Archive

An interview with “Pretty Little Liars” boss Marlene King

When ABC Family began airing promos for Pretty Little Liars, we thought it was going to be a silly summer diversion, something to carry us through the dog days until Gossip Girl returned- but boy, were we wrong. Not only did the show pull in monstrous ratings, it received glowing praise from critics (including us!). It was so well-received, in fact, that ABC Family ordered a full season and decided to split it into two cycles.

The driving force behind Pretty Little Liars success is creator/showrunner/executive producer/writer Marlene King, who conceived the original idea to adapt Sara Shepherd’s young adult novels into a television series. You might remember Marlene as the writer of Now and Then, If These Walls Could Talk, and Just My Luck.These days, though, you can find her on the Warner Brothers back lot in Burbank, moving between the writers room and the set of Rosewood, PA – home of murder, mayhem, teenage shenanigans, and blossoming lesbian Emily Fields.

I caught up with Marlene earlier this week to talk about the second cycle of Pretty Little Liars and the little lesbian storyline that could.

AfterEllen.com: Congratulations on the success of Pretty Little Liars. You’ve got a real breakout hit on your hands!

Marlene King: Thank you! We’re having fun over here in Burbank, where we’ve made our own little part of Warner Brothers into Rosewood!

AE: That’s exciting.

MK: It isexciting. There’s something about filming on the Warner Brothers lot, being a real back lot show, that makes us feel like we’re a real family here. We rarely leave the lot.

AE: Were you in Vancouver filming before?

MK: We filmed the pilot in Vancouver, but from episode two on we’ve been here in the Warner Brothers back lot.

AE: Where are you in your filming schedule? There are 12 episodes left to air, right?

MK: There are 12 episodes left to air, and we’re calling it “cycle two” of season one, which is not very glamorous. We are now filming episode 116.

In the first cycle of 10, we got very spoiled because we were filming very close to air date, and so we had instant gratification. Basically, we would finish an episode and it would air the next week. And we got all that great feedback from our fans, who are just tremendous. So, it’s been a little challenging, this back half. We will have completed all of our shows before we air the first one, and we’re missing that feedback we got the first go-around because it was really helpful.

AE: Is that scary?

MK: It’s a little bit scary, because when you’re getting that positive feedback,you know you’re getting it right. But also you want to give surprises to the fans, and make some turns and make some leaps. And you want to make sure you’re doing it at the right pace in the right direction, and Ithink we are. But yeah, it is a little scary!

AE: Is the tone of the second cycle similar to the first cycle of season one?

MK: It’s very much the same. I think if it has changed at all, it has changed in the sense that in our summer finale, “A” hit Hannah with a car. So she -or he/she I should say – has really upped the stakes. It’s not just taunting texts and teasing, it’s become a much more dangerous world for our Pretty Little Liars.

AE: So you’re not going to tell me if Hannah remembers who “A” is, or if she’s lost her memory, are you?

MK: Nope!I’m not going to tell you if Hannah has lost her memory. But, you will definitely get some answers in the first 15 minutes of the next show that airs.

AE: The first photo you guys released after the mid-season finale was of Allison sitting on Hannah’s hospital bed.

MK: Yes!Hannah’s not dead, I’ll tell you that. Hannah did survive her mishap with “A.” Although, as we joke around here, she does have some tire marks on her cleavage.

AE: I haven’t read Sara Shepherd’s Pretty Little Liars books because I’m recapping the show and I want to be surprised along with our readers. But how much of season one is a departure from the books? Or are you doing a straight adaptation?

MK: You know, that’s a good question. We try to stay true to the books in the sense that we want to stay true to who the characters are in the books; we want to stay true to the essence of the characters Sara brought to life in the books, and I think we try to stay true to the core mystery. But, for example, the entire first Pretty Little Liars book is contained in the pilot. And there are only eight books, so if we stayed absolutely true to the books there would only be eight episodes. So, what we’re trying to do is stay true to the characters and the town and the general mystery of “A” and the killer. We have many, many departures along the way.

AE: Are we going to find out who “A” is in the first season? I feel like Shay Mitchell told me we would, but I can’t remember.

MK: I can’t answer that; it will ruin something!

