Nolan Gould Reflects on Mistakenly Believing Co-Star Sarah Hyland Was Older During Modern Family Filming
Actor Nolan Gould from Modern Family reminisces about his time on the sitcom and his initial impression of his co-stars, including onscreen sister Sarah Hyland. He shared his thoughts on the Dinner’s On Me podcast with Jesse Tyler Ferguson, revealing that he felt Hyland was too old to play his sister, who was 25 or 26 years old at the time.
Gould was just 10 years old when he landed a role on the popular show, taking some time to understand its dynamics as it had already gained popularity among viewers.
During his conversation with Ferguson, who portrayed Mitchell Prichett, Gould discussed an episode with Hyland where she expressed feeling old. He remembered, “I’ll never forget Sarah coming in one day and being like, ‘Oh my God, I feel so old.’ She was like 24, 25, and she was like, ‘I’m getting too old for this.’ I didn’t know what she was talking about. And I thought to myself, You are—because I was 16, and I was a jerk.”
Reflecting on the show that brought him fame, Gould shared that as the youngest during the pilot, he looked up to his senior co-stars and learned various acting skills from them.
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Although he was initially unaware of the impact of the show, Gould mentioned that it fundamentally changed him as he grew older. He said, “I don’t think I really clocked what was happening until I was like 14 or 15. That’s when I kind of became sentient, and I was like, Whoa! This just fundamentally changed me.”
For his portrayal of Luke in Modern Family, Gould received numerous accolades throughout the show’s run. The sitcom garnered 22 Emmy Awards out of 85 nominations over 11 seasons.
The lead characters in the show were played by Ed O’Neill, Sofia Vergara, Ty Burell, Julie Bowens, Eric Stonestreet, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Modern Family aired from 2009 to 2020 on the ABC network.
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