Struck By Lightning, starring Chris Colfer, Sarah Hyland, and Rebel Wilson, officially hits theaters on January 11 -- and in honor of the film, we caught up with Sarah to find out what it was like to work on this hilarious dark comedy (written by Chris Colfer!). 'Struck By Lightning' tells the story of Carson, an aspiring writer, who blackmails some of the most popular students on campus to join his literary magazine -- and who has some hilarious (and so touching!) moments along the way. Here, Sarah dishes on working with Chris and her boyfriend Matt Prokop (who's also in the flick!) and how the story compares to her own high school experiences.
J-14: What initially attracted you to this film?
Sarah Hyland: Well, the fact that Chris wrote the script -- I was in no matter what! We were friendly before, but not on a super personal basis, so it was so much fun to work with him.
J-14: You play the mean cheerleader type in 'Struck By Lightning' -- which is so not what you're like in real life! Is it hard to get into character?
Sarah: I mean, I don't want to say it's pretty easy because I'm like that, but I grew up watching films like 'Bring It On' and those high school movies where there's always the mean girl. It's always fun to play that because it's so opposite!
J-14: Along with Chris and Rebel, you also got to work with your boyfriend Matt! What was that like?
Sarah: It was amazing! There were so many people around my age in the film. It was the first time ever experienced that.
J-14: Was it different than working with Matt on 'Geek Charming'?
Sarah: It was completely different! Our characters didn't really interact. We were in a couple of scenes together, but our characters were from completely different worlds in that high school. He was more of the laid-back, chill crowd and I was more of the not-so-nice cheerleader crowd. So, it was a lot of fun for us because I think he decided that his character didn't like mine and I didn't like his!
J-14: Aw! And while the film is so funny, it also deals with some pretty heavy issues, like bullying. Is that something you experienced in your high school?
Sarah: I went to a performing arts school, so there wasn't really a lot of bullying. If you take all the theater nerds from a bunch of public schools and put them in one school, no one really has crazy differences. Granted there was the normal drama that you have in high school, but there wasn't really bullying in my school. [But for anyone going through that], I would say stick to your guns and be proud of who you are as a person. Your friends are going to accept you no matter what because they will like you for who you are.
