Sasha Pieterse talks Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists

by W. Andrew Powell
Sasha Pieterse in Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists

Sasha Pieterse returns as Alison DiLaurentis tonight in Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists on W Network, and she’s got new troubles to unravel in the perfectly complicated college town of Beacon Heights.

The new series features Pieterse and Janel Parrish reprising their epic roles from the original Pretty Little Liars, and they’re joined by a new group of overachievers. Things get especially interesting when there’s a murder in town, and they have to band together to solve the puzzle, all while dealing with lies, alibis, and secrets.

Pieterse was in Toronto recently, and I sat down with her to talk about the new series. Jump to the video for the whole conversation, or scroll down to read highlights from the interview.

Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists airs Wednesdays on W Network at 8:00 PM (ET/PT).

Janel Parrish and Sasha Pieterse in Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists
Janel Parrish and Sasha Pieterse in Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists

Andrew Powell: What was it like for you to come back into the Pretty Little Liars world?

Sasha Pieterse: Awesome. Honestly, I mean, I found out that Marlene [King] wanted to do this show the sixth or the seventh season. So I knew before Pretty Little Liars ended that this was her plan, and I got really excited.

Alison is just a fun character to play, and I’ve never gotten bored with her. She always does something crazy and different, and this new version of her is really special. I really like it. There’s so many layers, so many things to explore, so many things that have happened to her in the last couple of years, and so many reasons for her to be in Beacon Heights. Some that she didn’t expect, and some that she’s really trying to achieve.

Powell: What’s the big difference for her? What’s changed since the last time we saw her?

Pieterse: She’s a true adult… she’s got really good intentions. She’s coming to Beacon Heights to prove to her friends and her family that she can be a better person. She wants to get her degree, move back to Rosewood and teach at Hollis–which is our college–be a better wife, be a better mom. Things don’t exactly go as planned. It’s the first murder in Beacon Heights, and this perfect little town isn’t so perfect.

So her “spidey senses” kind of tingle. She’s like, “Something’s not right here.” Unfortunately, she’s right. There’s a lot of things that go down, some that I can’t say because I’ll get fired.

But what I would love to mention is just the fact that it’s kind of timely. A lot of what happens is about surveillance, a lot of the dark things that happen is due to surveillance. I feel like we’re dealing with that right now. It’s kind of like big brother. Who’s watching, is it for good reasons, bad reasons? Beacon Heights has something called Beacon Guard, which is supposed to keep you safe, but it’s a little terrifying because they watch everything you do, everywhere. And Alison doesn’t like that. She suspects that there’s some foul play happening and she might be right.

I think what’s really great about Alison now is that she’s grown so much. So what I love about PLL is not only did I grow up filming it, but a lot of our fans grew up with us. We’ve all kind of been on this journey with Alison and I think it’s great to see her come so far. I know that a lot of the relationships that she has have been really important to them, and they’ve been really important to me. I appreciate them for following my story and continuing to be on the Alison train. I think that we’ve really done it justice and I can’t wait to hear what you think about it.

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