I just have such overwhelming love for Julie Bowen. I know many of you consider Jennifer Garner to be the patron-saint of the “real moms,” but for me, it’s Julie Bowen. I love how blunt and honest she is. I love that she doesn’t pretend to have her life under control. More often than not, when asked about her children or her home life, Julie makes it sound like she’s struggling and failing at twenty different things every day. Which seems like a much more normal portrait of a working actress (to me at least). Anyway, Julie covers the new issue of Lucky, and she’s mostly talking about style and how the Modern Family writers are really helping her out:
Fingers crossed Julie Bowen doesn’t start wearing sneakers on the red carpet. The Modern Family actress appears on the April cover of Lucky, where she explains how her fashion sense has evolved since joining the cast of ABC’s top-rated comedy.
“It was a big evolution in style for me to grow up and say, ‘I need to take fashion seriously for my job.’ I have a stylist now, and she’s trying to get me to wear more revealing stuff. She’s Kristen Stewart’s stylist,” the Emmy winner says, referencing Tara Swennen. “I go there and see all this amazing funky stuff, and I know it’s for her. If I get K-Stew’s castoffs, that’s all right with me.”
Bowen admits that she’s never been too concerned about her appearance, and she gets flustered when magazines label her “beautiful.”
“I don’t even know what to say about that, because then, I’d have to acknowledge I was some kind of attractive ideal, and that’s just not the way I was raised,” the 43-year-old married mother of three says. “Plus, I feel like I look like the pale girl in some Flemish painting.”
The blonde star credits the Modern Family staff with giving her solid material that isn’t reliant on her looks or her comedic abilities. “Our writers are flexible enough to write to my strengths and open-minded enough to imagine Claire in a car pool and naked in a hot spring,” she said of a recent Season 4 episode. “I needed good material. I’m not like Amy Poehler, who can make anything funny.”
“People like Claire because at the end of the day, she’s a good mom,” Bowen tells Lucky of her character. “I am quite sure there are plenty of people who could play Claire. I was just in the right place at the right time.”
If you’ve been watching Modern Family since the beginning, the arc of Julie’s character Claire is very interesting. For a few seasons, the writers made her the sort-of stereotypical “shrew” – the overzealous, anal-retentive straight man/mom to Ty Burrell’s crazy, funny, loose dad. But the writers corrected themselves and the Claire character has much more depth these days, and they’ve really given Julie Bowen a chance to shine. She IS a gifted comedienne, even though I kind of agree with her that dozens of actresses could do the role.
As for Julie sharing a stylist with K-Stew – how much do you love that Julie refers to her as “K-Stew”? That’s cracking me up. But yes, Julie definitely needs some style help and maybe this stylist will be better than nothing. I hope the stylist doesn’t put her in miniskirts, Chucks and heavy eye makeup.
Photos courtesy of Lucky Magazine.
So Tara Swennen is the one responsible for Kristen’s fashion fails? Argh!
I usually don’t care for her red carpet looks, or Kristen’s. Guess the shared stylist explains it. Of the two, I think Julie does edgy better though.
Love that she credits the writers for the good material.
I’ve come to love the character of Claire, and I couldn’t stand her season one. Julie is also really great, loved her since Ed.
Although as a pale blonde I have to say I do hate her for being able to pull off that yellow color, what I’d give. What I’d give. The jean blazer look is fabulous too.
I agree with you, I think she’s awesome. I watched her on that legal (Denny Crane) show and even though it was more dramatic there was something bubbling under the surface. Then she did Modern Family and I realised what it was. She is a great comedic actress. Yeah a few actresses could do the role but I can’t imagine MF without her.
If I needed a large drink and to talk about family stuff I’d definitely lean her way instead of Garner’s (not that there’s anything wrong with Jennifer……..)
I love Boston Legal!! She was awesome in it! I also loved her on Weeds.
I like her, and the writers are giving her great material. She makes me laugh every week, all of them do actually.
And I’m guessing that both her and Kristen need to find a new stylist.
“I am quite sure there are plenty of people who could play Claire. I was just in the right place at the right time.”
I have NEVER heard another actor say anything that modest! Wow, I’m impressed.
Give some of whatever she is drinking to Taylor Swift LOL!
I’m impressed too.
I think she’s really grateful for the MF gig.
Yeah, really! I like her. Modesty has sadly become an underrated virtue. It’s nice to see an actress who’s genuinely humble.
