Chandler Kinney: Film within 'Pretty Little Liars' confused crew
LOS ANGELES, May 23 (UPI) -- Editor's note: This article will discuss spoilers for Pretty Little Liars: Summer School Episode 4.
Chandler Kinney said Thursday's episode of Pretty Little Liars: Summer School led to some confusion. While filming a short film, Tabby (Kinney) called cut, and the crew mistook her for the episode director, Roxanne Benjamin.
"Our director would be like, 'No, that's the line, not her directing you guys,'" Kinney told UPI in a Zoom interview from New Zealand, where she was filming Zombies 4. "Those days were really confusing for all of us."
Kinney added that some of the footage Tabby's crew filmed will be used in the show.
"I don't even know who shot what," Kinney said. "I was holding a camera. The guys were holding cameras."
Tabby mounted the production when a film festival asked her for a new submission. The festival had rejected her first short, Avenged, which was based on Tabby's experience in Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin.
"I think Avenged really serves as an outlet for her to say what she needs to say," Kinney said. "It's really her first time looking her assaulter in the face and having this reckoning and this confrontation."
In Original Sin, Chip (Carson Rowland) raped Tabby after raping and impregnating Imogen (Bailee Madison). This occurred while Tabby and her friends were also struggling with A stalking them.
In Original Sin, Tabby and Imogen confronted Chip and got his confession. A killed Chip in the season finale.
In Avenged, which Tabby screens during the Summer School season, Imogen plays Tabby and tortures the actor playing Chip.
"She wasn't given her time and her day in court," Kinney said. "So she's not allowing the system to silence her."
Avenged appears in the first episodes of Summer School and Kinney said director Maggie Kiley, and co-creator Lindsay Calhoon Bring, encouraged Kinney to contribute to Tabby's short.
Kinney said that it was important to see the Chip character say no, and have his killer ignore him like he ignored consent.
"That is a very clear turn and a very clear dismissal of his request," Kinney said. "We talked about circling him when she came in, little things like that."
Calhoon Bring and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa told UPI that Tabby is the character who represents them. Tabby is a horror movie buff and works in a movie theater, like both Pretty Little Liars creators did as teenagers.
"It makes me want to actually have that experience, to be there and make the popcorn," Kinney said.
In Summer School, Tabby befriends a new coworker, Christian (Noah Alexander Gerry). She films her second short in the theater, about a killer stalking the theater employees and patrons.
Kinney said the second short allows Tabby to reclaim the theater as her safe space. However, even with A gone, there is still a new killer stalking the Pretty Little Liars.
"That film really represents her finding her love and joy and passion for filmmaking again," Kinney said. "So much of her journey is disentangling her trauma from that passion and that sacred space."
Tabby entertained dating Christian, although seeing his collection of horror masks in his basement gave her pause. Kinney said Tabby is not quite ready to trust a man romantically again.
"Even if she makes herself appear open and available, she still has a long way to go in trusting and letting people in again," Kinney said. "I think both her and Imogen do."
The new killer is Bloody Rose, who has been testing each of the Pretty Little Liars individually. Mouse (Malia Pyles) and Faran (Zaria) survived theirs. Kinney said Tabby's test is in an upcoming episode.
"Tabby will have her final girl moment and it will be epic," Kinney said. "It was definitely the hardest thing I've ever filmed in my entire life."
New episodes of Pretty LIttle Liars: Summer School premiere Thursdays on Max.
