PLL Behind the Scenes: Cast and Crew Discussion

[Cranberry]

Here's your thread for stuff that doesn't fit in the media thread, such as discussion of the cast and crew's social media presence or any behind-the-scenes videos. The mods ask that you stick to discussing things found on the web and try not to veer into unfounded speculation about people's personal lives. Thanks!

[dwmckim]

The topic of Sasha Pieterse's noticeable weight gain (and how it's affected her wardrobe on the show) has come up a few times on various threads (and i'm sure on many other pll forums) and today Sasha herself took to Instagram to address the topic.  I know someone posted a link in another thread but i think the full text of her words deserves to be quoted in its entirety:

 

 

 

To my incredible and loving fans,
Words cannot express how amazed I am by you!
I'm so thankful for the affection you have for me, Alison, and Pretty Little Liars! We/I wouldn't be able to make it happen without you! I get to do what I love every single day because of you guys! As a lot of you have noticed my body has gone through some changes, and I want to clear the air and give you an explanation. I have been facing a bad hormone imbalance that has thrown my body completely out of whack. I want to assure you that I'm healthy and getting everything back on track! A big thanks to all of you who have been in my corner! We live in such a judge mental society that puts every kind of flaw, including weight gain, in the same category. And for those of you who are struggling with any health problem, hormone imbalance, and weight gain of any sort I urge and encourage you to please deal with it in a healthy manor. YOU and YOUR health are what matters, not anyone else's opinions and assumptions of you. Getting healthy isn't just about working out and eating right (however extremely important) it's also about surrounding yourself with those who care about you and want to see you succeed and become the best you can be.

I love every single one of you and I hold you all dear to my heart!
Xoxoxox
Sasha

 

I'm very proud of her for tackling this head-on and for putting this out there in a very thoughtful manner and i have a great deal of respect for her.

 

The tv/film industry is not an easy one to work with in terms of the attention one's build/weight/figure receives.  Never mind all the issues concerning how the media constantly tries to sell an impossible standard as being desirable but just the everyday realities of the trade:  Your body is your main tool.  It's constantly in front of a camera (which itself adds pounds).  Movie actors/actresses have their work projected on a huge screen that magnifies every detail ... and tv actors are finding less of a difference due to the increase of bigscreen tvs and high-def.  Wardrobe fittings are a part of the routine and people notice anytime you lose or gain even just a couple of pounds in a week.  In regards to Sasha/PLL in particular - PLL is a mystery series where fans compulsively analyze everything on screen for potential meaning/clue potential - if any character undergoes a physical change of any kind (intentional or something that's happened to the actor IRL), it gets picked up on and noticed.  ("Are we supposed to be speculating if Ali is pregnant or is the actress gaining weight behind the scenes?")  Sasha faces so many oddly circumstantial issues in that:

-she's the central figure the show's mystery largely revolves around

-her character is(was) a queen bee that put others down due to appearance

-the show is in its sixth year but the show's timeline is much shorter ... season three through the middle of season five alone supposedly takes place between end of summer to Thanksgiving of the same year! ... so while the characters they play tend to get stuck in time, in real life they're aging/growing up

-while just about all the other actors on the show playing teens were already in their 20's when the show started filming six years ago, Sasha is really the only one who really has been a teen - she's in a unique position where the audience is watching her grow up and all the body changes adolescence entails while her "peers" are already past all that.

-her story is one that's subject to being told largely in flashbacks - at age 18, she's often called upon to shoot scenes that "took place" when she started filming at age 12 - there must be a large amount of pressure on her to try to maintain the same basic build just because of the technicalities of the role: continuity/the need to have her look like the same person she was years ago any time they shoot a scene around the time of her "death" ... even further complicated by the fact that the story of Alison's "death"/disappearance concerns mistaken identity; being confused with other girls that by necessity need to look similar in terms of build.

 

That is a huge amount of pressure that she must work under on top of all the pressures any teen girl experiences during her adolescent years and the changes they undergo without doing so under the microscope of the public eye.  When all that is taken into account, my admiration and respect for Sasha has all the more grown and it's heartening to see that she's come out and has opened an honest dialogue with her fans both about herself and using her position as a public figure to educate and encourage other young girls to be aware of various issues in regards to appearance, weight, health, etc.

 

Brava, Sasha!

Edited June 10, 2015 by dwmckim

[Chairperson Meow]

I honestly don't think it's that noticeable. It's some of the outfitting choices imo that make her look frumpy imo. She's still goregous and really doesn't look that much different.

