For years, fans of the the ABC Family hit show Pretty Little Liars have been trying to solve the infamous question: Who the heck is 'A?' The season six finale premiered last week, leaving fans in complete shock. 'A' was revealed to be Vanessa Ray's character Cece Drake, but the surprise didn't end there. Cece Drake was actually born Charles DiLaurentis. That's right, 'A' is transgender. Ray recently opened up to discuss her thoughts on playing such a controversial character.

Believe it or not, Ray was just as shocked as everyone else to find out she was the person who'd been tormenting the girls season after season. Ray admitted she found out the secret this past June and forced herself to re-read every script and binge watch every episode to mentally prepare herself for the summer finale.

Many fans were relieved to finally stop racking their brains to figure out who the demented psychopath was following the girls around, but not everyone was happy about the reveal. Some fans thought the creator of the show, I. Marlene King, was just following the "transgender trend" of the moment to remain relevant, but Ray confirms the idea was conceived years ago.

"We certainly did not jump on the bandwagon," said Ray to Entertainment Tonight. "We definitely came up with this idea three and a half years ago. I mean, it's been a long time in the works and if you go back and you watch the CeCe episodes -- because I went back and rewatched every single one, and reread all the scripts to make sure I didn't make any mistakes in this finale -- we've told you she is 'A' so many times."

"We would have these long phone conversations about how she was a sociopath and how there was more to her than just being a villain," said Ray to Us Weekly. When did she become victimized? How did she become a villain? Cece was not the villain then, she was kind of this larger-than-life, all about herself [figure]. I found all these conversations that I would have with Marlene all make sense."

The 34-year-old actress had always questioned if she could be 'A' and was excited at the possibility of it being true, but before June she assumed it was someone else. Ray wanted to address the idea of Cece Drake being a transgender, becuase the concept of people living as transgenders is still taboo in this country. She joyfully exclaimed, "I was bursting with desire" to discuss the topic.

Ray and several other members of the Pretty Little Liars cast were recently nominated for awards at the 2015 Teen Choice Awards on Aug. 16. Ray won an award for TV Choice Villain, while Lucy Hale (Aria) won for Choice TV Actress: Drama. Ashley Benson won for Choice Summer TV Star: Female,  Tyler Blackburn for Choice Summer TV Star: Male and Ian Harding for "Choice TV Star Actor."

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