Through 7 seasons of threats, romances, and murders on Pretty Little Liars, Brendan Robinson’s character of Lucas has always been there for Hanna.
Their relationship has been a unique one on the show, and Myspace caught up with Robinson to talk about that relationship, as well as some of his favorite memories from filming the show, and what the table read was like for the final episode.
Spoiler alert – There were tears.
When PLL began you were 20 years old, correct?
I had just turned 20.
I remember my very first day. The very first thing that we shot was Lucas and Hanna in the abstinence club. For me that was the scene I auditioned with for the show, and it was a really memorable setting, and I thank the writers for introducing the character with a bang. That was a great scene, and I still get people who come up to me, and remember that particular scene.
Did you imagine spending the majority of your 20s as Lucas?
No, actually, I didn’t.
Fun fact, I was originally supposed to be in 2 to 4 episodes, and that was it.
They ended up really liking, not in a romantic way, but the chemistry that Ashley and I had, and they felt like her relationship with Lucas, and having this platonic male friend, really brought out a different side of her character, and I totally agree with that. It’s one of my favorite relationships on the whole show. Then again, I’m biased.
It’s different from all of the other interactions that the four girls, five including Alison, have with guys on the show. It’s usually a romantic interest, or the guy is out to kill them.
Lucas has kind of been, obviously there’s been moments where we don’t know if he’s good, or he’s bad, or if he’s on the A team, or he’s not, but he’s always been this sounding board for Hanna in just caring about her as a person, which is different from her relationship with Caleb, obviously.
You mentioned platonic. I think it seems more platonic on one end than the other.
Right, that’s true. It’s platonic on her end. On Lucas’s end I think he’s always fantasized that he would get to step in and replace Caleb, or replace Sean, her first boyfriend from season one. That’s something that I take into consideration, even into the later seasons, he still loves her not just as a friend, but as a potential romantic interest, even if she doesn’t reciprocate that. So even this far in it does affect the relationship.
How many girls out there do you think realize they have a Lucas to their Hanna?
A lot, I think. I actually get that comment a lot on social media. I also get a lot of, “Oh my God, I wish I had a Lucas in my life,” so if they don’t (have one), they want one.
Somebody was telling me that a really good comparison is girls in their 20s, and teens, and maybe into their 30s, date the bad boys, but they end up with the Lucases in the long run, so you just have to be patient.
So be patient, and every Hanna will find their Lucas.
Right, exactly. Be patient on both ends, but I think there’s a lot more ladies out there who, even if they wouldn’t admit it, are looking for a Lucas in their life.
Moving to the current season, there have already been some legit plot twists. When you read the scripts, though, had you had so many seasons of so many twists that nothing really surprised you, or was there still that “Whoa, THAT’S gonna happen?!?!” factor when reading the scripts for the final season?
I feel like all of us were still very surprised all the way up until the end. I mean, honestly, I wasn’t expecting them to chop off Noel Kahn’s head. I thought that was brilliant. What a way to go out.
The writers on our show just had a really great time, I think, surprising not only the cast and crew, but they loved surprising our audience.
People coming back for more and more, and sticking with us for seven seasons, is a testament to the creativity in the writers’ room. So absolutely, all the way up until the end, even in the final episode there were things I don’t think anyone was expecting until we actually sat down to read the script.
When you all read that last script, and filmed that last scene, I imagine there were a lot of tears. Who among you was the most stoic, and attempted to be the last one to cry?
I wasn’t personally there for the very very last scene that was shot in the whole series, but I can talk about the table read, because I was in the room.
We walked in, and on the table they usually have water bottles, highlighters, and pencils in front of each chair for each actor, and writer, and producer, but on this day they also had Kleenex boxes set out because they anticipated that people were gonna lose it.
For those five girls in particular, they also started when they were in their early 20s. I think some were actually mid-teens, Sasha (Pieterse), for example, was 14, she really grew up on this show. I think that, from what I saw, it was hitting people that it was coming to an end leading up to the last couple episodes, but it really hit people once they were in that room reading those final scenes.
They had a difficult time getting through actually just reading the last scene, but it was great because the relationships that you see on screen between them are real.
I’m personally really excited to see that last scene, because from what I saw in the table read these girls really do love each other like best friends, and sisters, and it’s gonna translate. It certainly did watching it live.