[Amelia]

I agree, she's still beautiful. The only reason I noticed anything last night was that first top, the one from the premiere that she wore during the press conference. I wish they knew how to better dress her. She's not a real estate agent, to quote someone from the episode thread. She's what, 18 in the show? The other girls get to wear cute outfits, why does she have to wear power blazer after power blazer? Someone else brought up the fact that these things are also not exactly what the character seems like she'd wear, so that's a whole other issue. 

[mercfan3]

I thought the idea that she was dressing like her mother was a good one.

 

But it's also completely possible that these people don't know how to dress someone who isn't a model They've made some horrible fitting mistakes with Lucy Hale too. (White skinny jeans..) 

[Artsda]

Her change in appearance did look really noticeable in some of the clothing they put her in last nights episode. Especially the flowery dress in her scene at the coffee shop. It's wonderful she addressed her health, at least now the pregnancy questions are put to rest.

 

Glad she's getting help with her health issues and wishing her well doing so.

 

The PLL fashion dept just needs to dress her better.

Edited June 10, 2015 by Artsda

[AmandaPanda]

I'm proud of her for speaking out. I had just chalked up the weight gain to going through puberty. She was so young when the show first started that her body was still actively changing. I've had several friends who had hormone imbalances, typically related to starting birth control, and it caused them to gain 50+ pounds around the end of high school. I'm glad she's healthy and everything is okay.

[lorikauai]

I also think she is a beautiful young woman and I feel bad for her because I'm sure it's hard to be struggling with weight in a career that is so focused on image. Like others when Ali came back from the dead I did speculate whether her character was supposed to be pregnant but then realized that Sasha must have simply gained a few pounds. The wardrobe does her no favors at all. If anything it calls more attention to it. Honestly I wish they would just show her body in normal clothes as it is. Ali was in hiding for 2? 3? years and could have easily gained weight during that time. They could have even written it into the story with a sincere apology to Hanna or a snarky "I haven't exactly had time to go to Pilates" and left it at that. Or it could have been even more fuel to the "Is that really Ali or a twin?" speculation.

[methodwriter85]

The whole thing kind of reminds me of Lisa Whelchel's weight gain on the Facts of Life way back in the early 1980's- her character was based on being the Queen Bee and the prettiest girl in the world, and to hide her weight gain they started putting her in a lot of big bulky blazers, long skirts, and prairie blouses. 

 

But yeah, I think people need to remember that Sasha was 12/13 years old when the show started.

Edited June 17, 2015 by methodwriter85

[Giuliano Lanzilli]

Shallow question (but, then again, this seems just the appropriate thread for those): is anybody aware of Keegan Allen and Brant Daugherty's sexuality? I've seen a lot of hints all over the web that they could be "barking up the other tree", so, I was wondering (especially since they're never rumored to be dating anyone)... And what about Brendan Robinson and Brandon W Jones, while we're at it?

[Cranberry]

This is the appropriate thread for that IF they have posted about it on social media. If their sexuality is something they'd like to keep private, we should respect that. We're not in the business of outing (or "inning," either, as my boss here has said) people on these forums.

[SadieT]

Sasha got engaged to her long-time boyfriend Hudson Sheaffer today. She's so young but he's about 7 years older and they've been together since she was like 15 so I kind of figured it'd happen soon. 

 

It's actually kind of funny that's she's the youngest in the cast by a lot and will be one of the first to get married. Troian is engaged to Patrick Adams, right? I remember hearing about it last year but never again. I wonder when their wedding will happen. 

 

ETA: Sasha, Hudson and a photographer posted photos of the engagement. 

 

How does hiring a photographer for something like this work? Wouldn't their presence ruin the surprise? How did he manage to get her into an empty field with a photographer without her thinking something was up?  

Edited December 23, 2015 by SadieT

[Agent Dark]

How does hiring a photographer for something like this work? Wouldn't their presence ruin the surprise? How did he manage to get her into an empty field with a photographer without her thinking something was up?  

Ghillie Suits

[rho]

How does hiring a photographer for something like this work? Wouldn't their presence ruin the surprise? How did he manage to get her into an empty field with a photographer without her thinking something was up?  

 

It's not unusual for actors to be followed by someone with a camera. But when my friend proposed to his wife, he hired photographers to stake out the place undercover. She was so distracted, she didn't even notice until she got the pictures back.

