Jesse Tyler Ferguson "Breaking Boundaries" With Emmy Nod

Modern Family's Jesse Tyler Ferguson—up for best supporting actor in a comedy— is spending the summer in New York City, where he's been performing Shakespeare in the Park. "I am sub-letting an apartment that doesn't have TV, so I didn't have access to the news," he tells TV Guide Magazine of not being able to watch the Emmy nomination announcements live. But then the phone rang with the great news, which left him stunned.

The first co-star he spoke with was his TV beau, Eric Stonestreet, also up for supporting actor. "Eric called me moments after it happened —just bawling, which made me start crying. True to character, I was pretty held together and he was super emotional. And Eric said it best—it's so validating that they're recognizing this couple on television. We're breaking boundaries, which is why I was so thrilled to also see Glee's Chris Colfer on the list. It's a movement! And just really exciting."

He wraps his play, Winter's Tale (TV sis Julie Bowen is expected to attend tonight), at the end of the month and then heads back to L.A. August 1 to begin the new season of Modern Family. He's been told an episode early in the season will address fans' desire to see Cam and Mitchell kiss. "I'm all for the forward movement on the show. They are a couple and should behave like a couple, so they wrote an episode around Mitchell's issues with PDA. But what they came up with will surprise people. It's not what people are expecting. It involves much bigger issues than a simple kiss."

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