Manny for all 11 seasons, recently shared how Sofia Vergara, his onscreen mother Gloria, playfully tricked him into handling extra tasks during the show’s run.
"It was hilarious because I was always hanging out with Sofia. Everyone knows how she loves to improvise," Rodriguez said on his former co-star Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s podcast, Dinner’s On Me. "She’d go off-script and then turn to me, saying, 'Rico, what’s my line?'"
Rodriguez explained that he arrived on set knowing everyone’s lines, not just his own, which unexpectedly led to doing favors for Vergara.
"I adore Sofia, but she totally got me," he said on the podcast. "One time, being the kind person I am, Sofia was late to a table read, and I thought, 'I know how she highlights her lines.' So I decided to mark her script for her to be nice."
That small act of kindness turned into a funny ongoing expectation. "She arrived, and was like, 'Oh, thank you, Rico!' pinching my cheeks," Rodriguez recounted. "The next week, she was on time, and I’m marking my own script. When we start the read, Sofia says, 'Rico, you didn’t mark my script!' I was like, 'What? I didn’t know it was my job. I only did it once to be nice!'"
It was a moment where life mirrored art. "I was literally being Manny, helping Sofia out," the actor chuckled. "But I love her, so I didn’t mind at all."
Modern Family, which aired from 2009 to 2020, is available to stream on Hulu and Peacock.
