Lucy Hale and Ian Harding reveal wild ‘Pretty Little Liars’ fan encounters ahead of new on-screen reunion

See more of our coverage in your search results. They really loved the way they lied. Former “Pretty Little Liars” co-stars Lucy Hale and Ian Harding spilled the truth on their most memorable encounters with fans of the beloved teen drama in the 16 years since it premiered. “I remember there was this guy, I think he was German, and he had all of our faces tattooed … all of his arms were filled with all the ‘PLL’ characters. That’s what we call a true fan,” Hale told The Post. Former “Pretty Little Liars” co-stars Lucy Hale and Ian Harding reunited on screen in the Hulu movie “The 12 Dates of Christmas.” Hulu Harding’s most chilling fan moment happened when he was vacationing in the Arctic Circle in Finland. “We were in this lodge, and there was one of the guides there … a grizzled Finnish man. And we’re getting ready to go out and like chase reindeer or something. And he goes, ‘My daughter loves your show. I watch it as well sometimes. Now let’s go outside,'” Harding said. Hale and Harding, who reunited on-screen for the first time in nearly a decade for the new Hulu romantic comedy “The 12 Dates of Christmas,” said male viewers tend to hide their love of the hit Freeform series, which aired from 2010 to 2017. “I was always surprised at the amount of men who would always use the excuse that ‘My girlfriend or wife loves the show,’ but they somehow knew everything about it,” said Hale, 37. “I’m like, ‘Really? You can’t make eye contact with me right now,'” added Harding, 40. “They’re like, ‘Yeah, I don’t watch it. It’s not my thing.'” The pair recalled meeting for the first time at the chemistry read for “Pretty Little Liars.” ABC Family/Courtesy Everett Collection / Everett Collection The duo also reminisced about their first meeting — a chemistry read for “Pretty Little Liars,” in which Hale starred as a high school student who becomes romantically involved with her English teacher, played by Harding. “And I remember when you left … everyone just kind of looked at each other and was like, ‘Yeah, that’s him,'” Hale recalled. “Really?” asked Harding. “Meanwhile, I left and was like, ‘Well, that sucked. I didn’t get that one,’ and then here we are, many years later.” In the beloved teen drama, Hale starred as a high school student who becomes romantically involved with her English teacher, played by Harding. ABC Family/Courtesy Everett Collection / Everett Collection When Hale landed a role in “The 12 Dates of Christmas,” which debuted on Nov. 6, she recruited her former co-star for their first project together since “PLL” wrapped. “I just voice noted Ian and I was like, ‘Hey, I’m gonna throw a crazy idea your way. Would you be interested?’ … ‘Cause I think we had always wanted to do something else with each other … and luckily Ian kind of committed, hadn’t even read the script,” she said. “If I had showed up the first day on set and I realized it was like a snuff film or something like that, I would be like, ‘I mean, it’s Lucy. I’ll still do it,'” added Harding. It was Hale’s idea to recruit Harding for “The 12 Dates of Christmas,” which premiered on Nov. 6. Hulu The film centers around Hale’s character, Christina, who promises her mother she won’t be single again for Christmas. So she commits to going on 12 dates over the 12 weeks leading up to the holiday. But the dates are disasters, including one with a fugitive hauled away in handcuffs and another with a dog owner who gives his four-legged friend a tongue-kiss at the table. Many of the bad dates in the rom-com are based on real-life ones experienced by the film’s director, David Lipper, and his friends. “There’s a date in the movie where this guy comes in with a selfie stick and is recording the whole date and that actually happened to one of the actors in the movie, which is so crazy to me,” Hale said. Harding met his wife, Sophie Hart, at Carnegie Mellon University. Penske Media via Getty Images Harding, who met his wife, Sophie Hart, a photographer and set designer, while they were drama students at Carnegie Mellon University, said some of the dating disasters initially sounded too outrageous to be true. “I haven’t been on a [first] date in many years … some of these, I’m like, ‘I don’t know, is this a little too over the top?’ And then you talk to people and they’re like, ‘No, this is almost normal in some cases,'” he said. Hale is dating visual artist Phillip Lopez. BACKGRID Hale, who is now dating visual artist Phillip Lopez, hasn’t experienced her character’s dating woes. “I’ve definitely been on boring dates, don’t get me wrong, where I’m like, ‘Oh, I really don’t want to sit at this dinner for three more hours,’ but luckily all respectful, kind people,” she said. “Couple of weirdos, but I don’t have anything crazy.”