The TV Chick

If you couldn’t tell from my plethora of posts today, Pretty Little Liars is finally back tonight! Emily’s story has been one of my favorite of the series, and I just love watching how she’s changed and grown since day one. She’s gone through such an emotional journey with her sexuality and her family coming to terms with it and she’s evolved into a new girl who is comfortable in her own skin. Of course, all the credit to what Emily has become goes to the talented actress who plays her, Shay Mitchell. I recently had the chance to chat with Shay about Emily’s new-found confidence, what to expect in the big premiere and what’s coming up with Emily’s love life.

What can you say about the big premiere?
I can say that the girls are definitely fighting really hard to find out who A is now. Especially Emily because she was the victim of the first half of season two, moreso than any of the other girls. And I think now she’s got so much more confidence. She’s like, “That’s it. I’m not having it. I’m not the weakest link and I’m going to show you!” And she does! (laughs) Dammit she does! It’s really fun for the girls. There’s going to be a lot scenes with them all together and sometimes in those scenes, they’re not always best friends. Now that they’ve found the murder weapon, each of the girls have different ideas with what they want to do. And I think Emily’s idea is extremely different so she’s kind of been pulled away from the group. Along with her not being able to be on the swim team, along with getting curveballs thrown at her from A all the time.

There’s kind of an epic fight in the premiere. I know you can’t say much but how was it filming that?
Yes! Very fun! All I will say is its maybe one of the most fun scenes I’ve ever done. It was awesome.

Are we going to see a new independent Emily this season?
Yes you will. A brand new Emily. She’s a lot stronger than she was in the first half. It’s cool. She’s confident.

What can we expect with her love life?
Emily, Emily, Emily. Maya comes back and you’re going to see how they kind of mesh again. Because Maya got taken away, now that’s she’s back, [it's about] finding out what happened while she was away, the experiences she had. But also, she’s meeting a newer Emily. Before, she left an Emily that wasn’t as confident to be who she was. And now that she’s back, she may see a very confident Emily. And [you] should see how they kind of mesh together again. So yeah, it will be interesting.

We are going to see some tension with the girls for the first time.
Oh yeah. Oh yes! It’s fun. I mean, it’s always great to have scenes where you’re like, “I love you!” but it’s also really fun to have scenes when they’re arguing. I’m not going to lie, I think it’s kind of fun to have fight scenes with the girls. Because I love them all so much, to actually be angry at them is so much fun.

Season Two is wrapping up now. What has been your favorite part of playing Emily so far?
The fact that so many girls and guys all over really look up to her and her character and see that she’s been able to come out with success and be accepted by her family and friends and people that love and support her. And it’s given other people the courage to do the exact same thing. She’s such an amazing character to be able to play. And to have so many people look up to her and be able to relate to her on a show that all their friends watch. That they have someone specifically that they can relate to, I think that’s amazing.

Be sure to tune in tonight at 8 PM to ABC Family for the big Pretty Little Liars premiere!