Lindsey Shaw is opening up about why she was fired from Pretty Little Liars.
The actress, who starred as Paige McCullers on the teen drama, explained on a recent Ned’s Declassified Podcast Survival Guide episode that:
“When I had my drug problem and I was in between working on stuff, you know, I would never have to address my relationship with food because I was always like, ‘Oh, I could always just go get more Adderall.’ Do you know what I mean? And be okay with it,” Shaw told fellow Ned’s Declassified alums and cohosts Devon Werkheiser and Daniel Curtis Lee. “So it was really hard, and I especially — I got basically let go from Pretty Little Liars in season five because of the weight that I had lost, and it was really an embarrassing thing.”
Shaw later recalled the moment in which she discovered that she had been fired. “It was so bad. I got called into the Pretty Little Liars creator’s office,” Shaw said before becoming visibly emotional. “And she was just like, ‘So, we’re gonna let you go.’ She’s like, ‘It’s not because of your acting.’ She’s like, ‘But do you have anybody to talk to?’ And I was like, ‘Um… No.’ And she’s like, ‘Well find somebody, and we have to let you go for now.'”
Shaw starred as Paige, a close friend of the Liars and Emily’s (Shay Mitchell) ex-girlfriend, from its first season until her dismissal. While on the podcast, she commended the show’s creators for bringing back her character for several episodes during its final season in 2016. “It was really sweet because they brought me back in season 7 and it was so lovely of that writing team to see that relationship and that character out,” she said. “But that was rough.”
Shaw maintained that the series let her go “with so much care,” adding, “They did me so right bringing me back for season 7 and just letting me say goodbye. I will just never forget that writer’s room.”