'Modern Family' Sarah Hyland's Halloween costume dilemma, horror story

Sarah Hyland of "Modern Family" is rather pragmatic about the skimpy Halloween costumes her character Haley Dunphy wore on the Emmy-winning sitcom.

"I mean, it's whatever a teenager does now," she tells Zap2it about the tight and short-skirted outfits seen on Wednesday's (Oct. 27) episode. "It's what every 16-year-old does. It was normal. I was just freezing."

Hyland's real-life Halloween costumes, however, are more kid- and mom-friendly.

"When I was three I was a bunny," she says, reminiscing about her favorite costumes. "Last year I was a bear and that was fun. I had a camouflage outfit on with a really furry faux fur vest and ears. I did my makeup with a black nose and everything."

She and her boyfriend, actor Matt Prokop from "Furry Vengeance" and "High School Musical 3," already have their costumes planned for this year, and we find them pretty inspired.

"We're being Michael and Jackie from 'That '70s Show' for Halloween," she reveals.

 In the period sitcom, actors Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis play couple Michael Kelso and Jackie Burkhardt (pictured in costume, right). With Hyland's coloring, she can definitely pull it off, and even though Prokop has shorter hair now, he once had very Kelso-like hair in "Furry Vengeance" (inset, left).

So her costume is all set ... well, except for actually putting it together, but that's just a technicality. She experienced a bit of costume panic, however, when her friend and "Pretty Little Liars" star Lucy Hale tweeted out, "Jack is an ice cream sundae. And not too happy about it" with a picture of her dog in costume. Hyland tweeted back, "no way! Barkleys an Ice cream sundae too!"

Both attached twitpics (Jack on left, Barkley on right):

This is what happens when you buy off the rack.

"It's the same outfit. It's from Target," she explains. "I got Barkley this costume like a month ago when we bought our Halloween decorations for the front yard. I just never tweeted a picture of it. And then Lucy Hale tweeted a picture of her dog it in. I was like, 'Oh my God. Oh boy.' It's like wearing the same dress to prom."

Luckily the pooches won't be too embarrassed since Hyland already bought a replacement costume. No doubt she'll tweet out the evidence soon.

 As part of her Halloween celebration, the actress recently visited Knott's Scary Farm with her boyfriend and tweeted it was "the most scared I have ever been n my life." She actually doesn't mind being scared and loves horror movies, but she's not crazy about having people jump out at her. This aversion stems from a childhood incident.

"When I was in second grade, the seniors decided to do a haunted maze in the basement of the school," she says. "And since they were seniors they decided to screw with the second graders. The actors at Knott's Scary Farm are not really allowed to touch you, but these seniors literally dragged my friend by the feet down the halls. So I've been scarred for life with stuff like that, with people dressing up and scaring you and going through mazes and everything because of that one particular moment in my life."

"Modern Family" airs Wednesday nights on ABC.

Check back with Zap2it for the second half of Hyland's interview in which she discusses what's coming up for Haley, her dream guest star and her upcoming film.

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Photo credit: ABC, Getty Images, Summit Entertainment, FOX, WireImage