'Modern Family' star Sarah Hyland says she was told that she was 'too old' to audition for the sitcom at 18

• Sarah Hyland recalled her experience auditioning for "Modern Family" in an interview with BuzzFeed.
• Hyland said she was considered "too old" to play Haley, even though they were just three years apart.

"Modern Family" star Sarah Hyland was told that she was "too old" to audition for the sitcom that propelled her to fame, even though there was only a three-year difference between her and the character Haley Dunphy.

"Originally, they didn't want to see me for 'Modern Family' because I was 18 and Haley's character was 15," Hyland told BuzzFeed in a new interview published on Tuesday. "They were like, 'She's too old.'"

"And at the time, my agent's assistant fought for me to get in the room," the actor continued. "She was like, 'She doesn't look 18 years old, I promise you! She looks very, very young!'"

Hyland said that the casting process was difficult and she didn't tape an audition until after a pre-reading followed by another reading.

"They just were very much like, 'She's too old. She's 18,'" Hyland recalled. "And then after that, I went to see the director and creators."

Hyland starred as Haley, the on-screen daughter of Ty Burrell's Phil and Julie Bowen's Claire, throughout the show's 11-season run on ABC from 2009 to 2020.

The actor told BuzzFeed that growing up on the show, with the spotlight on her, was challenging because "a lot of traumatic things happen to women when they're in their 20s."

"I think that was probably the most challenging part, was all of the lows in my 20s that I experienced," Hyland said. "I had to very much put them to the side and leave it at the door whenever I went to work, because I just refused for anything to affect my job."