If you're a Pretty Little Liars fanatic, you've probably spent the last five years occasionally shrieking, crying, and laughing every time Tuesday came around. And throughout each and every season, you've probably had a lot of damn questions.
We got the chance to sit down with the PLL cast to ask all of your burning questions— and let's just say, it did not disappoint. From teasing Uber A to talking about a potential Haleb baby (*prays to I. Marlene*), the Liars revealed everything you've always wanted to know.
1. Now that you’re in your twenties on the show and not teenagers, will your characters have typical twentysomething problems?
Lucy Hale: That’s actually funny.
Troian Bellisario: Oh my god. Why don’t we have Tinder in Rosewood? There’d be like two people.
LH: We’ve already been through them all. What are our twentysomething problems?
Shay Mitchell: I think so, I think the problems that we’re dealing with are way more mature.
LH: The girls' problems have always been larger than the average human’s.
So no Netflixing.
LH: Netflix and chill.
SM: I think there’s going to be a lot more Netflix and chill in the second half of this season. [laughs]
LH: More chill, yeah.
2. Troian, are you excited about Spencer working in politics, and who do you think she would vote for in the upcoming election?
TB: Whoa. That’s really interesting. Yes, I’m super excited about her working in politics. I can’t wait, hopefully, to go down that a little bit more. She kind of got segued by a lot of different dramatic things that happen, but I hope she gets to return there soon.
Who would she vote for? I mean, I do think weirdly that Spencer’s kind of a young Republican? And yet I feel like she would just be so gung-ho Hillary. I don’t know, there’s just something about female empowerment that I feel like Spencer would just be like, I don’t know, I’m more fiscally conservative, but I have to be over here with her.
3. If you read the books, were there any parts that didn't make the TV show that you wish had?
Sasha Pieterse: Didn’t Emily get pregnant?
SM: Does she? I mean, I would enjoy that.
TB: What?! Are you just making stuff up over here?
SP: No! I think there’s part of it where she gets pregnant. By the seventh, eighth book, I don’t know. Unless it was a rumor.
LH: By who?
SM: I mean, I’ll take it. That would be so much fun.
Ashley Benson: Well, Emily becomes straight and she gets pregnant. Or she becomes pregnant by Hanna. Hanna and Caleb’s baby — you have our baby.
SM: Yeah! I’ll be like the oven. Because you don’t wanna get pregnant —this all makes sense. Because she needs to fit into the couture, that’s why.
4. Troian, what was your favorite Spoby moment to film throughout the past seasons?
TB: We had a lot of fun on the noir episode. Just because it got to be very Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, and the interrogation scene was really fun for us. But actually, some of my truly favorite Spoby scenes, one happens in the first episode that you guys will see tonight, where Spencer and Toby see each other after a long time — that was really fun to film with him. And then there’s one that comes way later that was just great, because Keegan is a really wonderful actor, and I don’t think he gets enough to do on the show, and so they gave him something really cool, so it was really fun.
5. Which "A" ending scene freaked you out the most?
AB: The one that freaks me out, I think, is when we open the trunk and there’s a dead pig.
TB: Ugh, that was intense.
AB: That was a real dead pig, by the way. It was a real thing — it smelled so bad we almost threw up everywhere.
TB: Wait, [Ashley], when did you and I go back to Radley?
AB: That was, uh, that was last season with the, uh…
TB: No, no, no. Don’t say it!
SM: No, you can’t say it.
LH: Did that [happen]? It did?
SP: Yeah!
TB: OK, so you know when we found the doll? That terrified me.
AB: Ugh, yes.
SP: Oh, in the bathtub.
AB: Yeah, that was really gross. And it looked so real and disgusting.
TB: It was like reliving The Ring.
AB: And we also filmed that at like midnight on a Friday, so it was just weird.
TB: There were real screams — we just didn’t wanna touch it. And we had to like, hook it, in the hair. Ugh.
6. What can you tease about the new big bad? Is it the Uber A, and is it a character we’ve already seen before in the past seasons?
AB: It’s hard without giving too much away. It’s so hard to answer these questions because, like, we can give a hint and then a lot of people will know who it is or too much, so we have to be so quiet about that. Which sucks because we want you guys to, like, know what’s going on, but we don’t really even know where the story’s going, or who is going to be the final “A.”
