15 surprising things you probably didn't know about 'Pretty Little Liars'

Bellisario's character was at the center of the big "A" reveal during the show's series finale.

In order to keep the identity a secret, Bellisario told Entertainment Weekly in 2019 that she hid the answer in plain sight during interviews leading up to the series finale.

"I never had to lie to protect the biggest secret on the show. I told the truth and hid in plain sight," she said. "Every time I was asked, 'Who's A?' I would say, 'It's me,' and everyone would laugh and think I was joking because Spencer Hastings would never be A."

Viewers later learned that Bellisario was mostly telling the truth — we find out on the series finale that Spencer's long-lost twin sister, Alex Drake, was the mastermind behind "A."

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On a 2015 episode of "Late Night With Seth Meyers," Hale admitted that she had a reputation for spilling secrets. Because of this, the cast and crew had to keep her in the dark about the true identity of "A" — which was at the center of the show's series-long mystery.

"They won't tell me," she said. "I've tried everything. I've tried like listening at doors. I've tried, like, bribing the executive producers and writers. Because they know I would sit here with you, Seth, and it would like accidentally come out."

Bellisario is now married to "Suits" actor Patrick J. Adams, but while they were broken up earlier in their relationship, Adams told PopSugar that he secured a brief role on "Pretty Little Liars" in an attempt to win her back.

"I went after that part with the full force of every single person that works for me in the industry. I had everyone on the phone, calling, saying, 'We're going to get this part, we're going to get this part,'" Adams said. "I prepared for this 'Pretty Little Liars' audition more than I've prepared for anything in my life."

He ended up playing one of Ezra's college friends on season one, episode five.

Hanna and Caleb, played by Tyler Blackburn, were a fan-favorite relationship, and apparently it was one of Benson's favorites, too.

In fact, when Caleb and Hanna broke up for a period of time on the show, Benson told Entertainment Tonight that she was really upset.

"I cried. Like literally, I cried," she said. "I was like, 'You have to change it! There's no other guy for Hanna.'"

"I think I was the most depressed out of any of the fans," she added.

The same set that was used for downtown Stars Hollow in "Gilmore Girls" was later used for "Pretty Little Liars."

Fans of both shows might notice similar aspects of the Warner Bros. small town set, like the white-steepled church, the gazebo in the town square, and some repurposed houses and storefronts.

"Gilmore Girls" co-creator Dan Palladino confirmed at Entertainment Weekly's PopFest that the set was converted to Rosewood before switching back to Stars Hollow for "Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life" in 2016.

"I think the first weird part was when they started to rebuild Stars Hollow on the backlot in Burbank. It's basically a shell now, it's the 'Pretty Little Liars' backlot," he said. "So we had to transform it."

According to Seventeen, on a 2015 episode of "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," Kris Jenner said she had landed Kylie Jenner a small role on "PLL."

But Kylie was fighting with her mom at the time and didn't want to discuss work, so the part never panned out.

The rest of the cast were all in their late teens or early 20s when they auditioned for "PLL," but Pieterse was gunning for Hanna at just 12 years old.

King said in the same Variety interview that it would have been too challenging to cast Pieterse in that role. But because they liked her, they gave her Alison, who wasn't on screen as much in the early seasons.

Before Benson was cast as Hanna, Hale wanted the role, but King disagreed and saw her as Aria.

According to Variety, King asked Hale to re-read the script. After reading for both roles throughout the audition process, Hale agreed that she was a better fit for the role of Aria.

A few cast members were changed out after the pilot episode, most notably, the role of Toby Cavanaugh was filled with a different actor.

On the pilot, he was played by James Neate before Keegan Allen eventually took over the role.

Alison DiLaurentis, played by Sasha Pieterse, was often seen wearing a yellow, ruffled shirt in flashbacks.

On a 2016 episode of "The Talk," Pieterse confessed that she always hated the often-used wardrobe item.

"I personally hate that shirt and have from the beginning," she said. "There are 13 copies of that shirt, and I want to take all of them and like burn them."

Lucy Hale actually ad-libbed her now-iconic "shh" at the end of the show's theme song.

"[My] shushing the camera was actually a spur-of-the-moment idea that happened to make the final cut," she said in the same Cosmopolitan article.

She later tweeted that she hated how her finger was off-center on her mouth.

"Hey has anyone noticed how my finger isn't centered when I am 'shhing' the camera in the intro? Yeah, it annoys me too," she wrote.

After the show wrapped, the five leads all got the initial of their character's name tattooed onto the fingers they'd use to make that motion.

Ashley Benson, who played Hanna Marin on the series, was the one who suggested the show's theme song — "Secret" by The Pierces.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Benson found the song and played it for the other actors on the way home from a shoot for the show.

"You were like, 'I want to show it to Marlene [King, the showrunner] because I really think it could be a great theme song,'" Benson's co-star Troian Bellisario recalled to Benson.

Shepard told Cosmopolitan in 2017 that she had a neighbor growing up who had been kidnapped and survived. Later, she learned a friend of hers had also been kidnapped as a child.

As a result, Shepard said she always "wanted to write a mystery story that had something to do with stalkers."

She added, "I remember thinking, 'What happens when somebody takes you? What happens next?'"

I. Marlene King had a small role in the series finale as the photographer at Aria and Ezra's wedding. She interrupts the proceedings when her phone goes off in the middle of the ceremony.

"PLL" is based on author Sara Shepard's book series of the same name.

The author made two cameos on the show throughout its run.

Her first appearance was during season one, episode seven when she played a substitute teacher named Miss Shepard. The second time she appeared was on season five, episode 24 when she played a news analyst named Sara Shepard.