Sofía Vergara says she keeps telling Ed O’Neill not to die before they…see more

Sofía Vergara says she keeps telling Ed O’Neill not to die before they can make Modern Family sequel: ‘You can’t be dead!’
Having secured an Emmy nomination for her starring role in Netflix’s “Griselda,” Vergara speculated about more “Modern Family”: “A TV movie maybe?”

“I always joke with him,” the actress told Variety in a new interview, “‘Ed, don’t die. Because if we do the sequel, it will take some time, and you’re the oldest of us. You can’t be dead!'”

Vergara starred for 12 years on Modern Family as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett, the tempestuous and much younger wife to O’Neill’s Jay. She was nominated for four Emmys for the role, and while she never took home the gold, Modern Family did something that awards alone don’t always guarantee: It made her into a star.

“I’d die to be on that set,” Vergara, 52, said of the sitcom, which bowed after 11 seasons and a concluding special in 2020. Speculating about what form a reunion could take, she added, “It’d be so much fun. A TV movie maybe?”

As for her connection with O’Neill, 78, it seems that the pair’s rambunctious, faux-hostile screen dynamic concealing an inner core of pure affection extends off screen as well. After seeing O’Neill play L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling in this year’s FX miniseries Clipped, Vergara said she quipped to O’Neill, “You look f—ing old.”

The actress has been on the road promoting Griselda, the Netflix miniseries in which she stars as Griselda Blanco, the infamous Colombian drug lord who was murdered in 2012. Vergara co-produced the miniseries and was recently honored with an Emmy nomination for her performance.

She has thus become the first Modern Family core cast member to earn an Emmy nomination since the show’s 2020 wrap, though costar Jesse Tyler Ferguson did get one trophy closer to EGOT status after winning a Tony for his performance in the 2022 Off Broadway baseball play Take Me Out.