Ashley Benson

For 21-year-old Ashley Benson, playing the role of Hanna Marin in teen drama, Pretty Little Liars, is a true fantasy. For a start, though her character is a member of the most popular clique in Pretty Little Liars’ Rosewood High, she never even went to high school. “I’ve never been to a prom or a dance” the actress laments. “So it’s funny because we have dances on the show and I’ll be like ‘Oh yay! It’s my school dance!’” she laughs.
But then Rosewood is far from your normal high school. Since queen bee Alison DiLaurentis (played by Sasha Pieterse in flashbacks) turned up dead at the beginning of season one, Hanna and friends have been stalked by a mysterious character, known only as “A”, who threatens to unveil each of their darkest secrets. The circumstances surrounding Alison’s death are still unresolved (the show is now in it’s second season) but Benson is certain Alison is no more. Well, almost.
“She’s dead,” she says confidently before pausing to think, “but there could very much be a possibility that she is alive,” she continues, followed by a further pause. “We have no idea what is going on!” she finally confesses, revealing that the cast are just as in the dark as the audience about the show’s central mystery. The only thing that she is certain of is that school really isn’t for her: “I can’t sit still for long because I have so much energy, my attention goes elsewhere.” Fortunately, then, early modelling, commercials and bit parts lead to a long-term role for Benson in legendary soap opera Days Of Our Lives when she was 13, and a teen-hood of home schooling. Upon realising acting was all she wanted to do, she decided to pursue showbiz full-time at junior high age, and hasn’t looked back. “I was always a performer. Always singing and dancing,” she recalls of her childhood, “I would memorise every line from a movie and then watch them with my family and be saying all the lines and they would be like ‘Ashley! Stop! We’re trying to watch!’ But I loved it. Growing up I wanted to be like Hilary Duff and be on a show. She was a main inspiration. And now I’m on a TV show,” she beams, proving that it is possible to achieve those childhood dreams. And best of all? In a case of fantasy and reality overlapping, Benson’s character in Pretty Little Liars has evolved to be more like her, making it even easier for her to relate. “At first she was really stuffy and kind of bitchy,” she says of her character, “but a lot of my personality has gone into her so she’s really funny and sarcastic and more down to earth. It’s fun to play her.”

[Originally published in Wonderland Magazine Issue 28, November 2011. Photography Danielle Levitt]