Nolan Gould Says It's 'Hard to Bond with People' After Growing Up on “Modern Family”: 'Never Been to School a Day in My Life'
The actor said he's grateful for his unique childhood thanks to the Emmy-winning ABC sitcom
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Nolan Gould at The Cameron Boyce Foundation's Cam For A Cause 3rd Annual Gala held at The Beehive on June 2, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.As a cast member of Modern Family, Nolan Gould spent much of his childhood growing up on set. But the actor wouldn’t have it any other way.
During this week’s episode of the podcast Dinner’s on Me, Gould, 25, opened up to host and former costar Jesse Tyler Ferguson about his unique childhood.
“I would not change my childhood, like, I'm really happy,” he said on the podcast. “I got to be part of such an incredible show. I know that like a lot of other child actors don't have it as lucky.”
Gould starred as Luke Dunphy on Modern Family for 11 seasons from 2009 to 2020, participating in a cast that included Ferguson, Ed O'Neill, Sofía Vergara, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Eric Stonestreet, Rico Rodriguez and Sarah Hyland.
Related: The Cast of Modern Family: Where Are They Now?
Eric McCandless/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
Nolan Gould on 'Modern Family'Because of his work on the show, Gould said he’d “never been to school a day in my life,” before catching himself and acknowledging he attended one community college public speaking course.
Gould also admitted he was accepted to film school and planned to attend until Modern Family was picked up for two more seasons. After deferring twice, he was told he needed to reapply.
“At that point, I was like, 21, and had a chip on my shoulder,” he said. “I was like, I'm not going to reapply to film school and so just like never went. … It closed a lot of doors to the kind of 'traditional lifestyle.’ … I find it hard to bond with people about the things that everyone went through like, what was high school like?"
“What was dating like when you were young?” he continued. “I kind of brush past all that stuff. But then it opened doors ... So I got a phone call from Ed O'Neill yesterday — one of the classic 'let's catch up' phone calls — and I was talking, I was like sharing a memory with him that, we were on set once and we were shooting in a hospital. I forget. We were sitting there, and we were cracking each other up.”
“So all these doors closed on kind of a traditional lifestyle, but opened up these really beautiful doors on a traditional, nonlinear lifestyle,” he added. “I'm doing a lot of the things now, maybe that people kind of did when they were young.”
"So I don't know. I'm happy with where I'm at now and I'm so glad I got to be a part of the show," he said. "I wouldn't change that."
As for whether Gould would let his future kids one day follow in his footsteps with show business careers of their own, the actor was less-than-enthusiastic with the idea.
“I probably wouldn't let my kids do it,” he admitted. “Although no shame to people who do, right, because I've obviously found a lot of joy and love through it, and it opened up a lot of really incredible doors, and also closed a lot of meaningful ones.”
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Seasons 1 to 11 of Modern Family are available to stream on Hulu.
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