Jesse recalls awful audition days

Modern Family's Jesse Tyler Ferguson might be a star now, but he remembers those awful days sweating it out in front of casting directors.

"I've had many horrible, horrible auditions. They're tucked away. I try not to remember them. There are too many to name, actually," he said.

"You go into those situations desperately needing that job. Whether or not you want it or not, you need it to survive - you need the paycheck."

Jesse is revisiting his lean early years in a cameo for Submissions Only, a new online scripted sitcom wrapping up its second season in the US that takes a behind-the-scenes look at the life of New York theatre hopefuls.

He will join some of Broadway's brightest lights who have made appearances in the series, including Kristin Chenoweth, Chita Rivera, Adam Pascal and Michael Urie.

Each episode begins with an audition and the one featuring Jesse - which airs on April 27 on BroadwayWorld.com - has him belting out an original song - and eventually crashing and burning.

"It starts with him singing a song and it seems like things are going OK, but then it increasingly gets worse and by the end he's just a mess," said the show's co-creator Kate Wetherhead.

"It's sort of the actor's nightmare," added Jesse. "You get in your head too much and you start second-guessing everything too much. It's a really funny scene. You watch me fall apart."

The show has drawn comparisons to Smash - the US series about to hit the small screen in the UK, and its creators aren't miffed that NBC also has a show about the life of theatre pros.

"If anything we want Smash to succeed so that shows about the theatre business become more palatable to a larger audience," said Wetherhead.