EXCLUSIVE: Ian Harding on Pretty Little Liars Finale and More!
Arlene G. at .On Pretty Little Liars, Ezra and Aria can be so adorable that it's easy to forget: this relationship is grossly illegal.
Only if the pair has had intercourse, that is. Who better to ask that question to than Ezra himself, Ian Harding. We sat down with the actor this week and asked him a number of questions about his character and the direction of the show...
Is this the most taboo role you’ve played so far?
Probably the most taboo in the sense of the most public, certainly. I did some plays where I was a murderer and all of those fun roles. To date, this is the most public and the one that I get questioned about the most by random people, but also by friends and family.
It would be easy to write him off if she was this 13-year old and he was this 45-year old creeper that just wanted to sleep with her... [but] the age difference is not that significant. She’s very old for her age, and it’s the perfect storm in a sense. Emotionally, they are very much soul mates and a once in a lifetime relationship. It’s just the circumstances that they happen to find themselves in are strenuous, to say the least. It’s love, it’s not obsession, it’s When Harry Met Sally in a way.
Was there any apprehension for this role?
Not really. I think I’d come to the point where I was like “well, it’s acting, I don’t actually do this.” It would be one thing if we were on Showtime; it’d be a whole new layer. I knew I would have to be answering questions. Sometimes, I’ll literally be sitting at a coffee shop and someone who is very obviously in high school comes up and will leave me their number, and I’m like “do you honestly think that I’m going to call you? You think this is appropriate? No, no, no.”
Have Ezra and Aria slept together?
There’s the fun question! No. I feel like if that were to come about, if their relationship were to progress in a physical manner, it would have to be under certain circumstances. I feel like it was implied at one point... I remember there was phone call Aria made to say she was sleeping over at Spencer’s, and she wasn’t. So I think they slept in the same apartment, yes.... their relationship isn’t complete puppy love, but it isn’t something we would see on True Blood.
Will they eventually be caught?
I think their relationship progresses, but something we may see later isn’t the problem of being caught, but trouble in the relationship through certain skeletons coming out of the closet that they have to deal with. The whole “what if the police find out?” is always on the table, but I think what’s even scarier is the fact that their relationship gets certain through the surfacing of new information, if you will.
Please don’t tell me he will he be pulling away from Aria again in the near future.
It’s a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Any intense committed relationship goes through struggles just with daily life, and I think that they are going to have to deal with that, and being specifically vague, they will encounter skeletons that will arise and test them. Ezra is committed, but sometimes being committed can’t save it, but who knows? We’ll have to see.
Anything else you can tease about the second half of season two?
When I read the season finale, there was a consistent “oh wow” and “what? There’s no way." There’s going to be a lot of shocks and things will go to a whole new level.
