--- title: 10 Questions for Ty Burrell | TIME description: The 'Modern Family' star talks about his new movie 'Butter' and the secret to making a 'Salty Dog' canonical: https://time.com/video/A3Lfb76x/ og:title: 10 Questions for Ty Burrell og:description: The 'Modern Family' star talks about his new movie 'Butter' and the secret to making a 'Salty Dog' og:url: https://time.com/video/A3Lfb76x/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/A3Lfb76x/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 10 Questions for Ty Burrell twitter:description: The 'Modern Family' star talks about his new movie 'Butter' and the secret to making a 'Salty Dog' twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/A3Lfb76x/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # 10 Questions for Ty Burrell > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: 10 Questions for Ty Burrell [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Questions for Ty Burrell](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/A3Lfb76x.m3u8) (5:20)  _Published 2012-10-03. The 'Modern Family' star talks about his new movie 'Butter' and the secret to making a 'Salty Dog'_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:28 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [3 Directors, 4 New Movie Secrets](/video/UuteoBU0/) ### 3 Directors, 4 New Movie Secrets [Ty Burrell Talks About 'Mr. Peabody and Sherman'](/video/xpBtluf1/) ### Ty Burrell Talks About 'Mr. Peabody and Sherman' [Ty Burrell and Stephen Colbert Behind the Scenes of 'Mr. Peabody & Sherman'](/video/OHX9C9if/) ### Ty Burrell and Stephen Colbert Behind the Scenes of 'Mr. Peabody & Sherman' --- ## Transcript Hi I'm Belinda Luscombe from Time Magazine. On the TV show Modern Family, Ty Burrell carries the flag for incompetent but well meaning fathers everywhere. He also has a new movie called Butter about a tightly fought contest in Iowa. And we're delighted to say he's here to answer questions for us. Hello Mr. Burrell. Hello, incompetent in person am I. [ LAUGH ] So in your new movie, Butter, you play this freakishly talented butter carver, who can do things like, passion of the Christ with Neil Diamond in the cracks. Mh- hm. And when you got that script, did you think Oh, fantastic. I've been waiting for a butter carving role. [ LAUGH ] Yeah it was about time that somebody did a butter carving film. I got the script, first of all like before I even read the script my agent told me who was already involved in the film. Right. Olivia, Jen Hugh Jackman, all these people that I admired. Also I just think [ COUGH ] Jason. Wrote a really unique collection of characters and gives every one of them sort of a dark side. Would it be fair to call the movie a political farce, or? I don't think it was written intentionally as a political satire. It was. So it's not about the caucuses. No. I'd like to remind you what this contest is about. But I do think it is about politics, even though it's small town politics. It is about excellence in Butter. [ SOUND ] You grew up in a small town in Oregon. Well you grew up in a, in a medium size sort of, and then a very small And then a very small town. Exactly. Did any of the characters in Butter remind you of that life. 100 %. Yeah. My, my grandfather's a dairy farmer in Oregon. And that's partly why we moved out to this town of 200 people. And Out when you get out there, the, the, the things that people get excited about like the annual fall competition for the biggest steal head trout to pull out of a river, or whatever it is, it gets real. Like the stakes, the stakes are as high as if you were An Olympic sprinter. [ LAUGH ] But, but, to them, it really is, there is no difference, you know? And that's the same thing about the film where, if you get within a world, it doesn't matter if it's you know, the presidential election or campaigning to win the butter carving. Before Modern Family, you were in Black Hawk Down. Yes And you were in The Incredible Hulk. Yes. And you were in Dawn of the Dead. I was in Dawn of the Dead. So you had this, and you were also I believe a forest fire fighter. In real life. In Oregon. [ CROSSTALK ] Yes I was. In real life. So you had this, For a summer. And you were a football player. So you had this kind Right. Of budding action hero thing going on. Mm hm. What went wrong? I don't have the, the constitution to deliver lines in the way a leading man in an action film can do it with no irony. Like I don't, I'm not a guy who can stand unblinking and just, you know, as somebody's leaving off into the sun, sunset, just say some perfect thing. I'm too blinky, I'm I'm just a flawed, I'm a flawed human. I can't be that guy. So you look at someone like Hugh Jackman. Yeah. Who can do those things. [ CROSSTALK ] Yeah. And you say, oh, just Yeah. He's even, he is so frustrating because he can also do like musicals [ CROSSTALK ] Yeah. And I don't know what the deal is but it's really angering. [ LAUGH ] why did he fire you? Why? And he cuckolded you in the movie. I know he cuckolded me. And nice use of cuckold. Um, you seem to get cast a lot as a kind of well meaning, What's the work I'm looking for? Jerk? Well idiot is what I was gonna go with. Well, what's interesting, though, is more recently. I used to get cast as the oblivious jerk, mean person. Right. Right, right, right. Let me tell you something. You have my permission. I ever turn into one of those things. Do me a favor and blow my head off. You can count on that. And then it's turned to the oblivious nice guy. huh. But oblivious is the running theme. [ LAUGH ] That we're noticing about me. You know? Now I have a quote here that that you gave I believe to the Salt Lake City Tribune, the August journal. We're really big fans of well made classic cocktails is what you said. Its true, true. And so if I went to bar in Salt Lake city. Yes. The Bar x. What could I get a harvey wallbanger? Could I get a fuzzy navel? A mai tai. You know, I don't know if we consider those classics. Oh I see, okay. I think my bro, my brother. Gin fizz? Yes. Slow gin fizz. And so what are the ingredients of a slow gin fizz. Oh, my God. Well, slow gin. Yeah. Egg white. Oh, my brother's gonna kill me. He's no idea. I know those two ingredients. Well, I have it as grapefruit juice. Oh, no, it wasn't. I wasn't asking about. I was actually asking, gonna ask you about a salty dog. But you, I don't, now I. Oh, a salty dog? I may remember from college. Is that vodka, grapefruit juice, salt? Exactly! You got it! Yeah! [ LAUGH ] You found it out! 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