Maia Reficco, Malia Pyles, and Jordan Gonzalez star as Noa Olivar, Mouse Honrada, and Ash Romero in Pretty Little Liars: Summer School. The series takes place within the existing PLL universe and is set after the events of Original Sin. New episodes are released weekly, Thursdays on Max.
Following the harrowing events of Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, our Pretty Little Liars face a fate worse than death – summer school. However, Millwood High isn’t the only thing getting in the way of their fun summer jobs and new, dreamy love interests. A new villain, who may or may not have a connection to A, has come to town and is going to put them all to the test.
“In regards to Jen and Noa, I think Jen is so fundamental for Noa’s journey, obviously, this season. She kind of symbolizes everything Noa’s left behind, both the good and the bad. And it was really fun to play with reconstructing her own self-worth and her own persona, and who she is and her personality, what she likes, [what] she doesn’t like. When it comes to Jen, there’s so much confusion because of what choosing her would mean that I think that dichotomy of what she perceives as right and what she feels is right was selfishly my favorite thing to play. But at the same time, so heartbreaking to witness, because you can just tell this poor girl just feels so much. Her moral compass is definitely going in so many places, but she’s trying to keep up with it,” Reficco shared with me. “At the end of the day, there’s so much confusion in real life and in how we go about finding who we are and what we want. So I really enjoyed getting to play that back and forth because that’s honestly how it is a lot of the times. It’s filled with questions that you never get an answer to directly.”
“Honestly, I think if it was just Mouse in this relationship, it would have fallen apart a long time ago,” Pyles explained while discussing her character’s dynamic with Ash. “I think Ash really is the one that continues to fight for her and I fight for him too, in my own way. But I do think Mouse is a really hard person to be in a relationship with, to be honest. You know, all the secrecy, Spooky Spaghetti, and all of that.”
Gonzalez continued, adding, “I think he’s [Ash is] a bleeding heart. I think, as someone who is an openly queer and trans person in a town that all he wants is for everyone to be themselves — and that goes from Greg to Noa to Mouse, literally everyone on the show. So I think when he sees her and can tell that she is this amazing person already, but if she just broke out of her shell, she’d be incredible and unstoppable, I think just that through line, through it all, he’s willing to do whatever for her. As human beings, we make mistakes and sometimes we lie to our partners, and you know what? That’s life, and that’s real and it happens. Maybe it happens when you’re getting chased by someone named A in a mask, maybe it happens in everyday life when things happen. But I mean, the reality of the situation is when you love someone, he is so wise beyond his years, truly I think because of his transness that he’s more accepting than I think most kids would be in that situation.”
I spoke with the trio about which of the original PLLs they would want their characters to speak with, Noa’s journey this season, the key to Mouse and Ash’s relationship, and Bloody Rose.
Watch my interview here:
