Sarah Hyland started her career as a child actor, starring in many movies before landing her most notable role as Haley on ABC's Modern Family. She takes after her parents, who are both actors and recently revealed that they tried to teach her a lesson about the unglamorous side of the profession. However, that apparently proved to be hard when Hyland worked with Jennifer Aniston early in her career. The A-lister was incredibly kind to Hyland when she was a child actor, humorously to her mom’s chagrin.
As a child star, the Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin star didn’t exactly have all the luxuries that come with being a massive movie star. When she landed a role as the daughter of Jennifer Aniston's character in the 1998 romantic comedy, The Object of My Affection, she didn’t have a fancy trailer of her own. Instead, she only had a small space that production allowed her. Hyland shared her recollections with on the Dinner's on Me podcast with Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who officiated her wedding. The actress told her former co-star:
The next job that I got was playing Jennifer Aniston’s daughter in Object of My Affection, and I had a honey wagon. There was no Blimpies or chocolate-covered strawberries. … [A honey wagon] is a sleeve of a room.
The now-32-year-old actress explained that this was a significant downgrade from a previous experience she'd had while working with Howard Stern on Private Parts. Still, her mother believed the experience would teach her that being on set and working on movies wasn’t fun and glamorous all the time. However, lead actress Jennifer Aniston was apparently very sweet towards the young star at the time:
[It was] a bit of a culture shock for me in the industry, from the chocolate-covered strawberries and conference room. And my mom was like, ‘Oh thank goodness, she’s not gonna want to act anymore, because she sees how it really is as a working actor. But then I’d be doing my penmanship on the side of the street, because it was a nice day out, and the honey wagon smelled like a bathroom – because it was. And Jennifer Aniston saw me, and she was like, ‘Oh, honey, what are you doing? No, come into my trailer, do your homework there.’ And my mom was like, ‘Gosh, Jennifer. I am trying to teach my daughter a lesson that it is not all glamour. And now, you're inviting her into your entire trailer.’ With like a bed and a kitchen, and it was like one of those massive trailers.
While Sarah Hyland’s mom may not have loved her generosity due to it getting in the way of a firm lesson, this totally exemplifies just how sweet Jennifer Aniston is. The movie was released at the height of her Friends fame, and she was starring alongside her eventual co-star on the NBC sitcom, Paul Rudd. Despite the massive level of fame the eventual Morning Show star was experiencing at the time, she still went out of her way to make her little co-star comfortable, which is just lovely. Hyland went on to explain that Aniston would even help her with homework:
Jennifer Aniston would help me with my penmanship and everything. And my mom was like, ‘My goodness, my daughter’s just the luckiest little girl that she keeps getting pulled into these places.
Sarah Hyland may not have learned the trials and tribulations that come being a working actor while filming Object of My Affection. However, she more than likely learned later on. The Lipstick Jungle alum continued working consistently throughout her childhood and adulthood, most memorably starring on Modern Family, where she changed a lot from the first season to the finale. Like Jennifer Aniston, Hyland proved to have great comedic timing. Also, ironically, the close-knit nature of the Modern cast seems to mirror that of the Friends cast. Considering the way Aniston embraced her years ago, one would hope that Hyland might pay that generosity forward (without annoying any parents) should she be put in the same position.
You can see the two actresses in Object of My Affection, which you can rent if you have a Prime Video subscription. You can also catch Modern Family by streaming it now with a Peacock subscription.
