We Were Liars Stars Emily Alyn Lind and Shubham Maheshwari Talk Forbidden Love, Privilege, and Book Adaptations
A year after a mysterious accident leaves her with amnesia, Cadence Sinclair Eastman returns to her family's private summer island of Beechwood seeking answers. Pop Culture Planet’s Kristen Maldonado spoke with Emily Alyn Lind and Shubham Maheshwari about their new Prime Video series We Were Liars.
As Cadence reconnect with her childhood friends, known as the Liars, she slowly begins to unravel the difficult truth about her accident. At the heart of the story is her complicated romance with Gat, impacted by racial tension and privilege due to the distinguished Sinclair legacy. “I would say it's not like a conventional romance story. The emotional core is definitely love, but it's a very bumpy road,” Lind told me. “And what is love? Loving someone unconditionally, even if they don't really understand who you are, what you stand for. It's a very confusing love story. We always say like a Romeo and Juliet kind of forbidden love.”
Maheshwari agreed: “I think that's why we want them to be together. All the things that they fight over, push them away from each other, [it’s] just so unfortunate. You want them to work it out as a fan almost. When I’m going to watch this, I think I'll feel the same way. Work it out!”
The show weaves between the past and the present in a very intricate way, but the duo shared that being in it together helped during the challenging moments. “Having each other helps ‘cause we would talk a lot about it. We would film Summer 17 stuff and Summer 16 stuff often on the same day. It would be like Summer 16, go and change your wig, and Summer 17,” said Maheshwari, “and before we go just having a conversation figuring out where we are, where our headspace is, and then just going for it.”
“Their role is really, really hard to play in that sense in the Summer 17 for spoiler reasons, but, to me, it just felt like I was being gaslit by Gat most of the time. It was easy to [go from] an amazing fun Summer 16 — we're running on the beach, we're running in the water, we're playing with the golden retrievers — and then all of a sudden you're like, ‘Sorry, what?’” laughed Lind. “This is basically every toxic relationship I've ever been in.”
We Were Liars combines both the original book by E. Lockhart and its prequel Family of Liars together to tell a more complete story of the Sinclair family. “It was our Bible. We were able to go back to it and have it as like our…” said Lind, with Maheshwari chiming in: “An amazing resource. I was very excited to film the Liar stuff. When I was reading the book, I was like, ‘This is going to be fun. This is going to be enjoyable.’ Then I met you guys and I was like, ‘This is going to be incredible.’”
“It's so visual. We just got to run around. It was great,” added Lind.
The Liars universe continues to expand with a third book called We Fell Apart dropping this November. “We haven't been able to read it. We're in the dark. We're so excited though,” said Lind about if the new book came into play in this first season. If the show gets another season, she hopes the stories “keep weaving in.”
While the cast is making waves in this exciting adaptation, there’s even more book love on the horizon. Joseph Zada, who plays ringleader cousin Johnny, is heading to Panem next in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping next. He’ll be joined by Lind’s former co-stars — Gossip Girl’s Whitney Peak and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’s Mckenna Grace. “It's just a group of people I absolutely adore,” said Lind, showing support for her friends. “I think it's so cool and they don't need my advice. They're so great and they know what they're doing. I just think that they're going to kill it. We're going to be cheering them on. We're super excited for them.”
We Were Liars hits Prime Video on June 18.
