'Pretty Little Liars' Star Ian Harding Recalls Being Surprised by Sasha Pieterse's Age When They First Met

Back when Pretty Little Liars first started, we were all shocked to learn just how old Sasha Pieterse really was — even the cast.

While promoting his new book, Ian Harding dished about meeting Sasha for the first time.

“The very first experience that I had with her, it was at the read-through for the pilot,” he recalled in a new interview, “and it was right before we all went up to Vancouver, and Troian [Bellisario] and I were in different relationships than we are now, and we’re just talking about the trouble with long-distance relationships and, you know, jealousy in a relationship and everything like that – both people that we have since departed from.

“Sasha comes over at one point and says, ‘You know, it’s just so tricky because you want to excel in your own life, and if they can’t love you for who you are, then the hardest thing is letting go. But how do you let go of that love?’ It was very deep, like, whatever she said. And we were like, ‘Wow, that is so, like- Sasha, was it?’”

Ian continues, “Then she gets up and is starting to leave, and one of the producers comes over and says, ‘Do you know who that was?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, Sasha… Pieterse? Or however you say her last name.’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, yeah. Do you know who that woman is behind her?’ And we notice a blonde woman that’s walking behind her. ‘That’s her mother – ’cause she has to come with her mother� ’cause she is 13!’”

“Troian and I pretty much, like, picked our jaws up off the floor,” he laughed. “It was very intense.”

And because she’s such an old soul, Ian thinks she needs to be the next PLL star to write a book!

“I think Sasha‘s life is really fascinating,” he says. “I think Sasha could write a really great book. [...] ’cause she’s originally from South Africa, her parents are or were traveling performers.”

Ian adds, “I think one of the reasons she seems like 35 in spirit even though she’s, like, 11 (real age: 21) [�] She comes off as so much older because she lived her whole life, like, with adults. And so, some of her good friends were, you know, 10 years older than she was.”