I know many of the moms haven’t been as involved as much this season. That said, with Nia Peeples and Laura Leighton you had a couple of actresses with some serious IMDb pages. When PLL passed the half decade mark, was there anything they told you about being on a long-running show, and dealing with being associated with a certain character for so long?
They didn’t really talk specifically about that, but the biggest thing that stuck with me in terms of anecdotes was Laura saying that at the height of Melrose Place they still got fan mail, like actually physical letters. They would drop off buckets and buckets and buckets of letters, and fan artwork, to the set. She was pointing out that today it’s so radically different because of social media.
I found that interesting because our show started right around the time Twitter was taking off, and then Instagram was a couple years later.
I love hearing from everybody who watches the show. It’s very flattering, but there’s also the occasional thing where you also see all the criticism that comes in.
That can be tough.
Yeah. There’s not really a way of screening it. That was one thing.
I also remember Chad Lowe saying that a decade ago, two decades ago, the actors would sit around and share stories in-between takes. They would actually talk.
We would talk to each other, but now you have your iPad, and your cell phone, and in-between takes you can check Instagram and Twitter.
I thought it was really interesting that he said that. It was more of a telling stories around the campfire thing waiting for them to bring you back to set, as opposed to going and reading the internet. Those are two things that stand out to me.
You mentioned social media, and PLL did a fantastic job of being one of the first shows to really utilize social media, and the internet in general. The fandom really embraced it. That said, some fans can be a little extra. What kind of moments did you have where a fan either got mad at you for something Lucas did, or went a little overboard in trying to get in contact with you?
All of our fans have been really fantastic.
I can imagine if the audience was slightly younger, pre-teen, there might be a little bit of a disconnect between what’s real and what’s not. That being said, there was one thing that I was actually really surprised about.
There was an episode where Lucas was acting kind of sketchy, and he and Hanna go out on a boat in the middle of a lake. She thinks he’s involved with the A plot somehow, and he’s trying to explain losing Caleb’s money gambling online. He has this kind of outburst, because she’s not listening to him, because obviously she’s thinking something totally different.
I remember on Twitter a lot of people were like, “I can’t believe Lucas was about to kill Hanna,” and I’m like, kill Hanna?!?!
When we were shooting the scene, and when we were preparing that scene, it was never my intention that he was gonna kill Hanna on the boat, but I guess people took it that way.
While the show focuses on the women, there are an equal amount of guys in the cast. I know you said a lot of times you end up on your iPads, and phones, in-between takes, but you had to have some guys nights out over the years. What are some of your fondest memories from bro-ing out with the your PLL crew?
The memories that I think I’ll have for a long time are actually more what happened as we were filming on set, as opposed to outside of work.
We shot a lot of stuff outside at night. I remember the first Halloween episode, which I think was season two, we were filming at the Warner Bros. Ranch, which is up the street from the Warner Bros. backlot.
There’s so much history in all of these backlot studios. There’s a neighborhood back there where they filmed Bewitched, American Beauty, and a lot of the Chevy Chase Vacation movies. We were using that as the neighborhood for Alison’s Halloween party that first Halloween episode.
I remember all of us being there, super tired, basically going on chocolate and coffee, and we had to stop because the sun was coming up. We got there at like 5pm the night before and were there until the sun came up.
It was fun, because it felt like we were at, and this is gonna sound hokey, but it felt like we were at summer camp, or something.
Those are the kind of things I’ll never forget, where we’re all tired as hell, but are here because we love doing it. Those are my fondest memories.
Finally, how could Lucas still love Hanna after her drug fueled murderous rampage on spring break?
[laughs]
I feel like she had to go off on that experience, and experiment with things, experiment with her best friend, who strangely reminded Lucas of Vanessa Hudgens. It was really uncanny.
I think it’s great that Lucas saw the pictures of Hanna on spring break and realized that she was a bad ass, and he’ll never be like James Franco (as Alien), ever, and that’s a good thing.
She’s a bad ass, and she can take down creepy gross dudes, and Lucas knows that he’s much more charming than that, he has much more natural charm as opposed to putting it on.
So Lucas > Alien.
Exactly. Lucas > Alien. [laughs]
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