Ashley Benson on how not to be defined by your relationships

She’s been in showbusiness since she was five years old, but even Ashley Benson struggles with fame sometimes

Time out from Hollywood, from the scrutiny that comes with fame, but most of all, from work. “I wanted a break,” she tells me over the phone from LA. It’s lunchtime there, and she and her boyfriend, rapper G-Eazy, are home after a morning hike.“Coming off a show after so long and doing TV continuously throughout my whole life… I needed to take a mental break.”

It’s no wonder. When the final episode of the teen drama Pretty Little Liars aired in June 2017, Benson had filmed 160 episodes across seven seasons over seven years. She was exhausted, and decided to relocate to New York. “It was the best thing I ever did,” she says. “I didn’t work for a year and studied directors I wanted to work with and looked at actresses who inspired me, who came from TV and made it into film. I started to compartmentalise my wants and needs.”

The break did wonders for her self-confidence, and allowed her to focus on her priorities for her future career. It was the same year she became a founder of sunglasses company Privé Revaux with Jamie Foxx and Hailee Steinfeld. She now splits her time between LA and New York. Similarly, being forced to slow down during lockdown over the past year has given her another dose of much-needed reflection.“I wrote two scripts and am about to start filming one,” she says.“That’s super rewarding.” This year, she will also star in a new film, The Birthday Cake, with Ewan McGregor.“It’s been interesting working on projects that I normally wouldn’t have time to focus on.”

It’s hardly surprising that she enjoys the downtime. Benson, now 31, has been working almost consistently in the industry since she was five years old. She grew up in

Orange County – her father owned grocery stores, while her mum looked after Benson and her sister Shaylene at home. Benson started dancing professionally when she was three (“Tap and ballet,” she recalls), which then led to modelling in dance catalogues, and by the age of seven, she had been signed by Ford Models. Soon she was landing TV adverts and minor roles on shows like The West Wing, and then at 14, she won the role of Abby Deveraux on soap opera Days Of Our Lives.

Her friends at school should have been delighted for her success. Instead, Benson was bullied. “Kids can be mean and jealous,” she remembers. “At the time, it wasn’t cool to be on TV. Every week, I was working on commercials and all the kids would see me. I got bullied and hated it. But I was really proud, and it made me more determined to get on a TV show. My parents said if I did, I could be home-schooled. So I tried and tried and tried, and when I did, it was the best day of my life.”

Landing a part on a mainstream soap opera was exciting, especially for her parents, who were lifelong fans. “At that point, my mum was taking me to set and it was funny for me to meet people she grew up watching. I didn’t know who any of them were!” Her time on the soap opera was invaluable.“You film three episodes a day. It was crazy to be thrown into that environment at a young age. I wasn’t prepared for it. I thought we’d do a couple of takes here and there, but you only get one take. So it made me learn to memorise my lines quickly. I was completely intimidated.”

After three years on the show, she left to pursue other projects. She landed various film roles, as well as the part of Mia on teen show Eastwick. The day she discovered that Eastwick wasn’t being recommissioned for a second