AE:Speaking of book-to-TV adaptations, a lot of people have compared the first 10 episodes of Pretty Little Liars to Gossip Girl. Do you like that comparison?

MK: Well, I’m a fan of Gossip Girl. So I take that as a compliment! I think we’re similar to Gossip Girl in the sense that we have the same audience. But I think we’re very, very different from Gossip Girl in our town, and with our characters, and thematically as well.

AE: Oh, I think you guys have created an excellent collision of narrative elements from a lot of great TV shows. The first season of Veronica Mars was one of the best seasons of television ever. And so you’ve tapped into the heightened teenage drama of Gossip Girl and the whole murder mystery thing from Veronica Mars. And I don’t think it’s a leap to throw Mean Girls in there either.

MK: I agree! From the moment we conceived this show, it felt like it was so many different shows. It’s a little Veronica Mars, a little Gossip Girl.It has the darkness of Vampire Diaries at the time. Twin Peaks. Desperate Housewives. And even with all of those influences, Pretty Little Liars has become its own, original thing.

AE: And part of that, for sure, is the way Pretty Little Liars is shot. The concept is much different than everything else on ABC Family.

MK: Our director of photography is Dana Gonzales and I give him so much credit for how this show looks. He is just a brilliant cinematographer, and he shows up every day and makes this Warner Brothers back lot just come to life for us. And the girls love him.

AE: It sometimes feels like each individual episode is its own movie.

MK: That’s the greatest compliment you can give me. And if you like that, you’ll love what’s coming up. We’ve got some episodes where we actually got to leave the back lot. We’ve got an episode coming up where Emily is swimming. She gets back into her swimming in the next cycle and it is just so cinematic and beautiful.

AE: Oh, our readers are going to love to hear that. Well, since you brought her up, can we talk about Emily? We’ve all fallen in love with her at AfterEllen.com, with her individual storyline and her storyline with Maya, and even with Allison.So is Emily’s journey on the show going to follow her journey in the books?

MK: Her storyline was very similar in the first 10 episodes, but in the back 12, we take a bit of a departure from the books. We give her some additional things to do, and I don’t know that in the books she ever came full-circle with her family and their understanding of her sexuality, and in the next 12 episodes, we’ve really concentrated on that. We have a beautiful storyline with Emily and her mother, and with Emily and her father coming up. And I’m really proud of it. And I think fans of Emily will be really proud of her character in that storyline.

AE: I can’t tell you how happy that makes me. I’ve heard from so many readers – one just this morning, in fact – who have shared coming out stories with me, and recently so many of them have said that watching Emily has given them the courage to come out to their friends and family. It just means so much to have relatable characters like her on TV.

MK: Oh, that’s wonderful. I’m so proud of this storyline. I am so glad that we have a chance to bring this character and her storyline to life. And I know that Shay Mitchell and Nia Peeples, who plays Emily’s mom, and even Peter Roth, the head of Warner Brothers television, has taken a personal interest in this storyline. And we’re all honored and proud to be able to bring it to life. And hopefully, it helps other people know that they’re not alone.

AE: One thing that has really impressed me about Emily’s storyline so far is that so many times, especially on shows geared toward teenagers, any lesbian or bisexual content gets played up for ratings or titillation, but that’s not the case with Emily. So far, everything about her journey has been authentic and organic.

MK: I am so glad to hear you say that. And I would give some of that credit to Sara Shepherd, who wrote Emily as very truthful and real. And she gave us so much to build upon. We have taken her Emily and brought her to life on television, and we’ll continue to be true to that.

AE: Has ABC Family been supportive of the story? I know we’ve seen at least two kisses between Maya and Emily, and one between Emily and Allison.

MK: Yes, they have. [laughing] The only restriction they gave us, really, was about Maya’s pot smoking. In the books Maya was sort of a pot head, and they told us we could show that she does smoke pot, but not to show her actually smoking pot. We have no limits on the sexuality; our limits are all about drug use!

They’ve been really supportive, and they love Emily’s storyline coming up in the back 12. The second and third episodes when we come back are going to be very powerful. I think your fans are going to especially want to watch those two episodes.

AE: Well, it’s good to know they’re not putting drugs and lesbianism in the same basket!

