Talk:The Silence of E. Lamb/@comment-70.29.6.40-20140724222725/@comment-121.72.79.205-20140727080418

In a way she's playing a role within a role: like her times of being Vivian Darkbloom, she has to switch off Ali. When she's with the girls she plays up one secret over another - sympathetic/taunting Spencer; subtly taunting Emily or the others. She builds up a lot of personas; she's the girl who reads tragic novels on the French Riviera, and she pretends to be CeCe Drake on occasion; she's also caring at times, or cruel. And each of these things needs to be played differently, else she'd come off one-dimensional.

Ali's a story-teller, too, so that requires some degree of acting to make the story believable. Maybe this story is true, or maybe it's false, and she's got to play that in such a way that the audience - and the Liars - don't just get everything she's saying. It adds layers to the character. She's a character with tangled backstory, up until season 4's finale we didn't know the whole story.

Honestly, for someone so young she's doing a very good job.