Ashley Benson seemed made to play Hanna Marin on Pretty Little Liars. She inhabited the funny and sometimes snarky character perfectly, allowing Hanna to be both sweet and opinionated, and always stood out among her co-stars. Benson has played other big roles, such as Brit in the colorful and intense 2012 movie Spring Breakers, but she's always going to be recognized by fans IRL because of Hanna. And while her personal life gets plenty of coverage, like Benson's complicated relationship with G-Easy, people still want to talk about her role on the hit teen drama.
While it definitely seems like the Pretty Little Liars cast got along well and they have had successful careers after the show went off the air in 2011, there have been times when Ashley Benson has been honest about what starring on the teen series was really like.
Ashley Benson Didn't Like Her Pretty Little Liars Clothing
Ashley Benson has a high net worth of $6 million, but while it's easy to assume that she made good money playing Hanna on PLL, she has talked about appearing on the show, and there is one thing that she didn't like.
Benson talked about playing Hanna and shared that she didn't like her character's wardrobe. She told Glamour, "I feel uncomfortable when I'm in Hanna's clothes just because I hate wearing heels, and she's always in heels. My feet hurt! I'm such a—not a tomboy, I guess, but my everyday style would be what I'm wearing right now——or jeans, Converse, and a T-shirt. Super plain, just because I always have to be dressed up."
Benson continued, "It's always fun to go to work because I get to be super different from how I am, but it is uncomfortable because I hate wearing heels."
Since Hanna is known and celebrated for being super fashionable, as she loves trendy clothing and going to the mall on a regular basis, it's definitely surprising to hear that the actress who played her didn't enjoy her wardrobe. And if Benson didn't enjoy wearing the heels that her famous character favored, that must have made for some pretty tough filming days since she would have had to wear those shoes for such long hours.
Even though she didn't enjoy this part of starring on the series, the actress did a fantastic job as Hanna, making her storyline believable and relatable no matter how outlandish the show became.
Hanna has some of the most melodramatic plotlines on the show, as A hits her with a car in season 1 and she is continually stalked by the members of the A Team before getting kidnapped at the end of season 6.
Ashley Benson Had A Tough Time With Her PLL Character's Makeup And Hair
Every character on Pretty Little Liars is known for having their own style, although Hanna arguably looks the most sophisticated and elegant and pays the most attention to her appearance. Hanna's passion for fashion also applies to her trendy makeup choices and her hair, and Benson wasn't thrilled with those aspects of her character, either.
She shared with Entertainment Tonight that she thought Hanna's makeup at the beginning of the show was pretty bad. She said, "I think a lot of the heavy looks of makeup in seasons one and two were a little wild. There were times when I was doing raccoon eyes a little bit."
The actress also told a funny but relatable story to Entertainment Tonight and said that she used bleach in her hair once she was finished filming Spring Breakers. However, she then noticed that she had less hair than she did before.
She explained that Hanna's hair, therefore, looked fairly bad in season 3 as "it was strings." She called this experience "horrendous." While this was definitely tough for Benson, it's nice to know that even celebrities make mistakes with their hair sometimes, as her fans can no doubt think of a time when they got a haircut that they later hated.
Ashley Benson Had A Terrifying Experience With A Pretty Little Liars Fan
Starring on a show like Pretty Little Liars definitely means dealing with fans, as Benson now has 23.7 million followers on her Instagram, and she is no doubt recognized everywhere that she goes.
Of course, actors appreciate their fans and often hear sweet stories about how their movie or TV show has had a positive and profound impact on someone, inspiring them or cheering them up on bad days or even changing their lives. This is what makes playing a character for a long time so rewarding.
But once, Benson's fame led to an intense situation that sounds haunting and dark, and this is a reminder of how unnerving it can be to be a celebrity. And sometimes, it can result in danger.
Ashley Benson was on the cover of Complex magazine for the June/July 2014 issue and talked about the terrifying time when someone almost grabbed her when she was in a car.
The actress said during the interview with Complex, "A couple years ago, this guy literally tried to take me out of a car. [He] wanted to kidnap me. A couple of my friends and I were in the car outside of an apartment building in L.A..' This guy pulled up super close to us and I was like, 'That’s weird, we should probably pull forward.’ And the guy that was driving was like, ' No, we don’t need to move.' So the crazy guy got out of his car and tried to open the door, and grab us in the backseat. Right when he did that, we sped off.”
While she was able to escape, this was no doubt a terrible experience to have, and it sounds like it's still something that she thinks about.
This was much more terrifying than when Benson typically sees fans out and about, although she shared in the same interview that when she was in the shower at a spa once, a 16-year-old fan wanted to get her picture. She said, "She was trying to have a full conversation with me in the shower. That’s where you draw the line. Like, what parent encourages her kid to do that?”
