Emily Lind on Flawed Female Characters, Honouring ‘We Were Liars’ and Working Alongside E. Lockhart

Words and Videography: Charlotte Amy Landrum | Photography: Lewis Vorn | Creative Direction: Ione Gamble | Special thanks to: Mackenzie Rutledge and Allie Hall

Make it stand out

This is part of our cover feature on your new favourite TV show, We Were Liars. To read the full story and enter the world of The Liars, click here. 

To portray a central character of a book that sits on the shelves of Gen Z readers across the world is a big task – but no one was better prepared for the role than actress Emily Alyn Lind. After playing young Amanda Clarke on the Hamptons thriller series Revenge at 9 years old and Audrey Hope in HBO’s Gossip Girl reboot at 18 years old, Emily is a familiar face for those with good taste in television. 

We Were Liars, an adaptation of the young adult thriller novel by E. Lockhart of the same name, is a fever dream of the wealthy, the flawed and the beautiful. We follow Cadence Sinclair, played by Emily, who must figure out what happened in the summer of 2015 after waking up with amnesia. Her three fellow Liars, cousins Mirren (Esther McGregor) and Johnny (Joseph Zada) and best-friend-turned-love-interest Gat (Shubham Maheshwari), don’t give her the answers either, making the show a whodunnit in the shape of a teenage girl's nightmare. 

After an influx of films and TV that were hyperfixated on the rich such as Triangle of Sadness (2022), The Menu (2022) and The White Lotus, as well as countless trends created by Zoomers stemming from the fantasy of wealth like Dark Academia, Quiet Luxury and Old Money - the secretive and preppy We Were Liars couldn’t have come at a better time.

As the on screen adaptation of We Were Liars is released into the world, I sat down with Emily to discuss the complexities of her role, why we need more flawed women on screen, and how to honour a story people love. 

Polyester: Hey Emily! How did it feel to be the protagonist in We Were Liars?

It was an interesting journey because it was a protagonist role, but it also felt like I filled a lot of different roles. I played villain, victim, hero… ish, at least in my mind. I followed a girl over two timelines in her life, and she's polar opposites in both of them - those are interesting shoes to fill.

In what ways did you relate to the character and what ways did you not?

She feels everything deeply and she doesn't always know where to put that energy. She's trying to grow up without losing her softness, which is really hard.  She's kind of naive, but at a certain point I wondered if she’s choosing not to see, or is she really, truly not seeing this? That was a really interesting, mind boggling experience for me to be like, “I want to be likeable.” You're the protagonist, you want to be likeable? 

But she is this character that's so totally flawed because of the world around her, and we're seeing it on the surface, but we're also seeing something that she's deciding not to see, which is really the underbelly of what this family stands for. She's a teenage girl who's going through a journey, so this is just a step in her life. A small, very intense snippet. It's challenging to realise that you can't always be liked.

I feel like now, especially online, everyone is obsessed with flawed female characters. Rightly so, because it's comforting to see that on screen. 

I love that you say that, because I think we need a lot more of that in film and television. I personally would love to see the female Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver. We need more of Cate Blanchett doing Tar or playing Bob Dylan in I'm Not There. [Blanchett] is an actress that has been able to convince Hollywood that she can be a flawed female and still not be a drama queen.

It's a disservice to paint women as perfect, because the coolest parts about us are the flaws. When guys have their tendencies to be vile or angry or jealous, we've come to label that as sexy or mysterious or cool, whereas it doesn't feel that way with women. I love to hate a villainous woman. It doesn't have to be the villain with the guns and the thing and the sexy suit, it can be Cate Blanchett in Tar. She can be spiteful, awful and so cool all at the same time, and that's what I look up to.

How did you prepare for this role? Were there any specific films, TV, books that brought inspiration for this character?

There was definitely a really nice roadmap with having the book and being able to jump into that universe, because it's so inspired by it. E. Lockhart was such a massive part of this adaptation, and she's the core.

That did it for me, but at the same time, what was cool about it was there was so much room to play because these are original characters that have never been adapted. I've done a lot of reboots, continuations, and remakes, but I felt like there's no pressure there as I could look at Emily after a scene and be like “Is this right?” That was nice because I do truly love the character in the book, and I wanted to do her justice.

It must be crazy to write a story and see it come to life in real time.

I imagine being her and thinking, ‘What the hell.' It’s just the coolest thing ever, right? When I went on set, after reading the book and scripts, I was like, ‘This is exactly how I imagined it. How did they do this? This is scary.’

What was your favourite day on set?

We had a great time. I'm really in this nostalgic stage of missing it now.

It was really fun doing all of the underwater stuff. You go to this massive tank that they use to train people who are going to work on oil rigs. It was really fun because it was all of the Liars, me, Joe, Esther and Shubham, and we're just literally playing in a pool all day. Me and Joe were just doing laps around the pool, doing handstands, and holding our breath underwater, and I felt really good because I could hold my breath longer. He was so annoyed. 

Any words for the We Were Liars fans?

I really like our show because I know what it's like to be a reader and to love something so much and create your own little worlds around it. There's nothing like reading a book, and it's so much different than watching or consuming art in different ways.