Jesse Tyler Ferguson got a nasal yeast infection snorting powdered milk in an Off Broadway play

Jesse Tyler Ferguson learned the hard way that going method can go very wrong.

“I remember we ‘did cocaine’ on stage, and we actually snorted powdered milk,” Ferguson shared during a recent episode of his Dinner’s On Me podcast to the vocal horror of his guest Luke Macfarlane. “And I was like, I don’t know if that was necessary. I don’t think like anyone was close enough to actually see the powder go up our nose.”

“But I remember giving myself, like, basically a yeast infection in my nose because I was snorting so much powdered milk.” the Modern Family star recalled while he and Macfarlane reflected on their two-decades-long friendship and starring in Christopher Shinn’s Where Do We Live.

Ferguson remembered meeting the Bros star in the Off Broadway play in 2004, a period of optimism and grand opportunities for the duo, especially for Macfarlane, who was fresh out of school.

“That was such a special time; you had just graduated from Julliard… and getting a pretty prominent lead role in a high-profile off-Broadway play,” Ferguson said. “It was asking a lot of you as an actor, and there was a lot of sex and nudity.”

Macfarlane recalled that there was also simulated drug use throughout the play, which Ferguson — who, interestingly, would later appear in comedy film Cocaine Bear — was intimately involved with depicting.

Although Macfarlane didn’t come away from the play with any infections, he didn’t get away lightly either. He noted that his character was a “cigarette smoker,” and he smoked in real-life to get into character.

“It took me a long time to quit,” he admitted.

Ferguson has built a reputation for wild reveals with his guests on his podcast. During a previous episode, the actor recalled letting his friend Brooke Shields convince him to make a surprise visit to her neighbor Bradley Cooper in the middle of the night. 

Ferguson explained to guest Patricia Clarkson that Shields and Cooper are “very close” both figuratively and literally — their homes actually share a wall. 

“[Cooper] would come over, and they would have coffee in their kitchen every morning,” Ferguson said. “Anyway, she’s showing me her house, I’m in her kitchen, it’s like midnight, and Brooke is like, ‘I wonder if Bradley’s awake.'”

The Modern Family star stressed that he didn’t know Cooper well at this point, but when Shields decided to visit her neighbor, he tagged along with a modicum of apprehension.

“I’m like, ‘I don’t know if this is a great idea,'” he recalled. “‘I know you’re super close with him, but I don’t know if he’s gonna be thrilled to see me at his back window.'” 

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Shields got her way in the end, and Cooper “couldn’t have been kinder,” Ferguson said.

“He seemed happy to see us. I was like, ‘I’m so sorry,'” he added. “He was like watching late-night TV. I don’t know, he’s watching like a Saturday Night Live or something. Anyway, lovely human being.” 

Listen to the rest of Macfarlane’s interview with Ferguson on the Dinner’s On Me podcast above.