Oops … he didn’t know who she was! Modern Family’s Ed O’Neill had no idea who Britney Spears was when she asked to take a photo with him at Los Angeles International Airport. During an interview with Ellen DeGeneres on Monday, June 13, the actor explained why he looked so unamused in Spears’ March 2016 Twitter pic.
“Well, I was at LAX. I was flying alone to Hawaii. I was waiting for my flight to board … I saw a woman approaching me so I just flopped [my hat] on, I was leaving. She came up and said, ‘Oh, Mr. O’Neill, I love Modern Family. You’re my favorite on the show,’” the actor recalled, explaining that Spears then asked to take a photo with him.
“I didn’t know it was her!” O’Neill, 70, told DeGeneres, adding that his manager had to inform him the next day. “Look at the look on my face. Do I look like I’m sitting with Britney Spears?”
The funnyman said that the pop princess “couldn’t have been nicer,” and he later called her manager to apologize for not recognizing her.
If it makes the “Pretty Girl” singer, 34, feel any better, O’Neill — who voices Hank the octopus in Finding Dory — also didn’t know what Finding Nemo was. “I got a call from my manager and he said, ‘Do you want to do something on Finding Dory?’ and I said, ‘What is that?’”
Watch the funny interview above. Finding Dory hits theaters June 17.