Sarah Hyland explains how she relates to Daisy in ‘The Great Gatsby’
Sarah Hyland chats with USA TODAY’s Ralphie Aversa about performing as Daisy Buchanan in “The Great Gatsby” on Broadway.
NEW YORK – At 15, Sarah Hyland made her Broadway debut in the Tony-winning “Grey Gardens,” a musical adaptation of the cult classic documentary.
For the “Modern Family” star, the show brings back memories of SAT prep and bad ex-boyfriends.
“I got dumped right before my 16th birthday, but he was there at the opening-night party,” Hyland recalls with a self-deprecating smirk. “My life as a teenager!”
Hyland, 34, is back on the boards for the first time in nearly 20 years in “The Great Gatsby,” stepping into the iconic role of Daisy Buchanan at the Broadway Theatre. The Jazz Age musical feels like a homecoming for the Manhattan native, after more than a decade of living in Los Angeles while she played eldest daughter Haley Dunphy on TV.
Being back on stage as an adult is “so nice because I’m not having to go to school every day,” Hyland quips. “I have the luxury of being like, ‘You know what? I can sleep in until noon.’” Even more so, “it’s just a really beautiful, full-circle moment. I’m tap-dancing again! I haven’t tapped in decades. So it’s bringing me a lot of childlike joy.”
Sarah Hyland talks ‘weighty’ connection to Broadway’s ‘Great Gatsby’
Like F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel, the stage adaptation tells the doomed love story between the ravishing caged bird Daisy and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby (Ryan McCartan). Daisy has long frustrated and fascinated readers, as she chooses money and status over genuine connection. But rather than dismiss her as shallow, Hyland sees the wife and mother as a survivor.
“I read the book so many times as a young person, and I never thought Daisy was flaky or flippant,” Hyland says. “When you think of ‘Gatsby,’ you think of parties and prohibition and romance. But being a woman in the 1920s, there’s a lot of layers to that. She will do whatever it takes to be with her daughter and make sure her child has the best life.”
Her sacrifice and desperation come full bore in “Beautiful Little Fool,” Daisy’s crushing ballad about navigating a patriarchal society. For Hyland, it’s a way to honor the resilience of women and the LGBTQ+ community in today’s climate: “As the words are coming out of my mouth, it’s so heavy. This book came out 100 years ago, but it’s still so relevant.”
Marc Bruni, who directed “Gatsby,” praises the “intelligence and intention” that Hyland imbues Daisy with.
“Sarah has a deep sense of craft and processes everything through her own barometer for truth,” Bruni says. “Her exquisite rendition of ‘Beautiful Little Fool,’ in particular, revels in the delicious complexity of Daisy, and elicits a hugely emotional response from the audience every night.”
Hyland says the overwhelming success of ‘Modern Family’ still ‘hasn’t hit me yet’
Hyland first fell in love with acting as a little girl watching Shirley Temple movies. Her parents, Melissa Canaday and Edward Hyland, are both actors. In fact, while Hyland was playing Audrey in “Little Shop of Horrors” Off-Broadway last summer, her dad was on the exact same street performing in “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”
“It was so nice to have him up the block,” Hyland says with a grin. “Honestly, the person who loved it the most was my mom, so she didn’t have to take too many trips back and forth!”
The actress made her film debut at age 5, playing Howard Stern’s daughter in the 1997 comedy “Private Parts.” Some of her earliest memories are on movie sets: doing homework in Jennifer Aniston’s trailer during “The Object of My Affection,” and learning to cry on cue while shooting “Annie” with Kathy Bates.
“I’m really fortunate to have always been surrounded not only by the cream-of-the-crop, talented actors, but also just delightful human beings,” Hyland says.
By the time ABC sitcom “Modern Family” came around, Hyland jokes she was a “jaded” industry veteran with “zero expectations. I was like, who knows if this is even going to get picked up? At least I booked something.”
The comedy became a cultural phenomenon, airing for 11 seasons and scooping up 22 Emmys, along with four Screen Actors Guild Awards for best ensemble. Memes and clips from the series frequently make the rounds on social media: “The impact it’s had on people is still mind-boggling to me,” Hyland says. “And I’m such an awkward person that I never know how to react to that!”
“Modern Family” wrapped filming in February 2020, weeks before the U.S. went into COVID-19 lockdown. The cast has remained close: Jesse Tyler Ferguson came to see Hyland in “Gatsby” last month, while many others were on hand at her 2022 wedding, when she tied the knot with “Bachelor in Paradise” alum Wells Adams. That’s partly why she never panicked about the show ending.
“If I had any anxiety at all, it was just what’s going to be my next job?” Hyland says. “I feel like I never got to the point of actually grieving ‘Modern Family’ because we were just thrown into this worldwide pandemic and hoping that people lived. The stakes became so much higher elsewhere.”
Hyland is ready for ‘where the wind takes me’ next
Hyland has worked steadily these last few years, hosting “Love Island” for two seasons on Peacock, and starring in the streaming comedy “Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin.” And in 2021, Hyland joined chocolate supplement brand Sourse as a co-founder, spurred by her experience being “in and out of hospitals my entire life.” The actress was diagnosed with kidney dysplasia as a child and has undergone two kidney transplants. She’s also had surgeries for both endometriosis and an abdominal hernia.
Working in the wellness space and getting to meet others with similar experiences has been “really fulfilling,” Hyland says. “Invisible illness and chronic illness warriors – the majority of people don’t understand what one day is like for us. It could be a good day or a really bad day, and you still have to go to work and live your life. I love that the door has been opened, so now we can have actual conversations about it. If you never do, it feels so isolating.”
Hyland relies on the basics ‒ water and sleep ‒ to power through her grueling eight-show weeks (“Recovery time is so, so important for my body”). On her rare off nights from “Gatsby,” she and Adams have been trying to catch as many musicals as possible (“He loves the big, glitzy Broadway shows”). Recently, she’s been excited to support her pals Nicole Scherzinger (“Sunset Boulevard”) and Jordan Fisher (“Hadestown”) in their respective productions.
“My friends and I don’t go out to clubs: We just sit in the living room, drink wine and sing show tunes,” Hyland says. “I just love the theater community so much ‒ it’s part of my DNA.”
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