“Halfway through Season 2 their personalities had started to develop, and it was really clear to us that they weren’t enjoying their time on set,” Michelle told Woman’s Day in 2012.
The parents informed producers that Ella and Jaden would not return. The show responded with better offers, as successful television productions tend to do when confronted with the word “no.”
“They tried to get us to change our mind and they offered us better and better terms,” Michelle said.
The Hillers still declined. No deal was attractive enough to justify keeping two unhappy toddlers on a production set.
In a 2011 interview with People, Michelle said the children had moved on to more conventional activities: swimming, dance, gymnastics and rock climbing.
“They are happy with the freedom of being 3,” she said.
How were the twins cast as Lily?
Ella and Jaden secured the role through a Craigslist advertisement seeking identical Asian twin girls. Their parents submitted a photograph, and the babies were cast despite having no previous acting ambitions or professional representation.
“We saw an ad on Craigslist looking for identical Asian girl twins, so we sent in a picture and they were cast. It was crazy,” Doug later recalled.
Hiring twins to portray one young character is standard practice in film and television. Child labour rules strictly limit how long a baby or toddler can work, so two children can alternate in the same role. That gives the production more usable filming time without asking one infant to maintain an adult shooting schedule, an idea that should not require regulation but apparently does.
Although the arrangement helped the series, Michelle and Doug found the practical demands more exhausting than expected. Once their daughters began showing that they disliked the experience, the family treated that as a decision rather than an obstacle to negotiate.
Who replaced the original Lily actors?
For Season 3, producers recast Lily with a single performer. Aubrey Anderson-Emmons took over the role when she was three years old and remained with the sitcom until its finale in 2020.
Her version of Lily developed into a sharply sarcastic fan favourite, often delivering the family’s bluntest lines while the adults created elaborate problems for themselves. Anderson-Emmons appeared in 200 episodes across nine years.
A year after joining the cast, she became the youngest person to win a Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the show’s ensemble. She ultimately became the actor most viewers associate with Lily, even though Ella and Jaden originated the part.
Since the sitcom ended, Anderson-Emmons has recorded only one additional acting credit, the short film Tailwinds. Unlike her predecessors, she has remained visible online. As of August 2026, she had about 1.8 million Instagram followers and ran a YouTube channel featuring food reviews.
Ella and Jaden, meanwhile, have stayed outside the public eye. Their parents’ decision ended what could have become long child-acting careers, but it also gave the twins the ordinary childhood their family believed they wanted. Hollywood continued without them. The toddlers also appear to have managed.
