The TV Chick

The Pretty Little Liars mid-season premiere is just days away, and I am beyond excited. This ABC Family show based on the book series took the TV world by storm, and exceeded even my lofty expectations. The show centers around a group of friends in a perfect looking suburban town whose best friend Alison DiLaurentis goes missing and they grow apart. Years later, they are forced to reunite and try to solve the mystery of their presumably dead friend. I recently had the chance to visit the fictional town of Rosewood (aka the Pretty Little Liars set), and caught up with the actress behind everyone’s favorite “dead?” girl. Sasha Pieterse talked about Alison’s role in shaping the little liars, what challenges her, and what we might see coming up in the second half of the season.

So we ended on a big cliffhanger. I assume we are going to see a lot more of Alison in the upcoming episodes, and more secrets?
There are plenty of secrets. And I can tell you the second half of the season is pretty much about the night I went missing. So there’s a lot of twists and turns, things that you wouldn’t expect. Things that aren’t really from the book, they are kind of different. So I think fans have a lot to look forward to.

In the books there was sort of an interesting relationship with her brother. Nothing is explicitly said but it’s sort of implied. So are we going to delve more into that relationship?
To be honest, I don’t really know. We get each script and we’re kind of surprised, and we kind of know the end result, but we kind of don’t. The writers keep it under wraps, which is nice because each script you learn more about actually what your character is and what direction they’re going. But there’s so many twists and turns and there’s so many different webs of secrets, that it’s really interesting to see it all come together. I think Jason does have a part of the way that I was, the way that she was — very manipulative, and I think that stems from a lot of things, and I think that her family life may have had a lot to do with that.

Will we see more flashbacks with the girls — how you came to have relationships with all four of them?
Yeah, and what drove them crazy and why they loved me.

I think it’s a fine line between –
Love and hate.

Definitely. And now that you’re into filming season 1.5, do you have a favorite moment from what we’ve seen already?
It’s interesting because each moment, each scene, each flashback that I did, you get to see a different side of Alison. So, it’s hard for me to pick a favorite. I would have to say I had a lot of fun with “The Jenna Thing.” Those flashbacks were a lot of  fun.

Will we see more of you and Jenna in flashbacks?
You might. (laughs)

There’s a lot there I feel like and they have just touched the surface.
It’s interesting, they touched the surface on a lot. And there’s a lot of places to go.

The Jenna Thing was great.
It was great, and I loved yelling at Toby because Keegan [Allen]‘s such a doll and I’m pointing a finger at him saying “You! You!”

What would you say challenges you most about this role?
I would say that it also drives me — it challenges and drives me — but she has so many layers so I think in the short time of each flashback, to touch on one or a few, to get the point across to the viewer is very important. I think Alison kind of ties everyone together and she is very subtle but when she is subtle she’s very to the point and she’s very stern with what little she does and I think that gives a lot of effect so I think touching on the little looks and the digs and the knives that she pulls. I think it’s very important to capture each one of those moments. So I think that is a challenge because with each director that comes in, they have a different take on things and taking what they want and how I feel about the character and the script, taking that and mixing it all together is very challenging when you still want to get the point across. But I love it, and it’s fun. And again, it drives me and it makes me even more eager to get it right.

Do you find it challenging that you are only with the girls  in flashback scenes because you aren’t really alive anymore?
Yeah, I think reading all the script and going script by script, you see why they are the way they are now, and I think for me anyway, reading the scripts, I can tell what Alison did to make them the way they are. So it’s a challenge. It’s nice to think about that though, so when it goes back to a flashback of a time when I manipulated someone, kind of like I wanted Spencer to tell her sister and stuff like that, you see why she does the things she does now.

You can definitely see that Alison has really shaped these girls.
Yeah, it’s interesting because I think she does care about her friends a lot. Or at least there is a side of her that does. And in a twisted way, she wants them to do the right thing. She forces them to do the right thing (laughs). Or they have to pay if they don’t listen to her. It’s interesting the way she goes about it. (laughs) She’ll do whatever it takes.

Is there someone that you haven’t had any scenes with that we might see you have a scene with in the future?
I can’t say. But not right now.

Pretty Little Liars has its mid-season premiere Monday, January 3rd at 7:58 PM on ABC Family! You don’t want to miss it!