Season 6 of the American teen drama mystery-thriller TV series “Pretty Little Liars” recently aired its summer finale on ABC Family on August 11 and it finally unravelled the show’s best-kept secret – the identity of A.
While every show fans already know or has an idea that A is Charles DiLaurentis, the showrunner pulled a jaw-dropping surprise when it was revealed in the 10th episode of Season 6 that Charles is actually CeCe Drake, cites TV Line.
If any of the show’s fans saw that coming, then their jaws might not have dropped when they learned of that surprising twist. It was a summer finale for “Pretty Little Liars” to remember, leaving fans of the popular show wanting and asking for more.
“Pretty Little Liars” executive producer Marlene King was asked by Entertainment Tonight why she decided to go on the transgender twist and she explained that the idea came up while they were looking at the casting three and a half years ago.
More than three years in the making
She said that they wanted to cast somebody who looked a lot like Alison. So they finally decided on going for Vanessa Ray to play CeCe Drake and A, justifying that the young actress was the person that the production team wanted. Getting to know her work and her character more and more, Vanessa was found to be the perfect fit.
As early as Season 3, Marlene King was said to be considering three other characters in the show to be ‘A,’ but she does not want to reveal anymore who were those she considered. She explained that there’s a mythology that goes with those characters and she does not want to screw the show moving forward. King, however, said that she promise to make it public once the show is over.
The showrunner also confirmed that they have come up with the transgender twist idea on the show three and a half years ago, ahead of the transgender trend these days. She pointed out that it’s been a long time in the works and if fans would watch all the CeCe episodes, they would see hints that she is A.
King added that if fans would go back to all the episodes and closely look at the scenes, there are just too many clues that point to Cece as A. So it was a well-thought out plan and she is just glad that there is a transgender trend anyway, assuring show fans that they did not just jump on the bandwagon.
Shocked to play a transgender character
Those who have seen episode 10 of Season 6 would all agree that Vanessa Ray was sensational in the reveal as ‘A.’ What makes her acting very interesting is that she was playing a transgender character.
In a recent interview, Vanessa admitted that she was shocked with the transgender twist. She recalled that they were revealing the main and ultimate villain of “Pretty Little Liars” and a good number of fans may have thought that CeCe was not A because she’s a transgender.
She explained that her character is a person who was neglected as a child, who was never shown love or any humanity. And because of that, she went down a path of neglecting other people as though their humanity did not matter either.
The actress also disclosed that they had a conversation before in the show about having a transgender and how it just rolls off the tongue. She said that when Marlene decided that the transgender twist is going to happen, she knew what she was taking on and back then, three years ago, people did not talk about transgender the way they are doing now.
Vanessa added that the transgender twist is really a beautiful testament to the fearlessness of the showrunner because she was threading on something that no one has dared work before and that she knew that when she does, people will be going to talk about it for a long, long while.