[Cranberry]

Shay recently appeared on Ingrid Nilsen's YouTube channel. Ingrid is a fashion and lifestyle YouTuber who got a lot of attention when she did a coming out video last year. Shay saw the video and reached out to her, and now they're friends. I thought the video was cute.

 

 

I hadn't realized that Shay kept an active channel, too. I watched a video about her getting Lasik, which was fairly amusing (albeit gross).

[kittyfell90]

I was scrolling through Tumblr and I came across this interesting little article. Her word is "Within," and I found it very inspirational. I knew that Torrey is a huge supporter of helping others. She partnered up with charities like Road to Hope,The National Hospice, and Palliative Care Organization. She loves wearing her necklace because it reminds her of a simple concept of being grateful for what she has. Here's the full story: http://myintentorg.tumblr.com/post/137307983393/torrey-devitto-within
 

I never heard of MyIntent but their company seems very unique. They're not a jewelry company. They believe that everyone has a purpose and they take the effort to remind us to reach for our goals. By looking at our MyIntent word, we remind ourselves on what we want to accomplish and overcome. I just purchased one and my word is going to be "Progress."

Edited January 26, 2016 by kittyfell90

[WhosThatGirl]

I'm not sure where to mention this story but Troian lost her cell phone and a bag of hers during a hike today and someone named Jack found it.  They couldn't meet up to return the phone but Troian let this Jack person use her wristbands for Coachella and he has been snapping moments to Coachella all day. It's all on all her instagram and snapchat. It's funny. This Jack guy also doesn't know who she is, when he first tried to get in touch with her on text he said, "you have a lot of followers". It really is funny. 

[Lii]

Time stopped for me tech-wise in about 2003 so I have no idea what wristbands or snapping means but that shit sounds hilarious. I hope several days' worth of lulz come of it.

[WhosThatGirl]

Time stopped for me tech-wise in about 2003 so I have no idea what wristbands or snapping means but that shit sounds hilarious. I hope several days' worth of lulz come of it.

It has, actually. The last moments of the saga as far as I can tell is when she sent him a text to meet up with her at her place where she was hosting a Game of Thrones party. Her actual phone- the one Jack found- died at like 5 a.m according to his last snapchat. There hasn't been much since then and that was about five or six hours ago. I don't know anything about Coachella except that it is an outside music festival, but I'm assuming the wristbands get you into certain areas and probably all the stars that venture there have special wristbands to get into parties and different shows , but snapping on snapchat is like taking live videos and then you post them and people can view them for a few hours. The videos are only a couple seconds. Like what instagram does I'm not very good at snapchat, I have it but I've only used it like twice with like one friend. It's not my thing, but following celebs and tv shows is fun because they actually do have fun videos sometimes and you can find bts videos and stuff.

Edited April 25, 2016 by WhosThatGirl

[Lii]

Did he ever figure out who she actually was?

[WhosThatGirl]

They just met officially! Picture on her instagram and they snapchatted a video of them meeting. I assume she told him, but he also got to see her teen choice award- he asked if  he could have the surfboard, so I'm guessing now he knows who she is. It was quite the saga. It was really fun and she was pretty cool about the whole thing. I really don't think he knows who she is, other than she is an actress. I don't think he watches Pretty Little Liars, but she's an actress on some show to him so.. but otherwise that was actually fun, not only to see his videos but to see her reactions as well. Also considering it was a random person who doesn't really know of her was funny.

 

Also eta, per his instagram he has as a caption 'I had this girl's phone all weekend' he has no idea,still.

Edited April 25, 2016 by WhosThatGirl

[Lii]

The fact that he has no idea who she is is the thing that makes it awesome, tbh. Rad. Maybe we can get him on the show as her next temporary love interest?

[WhosThatGirl]

I thought that was an awesome thing too that he really had no idea. He was just like, "I found some girl's phone and she's letting me use her wristbands for coachella" one of my most favorite things though besides him having no idea who she is is that when he found the wristbands he asked if he could have them and he would pay her back in Tacos! It made me laugh. 

[Lii]

I've made several transactions involving tacos in my life, tbh, so I officially love this guy. Fire Toby immediately.

[Cranberry]

Shay is being such a troll lately with the #emison stuff, and I'm enjoying it. Check out this post in particular, although she's been using the hashtag all over. 

[paulvdb]

I guess this is the best place to put this: Lucy Hale's new series Life Sentence was picked up by the CW for the 2017/2018 season.

Edit: and I see that I completely overlooked the thread for cast and crew in other projects. This was already posted there.

Edited May 11, 2017 by paulvdb