TB: I can tell you right now that it has to do with characters that you’ve seen and know very well…
SP: Sort of…
TB: And characters that you’ve never seen, and characters that you’ve seen and know very well but may not know this side of them. So, it’s like, that’s probably the least satisfying answer you’ll ever hear and yet it’s true!
7. What ever happened to Wren? He had to have been involved with CeCe, so will we see him in 6B?
TB: I think Wren got a lot of television work. He got a lot of other jobs.
LH: Yeah, Wren got another job.
AB: Wren moved to London and never came back to Rosewood. But he is in a storyline, him and Melissa are in London, and they’ve been there for a while. We hope that we would have Julian back! He’s amazing and a great friend. Stop booking every single job and then maybe he’ll come back!
8. If you had to switch moms with anyone on the show, which mom would you want?
SM: Easy, Mrs. DiLaurentis for me. Mostly because I just love her.
LH: Mrs. Hastings, she’s a badass.
SP: I love her.
TB: Mrs. DiLaurentis or Mrs. Marin.
AB: I wouldn’t switch.
SM: If you have to switch! Of course we wouldn’t switch.
AB: I love Ashley so much. But Laura [Leighton's] great, and Andrea Parker is amazing. Everybody's amazing.
TB: I’d wanna make Nolan North play my mom.
AB: Shay wants Nolan to play her boyfriend because she thinks he’s hot.
SM: Yeah.
TB: Yeah, you need to stop hitting on my dad. It’s unprofessional, it’s uncomfortable, and it’s been happening for two years.
9. Shay, will Emily get a new girlfriend, or is there still a chance for Emison?
SM: Yeah! I mean, I think Emily, in this second half of the upcoming season, is dealing with a lot of things, and I don’t know if she’ll have time to fit any love in her life, but I think, you know, we always say this: You never know. Emison endgame could be a thing, and she’ll always have that spot for Alison that she cares deeply about, so you never know. But she doesn’t ever have a problem, I mean, really, she has a revolving door of girls, so we’re good.
10. If you were offered the chance to keep the show going, doing Seasons 8, 9, etc. or even a PLL movie, would you want to keep going?
SP: Yeah, I mean, I think a PLL movie would be fun.
Everyone: Yeah!
SP: Like, to kind of wrap things up.
AB: If we got to film somewhere other than Warner Bros.
SM: Yeah, I think if we all got to go to, like, Europe.
AB: New York, even. But, Europe.
LH: But I think we all agree that all good things must come to an end. Like, all your favorite shows do have a period at the end of a sentence. So I think we’ll have to wrap it up at some point, unfortunately.
SP: I think a movie would be a cool way to do that.
LH: Maybe, who knows?
11. Ashley, how the hell is Hanna able to fly first class one year out of college?
AB: Because I think her job obviously pays, or she stole the ticket.
SM: Or flirted with somebody to get the ticket.
AB: Probably. Yeah, she probably made out with somebody.
TB: Don’t hate the player.
12. What's your favorite offscreen moment of the season?
TB: When we got out and scared [Ashley] in her dressing room.
SM: Oh my god, I love that.
AB: It was like the second-to-last day before we finished.
SM: And we just sat in her room with the lights off, and Ashley walked in, and we were just sitting there.
TB: It was like blackness, and all I hear is Shay’s voice being like, “Don’t move. She’s gonna hear us.” And I was giggling, and she was like, “Don’t giggle!” And I was like, oh my god, Shay’s a voice in my head, she’s never coming in! And I think we were, like, about to get up and adjust the camera, and then you walked in.
AB: But what happened was, it would’ve been so much better, because whoever locked my door from the outside, so that when I tried to get in, I called the security guard to let me in my room. So then he walked in first, and then they jumped out in, like, darkness…
SM: You were still scared.
AB: Oh, I, like, almost lost my voice! Like, it wasn’t funny. They screamed at the top of their lungs, and I almost peed myself because I was so scared and I didn’t expect it, because we were done for the day and I was so happy.
