Julie Bowen, the talented actress behind Modern Family’s Claire Dunphy, recently shared her surprising doubts about her comedic abilities.

“I was like, ‘I can’t tell a joke, I’m not funny,'” Bowen recalled on The Three Questions with Andy Richter.

Despite playing a pivotal role in one of this century’s most beloved sitcoms, Bowen initially hesitated to audition for Modern Family.

“I told my team, ‘Don’t give me those three-jokes-a-page kind of things,'” she revealed.

Luckily, her managers encouraged her to take a chance, citing Helen Hunt’s success in Mad About You as an example.

“I said, ‘[Helen Hunt] just won like five Emmys,'” Bowen remembered, to which her managers responded, “Yes. So she’s funny in a different way. She’s not three-jokes-a-page funny. And yet she is wildly funny. Try to be Helen Hunt.”

Bowen’s managers helped her recognize her unique comedic strength.

“You’ll notice I didn’t do too many jokes,” Bowen joked with Richter. “I fell down a lot.”

She also shared her preference for dramedy shows like Ed.

“Ed was during when dramedy was a thing,” she explained. “There was like Ally McBeal at the time. These were hourlongs with big fighting scenes and then nice warm, funny scenes. And all things could exist at once.”

Additionally, Bowen revealed she was pregnant during her Modern Family audition and thought it would hurt her chances.

“I didn’t think I got Modern Family because I was so pregnant,” she confessed. “I was testing for two pilots, and I wanted Modern Family, but the other show, the character was pregnant. And I was like, ‘I’ve got a shot at that one.'”

Bowen’s candid revelations offer a refreshing glimpse into her journey.