An inside look at Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin.
Calling all mystery/drama/horror lovers!
The much-loved teen show Pretty Little Liars is back with for a spinoff featuring a brand new cast and storyline:
Twenty years ago, a series of tragic events almost ripped the town of Millwood apart.
In the present day, a new group of teenage girls are tormented by an unknown assailant, forced to pay for the secret sin of their parents - as well as their own!
Dun dun dunnnnn…… Hooked yet?
Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin stars, Bailee Madison (who plays Imogen Adams) and Chandler Kinney (who plays Tabby Hayworthe), chat to Billie about their new show.
Q: How did you react when you found out you got the role?
BM: I was on set [when I found out]. I woke up at 5am for call time to head to the set and right when I woke up I just had that gut feeling of “I'm going to know today”. I was in the hair and makeup chair. I just finished my makeup, and I got a call. I was like “it's either going to be the heartbreaker or all my dreams are coming true”. I get emotional thinking about it. I answered the phone, and it was my team. It was also David Rapoport who casted the show and he told me, and I just immediately started bawling. I’d take the opportunity between takes to call my family and tell them the news. It just felt so surreal and so special. I was also speaking to Roberto and Lindsey in the middle of takes too. It was a beautiful day. It was a year two days ago that I found out that I got the role of Imogen, so it all just feels really overwhelming and surreal.
CK: I was also on set. I was in Toronto, Canada filming a Disney movie. I remember this had to be the end of June. It was my last test for HBO Max. I think it was a Friday and I knew that I would know either way before the weekend. So yeah, Wednesday rolled around Thursday, and I was like, “Okay, it's today, it's happening Friday.” It was pretty late into the day. I remember we were in between setups. I was like mid-scene, and I got a call from my manager and I'm like, “Oh my goodness. Okay, this is it. This is it”. So, I ran into my little dressing room, I took the call and my team did this thing I hate where they are like “Unfortunately, it's not going any further because you got the part!” It’s so cruel! I said never do that again.
It was surreal. It was everything I wanted. I tried not to cry because I was in this very elaborate, three-hour makeup process so I was like, “Okay, I cannot shed a tear right now”, so I am sucking everything in. I remember that day it was pretty amazing because the night shoot got cancelled because of the rain, so my castmates and I went to a park nearby out in the rain playing spike ball. It was just really fun. We stayed up all night. I watched SpongeBob and I ordered pancakes at like 7am in the morning.
Q: Do you relate to any of the characters at all?
BM: It’s Imogen for me. I think I love her so much because she's the first character that I've truly struggled to actually find anything within myself about. I think the only thing that I can grasp and understand is the love that she has for the people around her and the fact that she would do anything for them. I think the fact that she seeks the truth and is very loyal. Those qualities of hers I would like to think I have inside myself, they're all morals and values that have been instilled in me.
But the rest of her - the trauma, physicality of wearing a pregnancy stomach and being pregnant and what would that be like as a 16-year-old in school. All of the trauma that she's dealt with at a young age, thankfully, I cannot relate to by any means. It was a lot of removing myself and just trying to understand her to the best of my ability and everything that she was going through, which makes it really fun and a wonderful challenge and now I have such care for her.
CK: I really resonate with a lot of who Tabby is. I think spending nine months really sinking into her and her world really is an experience where I find a lot of myself throughout her journey. I think she is someone who can be a bit jaded at times. She is not an open book by any means. She definitely keeps her cards close to her chest. Those are qualities I think that I can sometimes have. I think it's a bit of a defence mechanism. That's something I certainly relate to with Tabby. Much like Imogen and the other liars, she is committed to finding the truth. She's very determined, very driven, nothing will stop her. That's definitely a quality I relate to as well.
Q. Tabby advocates for what she feels is right, for example, she calls out the lack of women of colour in horror and also how sexist the genre can be. Is this something you’ve seen Chandler?
CK: Absolutely and I feel like the male gaze is so prevalent specifically in the horror genre. What I love about our show Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin is that it subverts that and what I mean is you have a women-led show on screen and off screen, which is really lovely for us as actors to really be able to feel vulnerable and stepping into our characters and feel safe and creating and living in this world. But these characters are multi-dimensional, they have agency, they have autonomy. If they are not in positions of power, they are actively pursuing their power and I think that's just a beautiful thing to represent. With these characters, you are able to empathise and identify with them, you can see yourselves in these girls. That is the implications of having a show that subverts that male gaze and gives women the stage to live their truths and to tell their stories. I think that's really beautiful.
Tabby tackles that head on in her film projects, and even in class she is quick to call out racism, microaggressions and misogyny, she will come after you, which I love, and I wish I was more of that in my personal life. I think it's so easy to be a little bit more passive or not even know how to respond in a situation like that. She's definitely a fiery one. She inspires me every day in my own personal life too, to find my voice and speak up when I feel I need to.
Q. How was filming in the pandemic?
BM: There was a period where we went into lockdown and we were all at a standstill, I don't think any of us knew what was going to happen. So the fact that we are able to do what we love, and still ensure that our cast and our crew is safe, and that we're not putting anyone at risk, that is a privilege in itself to get to do that. We obviously had our COVID department, we were not able to really fly home ever, just to be extra safe. So it involved testing every day.
I think it was also just kind of doing our part collectively as a crew and as a cast too, obviously, understand that your mental health is really important so you need moments to breathe as well but at the same time, it’s not just taking care of yourself for yourself, but understanding that if I were to get COVID, the show would be on pause, and our crew would be on pause.
I think that there's something about COVID that it's done to this business, or I think it's brought back collaboration and what a family is and if you don't have our entire crew together, you can't create what you're excited to share with people. Although the precautions were crazy, we did it, and we had our show, and everyone was healthy and good and I am very, very proud of everyone.
Q. Do you feel the horrors in the show have a double meaning?
BM: Yes, in the show, it’s not just about A, we also lean into the real-life horrors of this world and what that can look like. From the first conversation they made it very clear they were like the true horror of this show is what people and individuals can deal with and what that can look like and how that can affect a human being. So, I think that's what makes our show so dark. It's not just leaning into one world, it's also opening your mind, and kind of exposing you and making you a bit vulnerable as you watch it. So I am glad that that did resonate and hopefully allows people to think and feel seen as they watch our show.
Q. How was it preparing for the role of Tabby?
CK: For me preparing for Tabby involved quite literally watching a lot of horror movies because I definitely grew up being a bit of a scaredy cat, so I wasn't really introduced to horror until right before I actually booked the role. I started with The Conjuring Universe and that whole series of movies there and I just jumped right into the deep end. Tabby being so well versed and educated in that field, it was definitely a challenge for me to even get half to the level of where she is mentally in that world. Because that is the lens through which she sees her world, everything is a reference. For example, she can see a frame of a shot of a horror movie and already understand its importance and meaning. So that was a lot of my preparation.
Q. What was it like wearing a fake pregnancy belly, Bailee?
BM: I will tell a funny story of the first day of filming which was actually the spirit dance. This was our first day meeting all of our incredible background talent who not only were going to be a part of the show from the start, but entirely through the scope of the show, with a high school show, I think it’s important to see recurring faces. They were so brilliant and cared so deeply. But I remember walking in for the first time to a room of 200 people and everybody was whispering and one of them said “Bailee Madison is pregnant” and immediately I was like “Hi guys, thank you for being here. We're stoked to have you on the show by the way this [points to belly] is fake. So shhh!” That was funny.
Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin is streaming now on Neon.
