Why Matt LeBlanc Isn't on 'Modern Family'

Us Weekly reports that Matt LeBlanc once had the chance to play a key role in Modern Family. Frankly, we're glad he passed it up. What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.

According to Us Weekly, Matt LeBlanc was once offered a key role in a new sitcom, but he turned it down. Frankly, we're gald he did. What do you think? Tell us in the comments below.

Could he be any more honest? Matt LeBlanc had the chance to play Phil Dunphy in ABC’s hit series Modern Family but turned it down because he believed he wasn’t the right actor for the role.

During a break following the axing of the Friends spinoff, Joey, LeBlanc was sent the pilot script for the mockumentary sitcom, which premiered on ABC in September 2009.

“I remember reading it thinking, this is a really good script … I’m not the guy for this. I’d be doing the project an injustice to take this. I know what I can do, I know what I can’t do,” the actor told USA Today in an interview published on Friday, August 18. “Plus, I’m having too much fun laying on the couch.”

The role went to Ty Burrell, who has won two Emmy awards for playing the bumbling but lovable realtor, but the Episodes star found his own way to impact the show.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who plays lawyer Mitchell Pritchett on Modern Family, reached out to LeBlanc when the cast staged a sick-out during a 2012 salary dispute. LeBlanc and his former Friends cast mates famously united in 2002 and negotiated together to land historic $1 million-per-episode pay deals.

LeBlanc, 50, advised Ferguson and his costars to “stick together,” telling him, “You have to walk out, or they won’t take you seriously.”

Even though the situation was a serious one, LeBlanc couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make a joke about it. He told USA Today that he texted Ferguson after the cast didn’t show up for work and said, “Hey, I killed it as Mitch today at the table read, thanks for the opportunity!”

Check out the rest of the story at Us Weekly.