When you all read that last script, and filmed that last scene, I imagine there were a lot of tears. Who among you was the most stoic, and attempted to be the last one to cry?

I wasn’t personally there for the very very last scene that was shot in the whole series, but I can talk about the table read, because I was in the room.

We walked in, and on the table they usually have water bottles, highlighters, and pencils in front of each chair for each actor, and writer, and producer, but on this day they also had Kleenex boxes set out because they anticipated that people were gonna lose it.

For those five girls in particular, they also started when they were in their early 20s. I think some were actually mid-teens, Sasha (Pieterse), for example, was 14, she really grew up on this show. I think that, from what I saw, it was hitting people that it was coming to an end leading up to the last couple episodes, but it really hit people once they were in that room reading those final scenes.

They had a difficult time getting through actually just reading the last scene, but it was great because the relationships that you see on screen between them are real.

I’m personally really excited to see that last scene, because from what I saw in the table read these girls really do love each other like best friends, and sisters, and it’s gonna translate. It certainly did watching it live.

I know many of the moms haven’t been as involved as much this season. That said, with Nia Peeples and Laura Leighton you had a couple of actresses with some serious IMDb pages. When PLL passed the half decade mark, was there anything they told you about being on a long-running show, and dealing with being associated with a certain character for so long?

They didn’t really talk specifically about that, but the biggest thing that stuck with me in terms of anecdotes was Laura saying that at the height of Melrose Place they still got fan mail, like actually physical letters. They would drop off buckets and buckets and buckets of letters, and fan artwork, to the set. She was pointing out that today it’s so radically different because of social media.

I found that interesting because our show started right around the time Twitter was taking off, and then Instagram was a couple years later.

I love hearing from everybody who watches the show. It’s very flattering, but there’s also the occasional thing where you also see all the criticism that comes in.

That can be tough.

Yeah. There’s not really a way of screening it. That was one thing.

I also remember Chad Lowe saying that a decade ago, two decades ago, the actors would sit around and share stories in-between takes. They would actually talk.

We would talk to each other, but now you have your iPad, and your cell phone, and in-between takes you can check Instagram and Twitter.

I thought it was really interesting that he said that. It was more of a telling stories around the campfire thing waiting for them to bring you back to set, as opposed to going and reading the internet. Those are two things that stand out to me.

You mentioned social media, and PLL did a fantastic job of being one of the first shows to really utilize social media, and the internet in general. The fandom really embraced it. That said, some fans can be a little extra. What kind of moments did you have where a fan either got mad at you for something Lucas did, or went a little overboard in trying to get in contact with you?

All of our fans have been really fantastic.

I can imagine if the audience was slightly younger, pre-teen, there might be a little bit of a disconnect between what’s real and what’s not. That being said, there was one thing that I was actually really surprised about.

There was an episode where Lucas was acting kind of sketchy, and he and Hanna go out on a boat in the middle of a lake. She thinks he’s involved with the A plot somehow, and he’s trying to explain losing Caleb’s money gambling online. He has this kind of outburst, because she’s not listening to him, because obviously she’s thinking something totally different.

I remember on Twitter a lot of people were like, “I can’t believe Lucas was about to kill Hanna,” and I’m like, kill Hanna?!?!

When we were shooting the scene, and when we were preparing that scene, it was never my intention that he was gonna kill Hanna on the boat, but I guess people took it that way.