LH: I always hear screams — me and Shay’s rooms are next to each other. Who puts the fake spiders and rats in Shay’s room? 'Cause I always hear screams through the wall — I’m like, is Shay OK??
So there’s a lot of pranking that’s happening.
Everyone: Yeah.
13. What has been your character's biggest learning curve in the show?
SP: I mean, Alison had had, like, a huge arc. I think she’s probably one of the most changed characters. She’s learned a lot, she’s been through a lot. I think she’s learned a lot about the world and how things are supposed to be, especially now. All of the girls have been in such a hyperreality because of everything they’ve been dealing with, that she’s forgotten, and couldn’t really have had a normal experience in high school. So I think she’s been humbled and learned a little bit about relationships, and how to actually interact with someone on a human level.
TB: Spencer’s biggest learning curve is not kissing other people’s boyfriends. Which she still has trouble with.
SM: I think Emily’s is like, not trusting people so easily. Clearly her taste in women is sometimes not the best — I think she’s learned that.
AB: I think Hanna has learned to be comfortable in her own skin. Since the beginning she’s had body issues, and not knowing who she was personality-wise, the way she dressed, all this stuff. She went through changes, and now I think she’s very comfortable and she’s happy with who she is.
LH: That’s a hard question, because a lot of the answers sort of meld; they’ve all sort of been through it together. I think when Aria comes back, she’s really put her foot forward to leave the past in the past, whether that be an old relationship or all the situations the girls went through together. Because when she comes back she really seems happy, and she seems put together. So I wanna believe that she tried her best to move on in the best and healthiest way possible.
14. Have you kept any outfits or props from the show?
SM: I’ve taken a couple pieces. I mean, I have a couple sneakers from Em’s closet. But, I mean, we can take pieces when we’re completely done with it, or borrow.
TB: Yeah, you have to borrow it, because if they need to reshoot something or shoot an extra scene, better know where that jacket is!
SP: I was gonna say, I wanna burn [my yellow tank top]. I wanna steal the 14 copies of it that we have and destroy it.
15. If you could change one thing that happened to your character, what would it be?
SP: This is a selfish thing, just because I didn’t like filming it, but it was cool. I wish I never got buried alive.
LH: Nooo, then we wouldn’t have a show!
SP: No! I mean, like, the actual process, me physically underground. It was really cool, but I had dirt in places that I would never want dirt in places.
AB: I wish I never got run over, because I had to be in a cast for like three weeks. Every day. And, like, I couldn’t get out of it until we finished, so it was really annoying having to go around in a wheelchair or, like, hop around the set. It wasn’t fun.
SM: I would say sometimes the swimming stuff, because I had to be in the pool for like 12 hours and be like a big raisin afterwards. I’m like, “Oh great, pool scenes. Fuck.”
SP: That coffin thing was really hard for you, [Lucy].
LH: Oh, gosh. Yeah, when I was in the box. I’m a little, like, slightly claustrophobic.
SM: No, not that, the Halloween episode. I’ll never forget, “I can’t, I can’t breathe, take it off!”
LH: Oh my god, this is the best story.
AB: She was literally having a meltdown.
LH: So this is like the first Halloween episode ever, it’s like 110 degrees out in Burbank. I’m dressed like Morticia, I’m pissed, I’ve got this wig on. It’s plastic and it’s itchy — like I said, it’s 110 degrees out, Ashley is fat Britney Spears...
TB: Oh my god, I was Mary, Queen of Scots, so that wig, that costume made me bleed.
LH: She’s bleeding, I’m miserable, [Ashley had] taken her clothes off, so you’re just in the fat suit — it was incredible. So sometimes our clothes — we have to run through the woods in heels, that’s hard.
SP: With, like, smoke, and it’s like 5 in the morning.
TB: When I look at pictures of that Halloween episode, all I see are the three of us, like, pinned, and horribly hot. And then I see Shay in her, like, slutty Pocahontas, it’s, like, so free-moving.
SP: My stilettos, they put my fishnets over and wrapped it, and those shoes were so bad, and I was in them for so long that the soles and the ball of my foot were, like, black and blue, like, they actually bruised. That sucked.
LH: Beauty is pain.