She looks great for a 43-year old!
she looks so young, fresh and charming
They flipped her face on the cover. I hate when mags do that.
But the rest of the pictures are fine and Julie Bowen’s interview quotes are great because they don’t come off as false modesty. I love seeing her give credit to the MF writers. ITA with Kaiser that the writers really did a great job of turning around her character. On the other hand I feel like they did a great job with Gloria the 1st season and ever since then, she’s become more of a caricature. I wish they could work on giving Gloria more depth too.
I knew something wasn’t right! It’s sort of bizarre that I know her face well enough to realize something’s up. I don’t even watch that show.
I personally didn’t know who she was until MF – many times, her character has the best story line or quip in the episode.
She is SUPER skinny (I’m jealous) and usually looks good on the red carpet. Can she really fit into the same clothes as K-Stew?
I cannot believe, judging by KStews wardrobe, that anyone would employ this Tara person to style a dog, let alone a highly compensated and well known actress.
The only possible explanation is that Tara is a mole in a secret Revenge plot to destroy Stews image. “So uuh, like, uuh what’ll I wear to the premiere, like Tara?” “Well Kristin, in view of the recent tabloid scandal, I think it’s time to change up your image big time. How about this naked dress?” “Sure, want another bong hit?”
Run Julie run!
Just curious — does anyone actually buy “Lucky” magazine (I think calling it a magazine is a major stretch since it’s mostly ads!)
I want that navy and hot pink outfit sooo bad. I also want to look like she does in it! I think she’s very beautiful and I tend to like her style. She dresses age appropriate and looks fabulous!
Bah, I love Julie Bowen! I love Modern Family, too, and I agree that they’ve made her much more likeable over the past couple of seasons.
Even though she wasn’t likeable in it, she was really great in the episode where she and her daughters all got their periods at the same time. They all were. That was the episode where I was like, ‘wow, they’re all really good, not just fluff.’ If anything, Sophia Vergara is the fluff in that show, even the two boys are hilarious.
If they share a “stylist” then that would explain that black leather travesty JB wore to some award show ( Emmys?)- it was truly heinous.
I wonder about the thought processesof selecting a stylist as a 34 yr old successful woman who also styles a 23 yr old in next to naked clothing! Stay strong JB!
Julie is Mr. Rochester’s number one crush. As a matter of fact, he walked in when I clicked on the link and said “hey – that’s Modern Family girl” is a pretty high-pitched voice.
And they would make a really cute couple too.
Julie was also jack’s wife in LOST.
My favorite real mom is Jane Kaczmarek. I remember someone on the red carpet asking her about the secret to her flat stomach, and she told them that she was wearing a girdle! I love her.
K-Stew’s castoffs; I’d use a nuclear suit and tongs to pick them up.
Julie Bowen has always be one of those celebs that I would love to go out for cocktails with — she seems like she’d be a great girlfriend to hang out with.
“I hope the stylist doesn’t put her in miniskirts, Chucks and heavy eye makeup.” Lol Kaiser, you killed me with that one!
I feel l totally neutral about the character of “Claire” in general, but I do agree that they’ve softened her up a lot over the past season or two which is nice. (They’ve also made Sofia Vergara much less of a characature as “Gloria” which has been a breath of fresh air.) Ty Burrell however, is the very best part of that show for me 🙂 He plays Phil as the most awesome, eager, fun, loving and clueless dude; my favorite tv dad EVER 😀 (Though in fairness, the writers have smartened his character up a lot over the years too.)
Aside from the obvious photoshop, I love the softness and simplicity of the shoot. It’s nice to see an actress in clothes you would actually wear. Looove the outfit in the last photo, I would actually buy it.
Julie looks very pretty in the photos and her character on MF isn’t as up tight and neurotic this season. They are starting to tone down Gloria, I hope they continue to do so cos I would like to see more to Gloria other than her being the loudmouthed, fiery personality.
Phil is the best! The christening episode was hilarious especially the ending. Being self-deprecating and modest definitely goes a long way with the public, it certainly does with me.
I have also liked Ms. Bowen since her days on “Ed.” But I have to say, over the past couple of years she has appeared to be deprived of a few too many daily calories.
I love that she said she thinks she belongs in a Flemish painting. On one of my trips to the Netherlands, while perusing the art museums, I had that exact same realization about myself. (yes I am aware that the Flemish live mostly in Belgium, not the Netherlands)
Go Flemmings! (and I mean no offense to other cultures and races, I have just never heard anyone speaking about the Flemish in casual conversation)