MK: [Laughs]No, and you know, Emily’s pretty squeaky clean. There’s an episode coming up where she keeps getting referred to as “the sweet one.”

AE: You know who has turned out to be surprisingly sweet and supportive? Hannah.

MK: Oh,I know! When I read the books and was writing the pilot, that’s the character I fell in love with first. I ended up falling in love with all the girls, but I knew what Hannah’s backstory was going to be, and I knew that she was who she was because of her father’s abandonment. I knew all of her history.

AE: Do you identify with any of the characters?

MK: You know, I really identify with all of them. And I think a lot of people do, which is really what makes the show so special. We joke about that alot in our writers room. We are all a little bit of Hanna and Emily and Aria and Spencer. And I’m a little bit of each of their parents.And that’s what fuels us to keep digging into their characters and telling their stories. They’re not surface-level characters. They are all starting to make great strides in their lives. And Emily, especially, has come so far.

AE: I think that’s one thing that sets Pretty Little Liars apart, actually. The characters are surprisingly fleshed out, and most people can identify with some of the universal struggles the girls go through. I mean, not everyone is wrapped up in a murder mystery.

MK: Or having an affair with their gorgeous, hot teacher.

AE: Right. Or that.

MK: And that’s what we’re trying so hard to do. Sure, they live in a heightened reality. But we are trying to keep these characters grounded, to stay true to who they are. And, you know, if something doesn’t feel right to me, it’s a red flag that goes off immediately. I go, “That would be a great scene for Emily or Aria, but there’s no way they would do that.”

And we’re big Twitter fans here, so if we make a mistake, we read about it instantly. And so we’re like, “OK, we won’t do that again!”

Twitter is just downright fun for us. The Pretty Little Liars love it too.

AE:Are we going to see more of the Maya/Emily storyline in the back 12?

MK: Yes,you will definitely see more of Maya and Emily, and it will tie-in very closely with Emily’s home life, and her sexuality as well.

AE: And will we see anymore about her relationship with Allison?

MK: Yes,actually! It’s really explored throughout these next 12 episodes. There’s a really nice through-line about Emily’s relationship with Allison, and the fact that Allison really was her first love. And as much as she’s tried to move on with Maya, she hasn’t really let go of Allison. And you know that by the fact that she still wears that bracelet from Allison every day of her life.

AE: What has the feedback been like for you from lesbian and bisexual viewers? And even girls who are questioning their sexuality.

MK: The feedback has been wonderful, and I know Shay Mitchell has gotten a lot of emails and Tweets from girls who tell her how inspired they are by Emily’s story. And that makes her so happy and pleased. And Shay and I have actually had a couple of conversations about the responsibility that comes with that. And she’s really trying hard to live up to people’s expectations in that regard. She actually gets asked for advice all the time, and as a human being, she just tries to be true to herself. And that’s what she encourages people to do: just to be true to themselves.

AE: I interviewed Shay just before the summer finale and she was so warm and articulate. And I don’t like to ever put that on actors, to say “You have this great responsibility because you’re playing a lesbian or bisexual character” – even though I sometimes feel that way because there are so few lesbian and bisexual characters on television – but Shay seemed to bear that weight willingly.

MK: Yes, Shay is so poised and so warm. And I am so proud of her. I am so proud of all of all girls. They conduct their lives so beautifully, and they’re not out there causing trouble. They are professionals. We have a very special group here.

AE:I have one problem with Emily’s storyline, though. You know when she goes on her first date with Maya to see a movie, and one second they’re eating popcorn and the next second they’re holding hands and the next second they’re making out? It doesn’t work that way in real life! On my first date with my girlfriend we were sitting in a theater watching a shark documentary and the whole time I was chiding myself: “Take her hand! Take her hand! If Emily can do it, you can do it!” But I couldn’t!

MK: [Laughs]That is so funny. I love that. That’s what I hope for us. I hope we keep inspiring people to hold hands and kiss in fun and unique places!

Pretty Little Liars returns to ABC Family on January 3rd. In the meantime, follow Marlene King on Twitter for updates and a look into the PLLs writers room!

Lesbian Apparel and Accessories Gay All Day sweatshirt -- AE exclusive

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button