Sarah Hyland: Mean girls have more fun

The actress known for the role of cranky teen Haley Dunphy on Modern Family,plays a mean girl in her upcoming films

IAN SPELLING

Sarah Hyland is the reigning teen queen of meanor was,anyway,until she turned 20 last November. The actress plays the perpetually cranky teen Haley Dunphy on Modern Family,and has completed two upcoming features,Struck by Lightning and Gay Dude,with the former casting her as a bitchy cheerleader and the latter as a bitchy colour-guard girl. And in the Disney Channel movie Geek Charming Hyland plays super-popular high-school student Dylan Shoenfield,who will strike most audiences as,well,bitchy.

I think Im starting to get typecast as bitchy because of Haley, Hyland says. And because everyone has seen me play Haley,they think,she can easily go to the bitchy girl. In Geek Charming,Dylan becomes the subject of a documentary about popularity being made by Josh (Matt Prokop),a self-professed film geek who is himself anything but popular. It soon becomes apparent,to Josh and to the viewers alike,that theres more to Dylan than meets the eye. The mean side was a lot like Haley,so it was a lot of the same, Hyland says. But the real side of Dylan was actually something I really enjoyed. We humanise her pretty quickly,which I think is good.

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In classic romantic-comedy fashion,Dylan and Josh hate each other instantly. That changes quickly. The two realise they have a great deal in common,and hatred gives way to affection and then to romance. Theres genuine on-screen chemistry between Hyland and Prokop,and theres a reason for that. The two are an offscreen couple. We met at a screen test for High School Musical 3, Hyland recalls,and he started talking to me and hitting on me,and I was like,Dude,Im trying to book a job. Stop trying to distract me. So it wasnt love at first sight or anything like that.

Switching to Modern Family,the Emmy-winning sitcom is in the middle of its third season. Hyland has been with the series since it premiered,scoring big laughs with her performance. However she insists she had no idea that it would blossom into one of TVs best shows. As an actor you always hope for that, she says,but you never really think itll get to that point. I try not to give myself high expectations because,when you dont meet those high expectations,youre let down a lot more than if you had low expectations.

In recent episodes of Modern Family,Haley has been seen visiting colleges with her loving-but-buffoonish father,Phil (Ty Burrell). Theres more of that to come,Hyland says,which makes one wonder if shes about to be written out of the show? Hopefully they wont do that, she says. But I just go with the flow.

For her own part,however,college is not on her radar. As a girl she always imagined shed attend UCLA or New York University,but with her 21st birthday fast approachingthe big day is November 24that window appears to have closed. I missed out on the college boat but Im doing what I love,and it doesnt need a college degree, she says.