Jesse Tyler Ferguson did a lot of promotion as a Modern Family in 11 seasons as a cast member.

He recalled on a recent episode of his Dinner’s on Me podcast that one of the photographs he took for the series didn’t sit well with him. And the actor, who played Mitchell Pritchett, ended up successfully campaigning against it, he told guest Ty Burrell, who portrayed his brother-in-law, Phil Dunphy, on the ABC sitcom.

“I actually got my picture changed,” Ferguson said before describing the photo. “So, Phil was the obviously cool dad, so he had headphones and was doing the rock and roll. Haley had her cell phone that she was busy on. Sarah [Hyland] was putting on lipstick. And me and Eric [Stonestreet], because we had a line about cream puffs in the pilot. So it was us holding a cream puff.”

Burrell deadpanned, “Well, they’re gay.”

“They’re gay,” Ferguson said. “And we had a line about cream puffs in the pilot.”

“Oh, god,” Burrell replied.

“And me,” Ferguson said, “on maybe, like, the last shot of a series that we were taking, decided to do a really insane face of, like, ‘Isn’t this wild? I’m a wacky gay man.’ And that’s the photo that they chose and used on all these posters, and it ended up in Times Square.”

Ferguson disliked the choice.

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“But then I actually was successful in getting them to change it,” he explained. “I said, ‘Can we find any photo anywhere? It could be of me in seventh grade … where my face is just calm. Just a nice, like, loose smile.”

The reason was about much more than vanity.

“What I leaned into, I was like, ‘Listen. I’m playing a gay character on network television. I’m really proud of this relationship that they have. It’s a committed couple. We’re meeting them in the first scenes of, you know, like, they’re adopting a child. Like, can we just pick the photo where I don’t look like I’m doing a cliché?”

Modern Family, which aired for 11 seasons between 2009 and 2020, followed an extended clan that included Ferguson’s on-screen husband Cam, played by Stonestreet, and their daughter Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons). Burrell’s Phil led the Dunphys, which included him and Julie Bowen‘s Claire, plus their three kids: Hyland’s Haley, Ariel Winter’s Alex, and Luke, played by Nolan Gould. Yet another branch of the family was led by patriarch Jay Pritchett (Ed O’Neill), his wife Gloria (Sofia Vergara), and their kids, Manny (Rico Rodriguez) and Joe (Jeremy Maguire).

The show was a hit, both with both audiences and critics, winning 22 Emmys over the course of its run. It was also recognized twice as Outstanding Comedy Series by GLAAD.

Listen to the full episode above.