Five Things You Never Knew About Julie Bowen

Julie Bowen has been acting for more than 20 years.  However, she earned mainstream success in the late 90s for her role as Roxanne Please on the popular medical drama, ER. Her star continued to soar in the early 2000s when she appeared on NBC’s comedy-drama, Ed.  The show, which marked her first starring role in a television series, aired from 2000 to 2004 and helped introduce fans to Bowen’s talents.  By 20009. Bowen had landed a starring role on ABC’s sitcom, Modern Family, where she continues to play  Claire Dunphy, a role that has earned her two consecutive Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.  Bowen’s character, Dunphy, is an overbearing mother of three who often comes across as controlling and high-strung. According to her husband, Phil Dunphy, Claire is a perfectionist who can find fault in anything. Although Claire Dunphy is the type of person that would annoy most people in real life, viewers seem drawn to her and she is one of the show’s most popular characters. However, there is much more to Bowen than her on-screen roles, and her like off-screen, including being a working mother, adds depth to Bowen that often helps adds new dimensions to her characters.  Although many fans may feel as if they know her character, here are five interesting facts about Julie Bowen.

5. Julie Bowen received a shout out from Angela Bassett.

In 2011, Julie Bowen appeared alongside the legendary Angela Bassett in the film Jumping the Broom.  The film was not a large success and it received average reviews from critics, including the Washington Post, who felt ” “Any light moments are quickly nullified by the oppressive women vying for the title of world’s meanest mom.” Although Bowen’s role in the film was small, she has said that one of the proudest moments of her career came when Bassett referred to her as “the right white girl” for the film.

4. Julie Bowen is a runner and her feet prove it

In several interviews, Julie Bowen has expressed that she considers herself a runner. Bowen stated that she got into running when she ” was about 13, and I started by running about 15 or 20 minutes each day, and then I got to school and it made a huge difference. Suddenly, the run before practice was no big deal and I was like, ‘Wait a minute, I can do this!’ I still stunk at lacrosse and field hockey. It was horrible. Anything with a ball that I had to catch, it was awful. But, I started being a good runner and then when I switched to my high school, where they had track and field and cross-country, I started doing that and I found out that I was not bad.”  Bowen now tries to run as often as possible and uses exercise as an outlet from the busy routine of her daily life.  However, although she enjoys running, it has certainly taken a told on her body and Julie Bowen’s feet have paid the price.  She has admitted that her feet are one of her least favorite parts of her body.  However, there are plenty of other Bowen fans who seem to like her feet and wish they were given more time in the spotlight.

3. Julie Bowen is fluent in Italian.

Not only does she speak Italian fluently, but Bowen studied the Italian Renaissance at Brown University where she earned a bachelor’s degree. Bowen, who enjoys traveling to Europe stated: ” I lived in Florence for a year during college and it was magnificent. I was 20 years old, I had long blonde hair and I didn’t pay for anything. It wasn’t all red wine and pasta – though there was a lot of red wine and pasta. It was actually very challenging too. I really loved it, though.”

2. Julie Bowen is the mother of twin boys.

Bowen is a mother of three, including young twin boys John and Gustav. The twins were born six years after her oldest child and Bowen has admitted that she “did not want twins.”  However, Bowen enjoys motherhood and thinks that it is very important for the parents of twins to ““Spend a little time with each one alone—if possible…even if it’s only ten minutes here and there. They like feeling connected…”

1. Julie Bowen’s dream role is to play Lily Bart.

In an interview with People Magazine, Bowen has stated that “playing Lily Bart would be the greatest thing.” Lily Bart is a fictional character from Edith Wharton’s book, The House of Mirth.  Bart, a wealthy single New York Society woman, is the novel’s main character who is on a quest to find a man who can raise her social status. However, New York society life proves to be expensive and Bart pays the ultimate price with her life at the end of the book.  The book received positive feedback, with the New York Times stating: “A novel of remarkable power,” and that “Its varied elements are harmoniously blended, and the discriminating reader who has completed the whole story in a protracted sitting or two must rise from it with the conviction that there are no parts of it which do not properly and essentially belong to the whole. Its descriptive passages have verity and charm, it has the saving grace of humor, its multitude of personages, as we have said, all have the semblance of life,” and the story being turned into a film several times throughout the years.

 (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)