Sarah Hyland says she couldn’t relate to her Modern Family character… ahead of series finale

Hours before the Modern Family series finale, Sarah Hyland admitted that the only thing she actually shared in common with her once-ditzy ‘hot girl’ character Haley Dunphy was being ‘not good at cooking.’

‘I didn’t relate to her a lot. I don’t know how she goes about life because I’m more like [Haley’s mother] Claire,’ the New York-born, LA-raised 29-year-old admitted in a Glamour essay on Wednesday.

Perhaps Sarah could relate to Claire Dunphy’s wildchild youth since both of their characters wound up married with children, and she still considers Julie Bowen a ‘role model.’

‘Julie has been like a mother to me over the past 11 years. She is one of the strongest, smartest, most opinionated women I’ve ever met,’ Hyland wrote.

‘But she is smart about being opinionated. There’s a time and a place for things, and I’m still learning how to master that because I have no filter. She’s taught me how to keep, at times, my mouth shut. Watching her in interviews, in work settings – really just in life – her brain is the most fascinating thing to me.’

The four-time SAG Award winner was likely doing damage control after lamenting to Cosmopolitan on Thursday that Haley should’ve become ‘a badass stylist or brand mogul or anything like that’ rather than the mother of twins.

Sarah looks forward to producing projects and starring in dramatic period pieces, but for now she’s focusing on her immunocompromised health in the age of COVID-19.

‘Right now my life is about staying safe, staying home, staying healthy, staying creative, and learning new things,’ Hyland – who’s undergone over 16 surgeries, including two kidney transplants – wrote in Glamour.

‘Maybe I’ll relearn French. I took five years of that language and still had trouble when we went to Paris this year for the show. I’m also looking forward to learning how to ride a bike – but, of course, if I want to stay healthy and not get hurt, maybe I wait until this pandemic is over.’

According to Deadline, the 5ft2in brunette earned over $100K an episode for the privilege of playing a Dunphy and the two-hour series finale of ABC’s mockumentary sitcom concludes Wednesday night.

When Sarah reunited with her young castmates on Wednesday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, they all agreed they’d miss Ed O’Neil the most since they’ll ‘probably never see him again’ because he doesn’t leave Hawaii.