‘New Girl’ Winston Actor Said He Was Allergic to His Cat

• On the podcast“Welcome to Our Show,” Lamorne Morris told “New Girl” fans about his cat allergy.
• His character, Winston, was well known for having a cat, Ferguson, but it wasn’t easy for the actor.
• Fans loved Ferguson, so the cat remained on the show, and Morris had to find ways to work with him.

Winston Bishop was constantly caring for his cat, Ferguson, on “New Girl.” But that wasn’t easy for actor Lamorne Morris.

On the fourth episode of iHeartRadio’s “New Girl” rewatch podcast “Welcome to Our Show,” stars Zooey Deschanel (Jess), Hannah Simone (Cece), and Morris (Winston) spoke about how Morris was actually very allergic to cats.

Morris’s character famously has a cat, but the actor is allergic

Ferguson isn’t introduced until season three when Winston steals the cat from his cheating girlfriend, Daisy. But Winston’s affinity for cats is briefly introduced on season one, episode four.

As Deschanel, Simone, and Morris were recapping the episode, the women spoke about how ironic it was that Morris was the one who ended up with a pet later on because they both love cats.

“You’re the one who got the cat on the show, and we were like, ‘Please let us hold that cat,” and they were like, ‘No, this is a trained cat. Only Lamorne can hold this cat,'” Deschanel recalled.

But because Morris is allergic to cats, his castmates ended up helping him out. Simone recalled a time on a later season when she convinced the producers to let Cece hold Ferguson throughout an episode instead of Winston.

Morris also turned to allergy medicine to film scenes with the cat.

“I’m trying to be kind to Ferguson, and you know, taking my medication so I don’t sneeze all over him,” Morris said.

But once the cat started scratching him, he said, “That was the moment that I was like, ‘We have to figure out something.'”

Luckily, Morris said working with Ferguson “got better” over time.

Producers didn’t know about Morris’ allergies at first, and it was soon too late to write the pet off

During an interview with E! News earlier this month, Morris said the producers weren’t aware of his cat allergy when Ferguson was written into the show.

But unfortunately for the actor, fans were immediately drawn to the cat.

“Right out the gate, fans immediately loved Ferguson,” Morris told the publication. “So it was like, I can’t switch to a cat that I’m not allergic to. I think we tried in some episodes, like we played with the idea of other animals, [but] Ferguson is king.”