'Modern Family's' Eric Stonestreet: 'The idea that we get to open people's minds ... is a real honor'

By Andrea Reiher

August 29, 2010 11:18 PM ET

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"Modern Family" was nominated for five acting Emmys and the one win of the night went to Eric Stonestreet for his portrayal of Cameron, one half of the gay couple on the show. The show also won Outstanding Comedy Series.

Of his Emmy win, Stonestreet says, "This win is a win for our show, as it would have been if Ty Burrell or Jesse Tyler Ferguson won or Julie Bowen or Sofia. We're proud of our show and we just love our jobs."

Stonestreet assures the press that he's giving his Emmy to his mom and dad back in Kansas City. "I want them to have it ... I want them to be able to sit there and look at it and know that they made this possible. They've never been anything but supportive of me, in all aspects of my life."

"I did look to my mom ... for the inspiration for Cameron," he continues. "Because she's a very passionate person and excitable and that's how my take was on Cameron on the beginning."

Of the same-sex partnership and adoption on the show, Stonestreet says, "We get amazing compliments from kids of same-sex marriage families ... My goal with Cameron ... I just wanted someone, somewhere to say I'd sit down and have a beer with that guy, I don't care what his sexuality is. We want to make people laugh, that's our first goal, but the idea that we get to open people's minds and hearts to realize that people are more similar than they are different is a real honor."

Stonestreet also teases one thing we'll get to know about Cameron in Season 2 -- "That he likes bike shorts and that he doesn't get that they're not appropriate attire for himself."

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Photo credit: Getty Images
Video credit: Elizabeth Snead

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