‘Pretty Little Liars’: The Cast Got Scripts Just Hours Before Filming

In many ways, the main cast of Pretty Little Liars won the jackpot. The show was wildly successful and boasted a huge fan base. The show also made its four leads: Lucy Hale, Shay Mitchell, Ashley Benson, and Troian Bellisario household names. Furthermore, since PLL lasted seven seasons, the show gave the actors phenomenal job security. And considering what each lead actor was making per episode, Pretty Little Liars was good for their net worths also.

Of course, working on Pretty Little Liars was no easy feat. The cast had a pretty intense filming schedule. This was especially true when they were shooting intense night scenes. It wasn’t uncommon for the four main actors to film well past midnight to truly capture the show’s dark tone.

The ‘Pretty Little Liars’ cast was only given a few hours to learn their lines

But long hours wasn’t the only challenging part about filming Pretty Little Liars. The cast also had very minimal time to learn their lines. In a conversation with Interview Magazine, Hale revealed that she got very good at memorizing after working on PLL. The Katy Keene alum shared that she and her fellow castmates only had a few hours to prepare their scenes before shooting began.

“I worked on Pretty Little Liars for so long, and in that world, you’re getting the script 12 hours before rolling,” Hale admitted. “They’re changing things left and right and doing blocking and everything. So it kind of helps you hone your craft, you have no other choice but to know your lines.”

Lucy Hale revealed that the cast was allowed to pitch their own ideas to the writers

Even though the Pretty Little Liars cast had to learn their lines at warp speed, they were also given quite a bit of agency. While speaking to Vulture, Hale made it clear that the PLL writers welcomed collaboration. “Our writers and producers made it very clear to us that we could come to them, pitch ideas, or if we hated a line we could change it,” Hale revealed.

Hale didn’t pitch ideas for her character, Aria, until ‘Pretty Little Liars’ was ending

Unfortunately, Hale didn’t take the writers up on their offer until the series was nearing its end. However, when she finally did she was shocked by how easy it was.

“I really didn’t speak up about my character and things I wanted to do until these last 10 episodes,” Hale shared when discussing Prety Little Liars. “I was like, ‘Can I just do something that I haven’t done before?’ And they were like, ‘Yeah, sure!’ I was like, ‘What, it’s that easy?! Cool!’ Before then, I knew my role on the show was the romantic relief. I knew that was Aria’s part. I was like, ‘Man, maybe she can just do something outside of the box for the last 10 episodes.’ And they let me do it.”

Clearly, working on Pretty Little Liars was an interesting experience for the cast. And while they had to learn their lines quickly, the show proved to be an excellent training ground for the actors to deepen their craft.