Jordan Gonzalez and the creative team behind Pretty Little Liars: Summer School work hard to show Ash’s journey as a trans man — and his clothing is a big part of that.
During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Gonzalez opened up about returning to the fan-favorite role after the show rebranded from Original Sin to Summer School.
“For me personally, I like to start with making a playlist for Ash on what he would like to listen to,” Gonzalez shared about how he prepared to portray Ash on screen. “And that definitely changed a whole lot from season 1 to 2.”
The actor also played close attention to how Ash evolved since the start of the show, adding, “I had a wonderful conversation with Charlotte [Svenson], who was the head of our costume department about how Ash in season 1 is very kind of stoic and all black. [He] usually [wears] boots, which is very James Dean-esque.”
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Gonzalez highlighted the changes Ash has gone through — and how that was displayed through the wardrobe.
“In season 1, how would that translate into summertime? For me, it made a lot of sense that as a young person and on top of that a person of transgender experience, coming into himself kind of frees you from the squareness of clothing and the lack there of color,” he explained. “So as Ash has come into himself, the less he cares about being so rigid.”
Gonzalez continued: “And [from there] the more that he plays with color and the more that he has a little bit more fun and plays with more textures as well, which was really cool.”
The Pretty Little Liars reboot, which debuted on Max in 2022, picked up where the original series left off by introducing a group of friends who get tormented by a person named A. In between trying to figure out the identities of villains such as Archie or Bloody Rose, Imogen (Bailee Madison), Tabby (Chandler Kinney), Faran (Zaria), Mouse (Malia Pyles) and Noa (Maia Reficco) have found ways to enjoy being teenagers.
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For Mouse, that meant finding love with Ash, Millwood’s power couple. Gonzalez discussed how he and Pyles worked together to bring the healthy relationship between Mouse and Ash to life on screen.
“It is a breath of fresh air in a show that is layered with so many horrible things. So on top of that, it is really nice to play a healthy queer couple. Because yes, the struggle of being queer is important to talk about but I think it’s also even more important to talk about the fact that we are able to be loved and to be in these healthy relationships,” Gonzalez shared. “This being my first job to be able to work with someone like Malia was so comforting because she’s the best scene partner I could have ever dreamed of.”
Gonzalez credited the show for allowing Mouse and Ash to grow alongside each other.
“Before we went into season 2, we wanted to really talk about how they evolved together — but also separately,” he noted. “In season 2, Mouse is now very comfortable in herself and Ash is along for the ride and just watching it. And yeah, I love Malia. She’s incredible and she does a great job playing Mouse.”
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Pyles, meanwhile, praised Mouse and Ash’s “steady love,” telling Us, “That’s the thing with healthy romances, it doesn’t mean that there’s no problems. It just means that the way that you find solutions is not hurtful to the other person. What Mouse and Ash continue to do as they run into problems is just to give love back to each other.”
While reflecting on the show’s impact, Gonzalez applauded the way PLL: Summer School elevated the main friend group.
“I think a lot of the really cool things about PLL is that as men on the show, we get to take a step back and be in awe of the female cast. All of them are incredible actresses,” Gonzalez, whose character is basically now an honorary Liar, concluded.
Pretty Little Liars: Summer School is available to stream on Max with new episodes released on Thursdays.
