‘We Were Liars’ Star Emily Alyn Lind Says Cast Didn’t Rehearse Those Emotional Goodbyes

Note: This story contains spoilers from “We Were Liars” Episode 8.

After “We Were Liars” revealed the shocking twist that left Emily Alyn Lind’s Cadence with traumatic memories from the previous summer, the Prime Video show ended with several emotional goodbyes between Cadence and the Liars, which Alyn Lind said the cast didn’t rehearse before shooting.

“We didn’t rehearse them, and I read them maybe once,” Alyn Lind TheWrap. “They’re so, so, so beautifully written and reading the book, I was like, ‘this is going to be the most daunting task’ … how do you say goodbye?”

In the finale, Cadence learns the truth about that fateful night when she and the rest of the Liars — Mirren (Esther McGregor), Johnny (Joseph Zada) and Gat (Shubham Maheshwari) — burned down the Sinclair estate, which resulted in the deaths of Mirren, Johnny and Gat, who had been appearing as ghosts to her the following summer as she processed the tragic accident. Cadence and each Liar then share long farewells as Johnny, Mirren and Gat accept their untimely deaths, and help give Cadence the strength to move forward.

“Grief and loss is just such a complicated thing, because there is just nothing you can do to change what happened, and realizing that at such a young age is just so awful,” Alyn Lind said.

The scenes hit home for the cast members, who may or may not reunite should the Prime Video series be renewed for a second season. (Creators Julie Plec and Carina Adly MacKenzie told TheWrap it was “too soon to tell” if all the Liars would return in a potential Season 2, which would follow E. Lockhart’s “We Were Liars” prequel book, “Family of Liars.”)

“These goodbyes were extremely difficult, because I just spent the last five months with these amazing people who I loved dearly, who I really created such a strong bond with,” Alyn Lind said, adding “I could cry just thinking about it.” “I hope it came through. It’s like the audience is saying goodbye at the same time.”

Alyn Lind knew she might not get to revisit the character altogether (should the show not receive a renewal) or have the Liars reunite again when she signed onto “We Were Liars,” but it was a risk she was willing to take. “That’s kind of why I wanted to sign on — I just love the idea that, they’re just going to do it, and it’s going to be really great, and if nothing else comes after it, who cares?” Alyn Lind said. “This is what art is supposed to be.”

Below, Alyn Lind reveals if she blames Cadence for the tragic turn and unpacks what Cadence’s role in a potential Season 2 could look like.

TheWrap: Had you read the book before auditioning? How did you want to make Cadence your own?

Emily Alyn Lind: I had read the book because I had auditioned for it, and then I met with the creators, and then I waited a year because of the writers’ strike, so I had lots of time but to read it and reread it again and to read the prequel. It was almost like a Bible, I could go back to it whenever I needed to. I felt extremely connected to this character that I find in other worlds I would feel not so much connected to based on if you just look to Cadence as a person from the outside — this extremely wealthy, aloof girl — and was able to, through Emily Lockhart’s words, really go into her mind, and that was just so helpful.

Making Cadence my own was just being able to get comfortable with the fact that she’s not all likable and it’s hard to play that. I felt like Cadence really wanted to be the victim of her own story, but I don’t think she was a villain or a hero either. I don’t think that she really ever was any of these things. For me, it was just figuring out, what is a person like when they believe they are one of these things, when they believe the trajectory of their life is going one way, when they believe they can fit a mold and really they can’t.

The finale reveals that Cadence has been imagining the Liars after their death.  What was it like filming that scene and what did you want to come through in your performance?

I had been doing five months of just being completely gaslit, and I felt like I understand how Cadence feels, because, I was on set and I was playing this happy-go-lucky girl, and then I’d go to the makeup trailer after lunch, I’d have brown hair, and I would be absolutely manipulated by my friends and I had amnesia.

Amnesia is such a complicated disease, in a sense, because memory is a really hard thing to get wrong, so when she finally finds out the truth, which is something that she really was not ready for from the beginning, she needed this time to process, to grieve, really. Our metaphor for the show is really all of this was just grievance. When she’s finally able to accept it, it was a full on meltdown.

How difficult was it to keep in mind the twist while you filmed?

I just threw it out the window — I just tried to pretend that it wasn’t there. I just decided in my head somehow, that just was not what happened, and I just focused on the facts — Gat cheating on me and how that feels, or my mom being so controlling all the time. It’s really surface level stuff, but in real life, it’s pretty bad. So there was a lot for me to do there. I think the Liars, their challenge was probably harder. I felt like I was being gaslit. Their challenge to be able to keep the audience at bay and away from this secret, it was probably more of a harder acting exercise. I congratulate them for that, because they did a great
job.

Do you blame Cadence for the Liar’s deaths?

I think so. It’s a very privileged way to think, to be able to say, I can just tear all of this down and it’ll all go away, but I think it’s because she’s always seen that. She’s always seen, if we don’t like someone because of the way they acted or if they made a mistake, we can fire them. Now, what happens when you fire someone? Their family loses their livelihood, but for us, it’s just, we got rid of our problem. It’s the worst lesson you could ever learn. You can’t just burn it all down and expect for it to be okay. There is a lot of work you have to do. There is a lot of normal people things that you have to do to get some growth or strength. Cadence just goes nuclear, and I think that shows a lot about her impatience and her privilege. I do believe there’s love in her heart when she wants to do it, but she should know better.

Cadence also has an interesting relationship with her grandfather. How do you see their relationship by the end of Summer 17 and why do you think she turned down being the Sinclair heir?

I’m one of David Morse’s biggest fans, so working with him was like a dream. In Summer 17, they’re both losing their memory. He’s losing it from old age, and she’s lost it from amnesia, so they’re very clouded and confused at the same time. They’re also the only two people that know what really happened that night. When we finally have that conversation where you see him say, “Listen, you will choose your family and we will cover this up, or you will leave and we will not cover this up …. you’ll probably go to jail,” is what he’s saying. And we will not stand by you. I don’t know if you’d call it redemption, but [this is] her last moment to bring peace to the situation of what’s going to be a lifelong journey of trauma and therapy after killing all of her best friends, is like, “I’m going to leave for now. I know you have this on me, but I know what I’m doing right now.”

Where does she go from here? What do you think that Cadence needs to recover and move forward?

She needs some real doctors, some real good therapy and some really good friends. Cadence is very upset with herself, but also with her grandfather and her family — this entire family has been fueled with lies.

Cadence wants answers. I think that she needs to leave, but when you leave the family, your small town, you carry them with you. Whether she’s going on that boat naked, she has a ton of baggage with her. Who knows where Cadence is going? I don’t know where I would go. I would just get the f–k out of there if I realized what was happening.

There is a bit of a twist ending that sets up for a second season. Would you be interested in continuing on for a potential Season 2? 

We have had many conversations about this — there’s an amazing prequel. I think that there is a lot of stuff that Cadence needs to uncover, and I don’t think Harris is going to make it easy for her to go live a life under the radar; there’s no way Cadence is going to leave that island and be normal. She’s not going to go move into a place in Brooklyn with Ed and not have the entire Sinclair legacy on her shoulders with a lot of secrets under her belt — he’s not going to let that happen. So whether she would like it or not, she will be back there. That’s what we’ve been speaking about.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

“We Were Liars” is now streaming on Prime Video.

The post ‘We Were Liars’ Star Emily Alyn Lind Says Cast Didn’t Rehearse Those Emotional Goodbyes appeared first on TheWrap.