You may know her best as the infamous Alison from Freeform’s hit series Pretty Little Liars. Now, Sasha Pieterse is starring in yet another juicy leading role, but this time on the big screen. The Image of You is out this week and is based on the international best-selling novel by Adele Parks MBE. We recently caught up with both Pieterse and Parks in a paired interview to learn more about the feature film adaptation that will surely turn heads up for more reasons than one.
For starters, Pieterse is playing not one, but two roles: twin sisters Zoe and Anna, as a twisted love triangle with a handsome lad named Nick (Parker Young) quickly develops following an online dating connection. To ruin any surprises here would be cruel and unusual.
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Anyone familiar with one of Pieterse’s claims to fame might see shades of Alison from Pretty Little Liars when they ultimately experience all that The Image of You has to offer. The versatile actress plays twin sisters here with wildly different personalities, one of which certainly might look familiar to fans.
“Zoey in particular, she’s very powerful and confident. She takes over every scene. And I thought that’s a nod to Alison, of course,” Pieterse told us. “Alison was ridiculous in so many ways, and she did take control of every situation that she was in, which is so fun as an actress. It takes a bit of getting used to because you have to own it, or people don’t believe it. And so, in a way, it’s this weird, empowering confidence-booster when you achieve it.” Pieterse continued:
“And I’ve seen a lot of people in the comments after [
The Image of You
] trailer say, ‘
This is grown up Alison
. This is amazing.’ Like, they want to see this crazy Alison as an adult, and that is a huge compliment because that means that they’re believing it. And I think Zoe is so fun in her unfortunate, toxic nature. It’s so entertaining to watch somebody like that… It’s like that guilty pleasure.”
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Fans of Parks’ O.G. novel will certainly have some thoughts on the choices the movie makes that may or may not stray from the source material. We were curious how Parks felt about the direction the feature film ended up taking. “I was very lucky because from pitching the idea, initially to [producer] Brad [Krevoy], right at the beginning, he sort of said to me, ‘No one at this stage is going to feel as passionate about this project as you do,'” Parks told MovieWeb.
“So he put me in touch with Chris Sivertson, who is the screenplay writer, and we hashed out there. And I had an idea for a different ending than the ending in the book because the ending in the book was a certain time in my writing career when I was transitioning from romantic fiction into thrillers. And at the time, my publishers were kind of nervous that I was going really dark. So, my initial idea that the book had was shelved, and we softened it for the book. So I had this huge opportunity to go, ‘I’ve got a really dark thought. Let’s bring that out.'”
‘Punch After Punch’ and Love for P.T. Anderson
To hear novelist Parks’ optimism for cinema is heartwarming, especially since there will forever be the clash of “Is the book better than the movie?” and vice versa. “I keep saying to people: Please don’t feel you have to choose between, ‘I’m a book person,’ or ‘I’m a movie person,’ because I hear that debate often,” Parks told us. “You’re allowed to like both things. That’s like saying, ‘I like bacon, but I don’t like sausage.’ You can like both things, it’s fine… In a book, it’s 300 pages. If I was reading that aloud, that would take 17 to 19 hours. We have 90 minutes, so it’s got to be something different. It’s got to be punch after punch after punch. So I was really excited about where we got to with the ending.”
Fans of Pieterse’s work will also remember her standout role in an Oscar-nominated P.T. Anderson picture, Inherent Vice. Her drugged-up scene also featured Joaquin Phoenix and Martin Short – talk about talent. Says Pieterse:
“It was incredible, honestly. I’m so thankful that I’ve gotten so many cool opportunities to play some really, really funky, different characters. And I don’t think I’ve ever been in an environment like that before. Working for so long in the industry, you get used to certain things and how certain things operate, good and bad. But this, walking into that set,
I had so much nervous energy because it’s all of these people that are so iconic and living legends
and who make incredible films, and you just want to live up to it, you want to feel natural in that space. And it’s very intimidating.”
She continued, “But as soon as I got on set, a lot of that faded away, and I give all that credit to Paul. When I walked in, he was barefoot in a cross-legged position with his viewfinder, full beard, so approachable… And I will say, I absolutely adore Joaquin and Martin. And Joaquin, being the type of actor that he is, also so incredible and prestigious, but I was so thankful to have met him because he masters the method actor and the real person very well.”
And, of course, Pieterse enjoyed Phoenix’s interaction with the cast and crew. “Because Joaquin is private, nobody really knows about that… and I was so happy to see him interact with the crew. He is such a good guy. He knows every single person’s name on set… And then Martin, of course, is just Martin. I mean, there’s something so iconic about him as well. And yeah, I was like, ‘Alright, I went to set, and I made out with Martin Short!'”
And going back to The Image of You, if there are any lessons or takeaways Pieterse and Parks want audiences to take away from this deliciously dark thriller, what might those be? “We want you to be entertained,” said Pieterse. “We want you to have fun. We want this to be something that you remember… These characters are so dark, so like, what can you really get out of it? And I think the answer is, what not to do, because it starts as this guy that she meets on a dating website. And I think that is so embedded in our culture now,” she explains.
“Like everybody’s on Tinder, Hinge or Bumble, whatever it is… It’s people constantly dissecting people’s profiles, and what’s real and what isn’t real. And so when these characters get engaged so fast, and they don’t know each other, it’s a warning: ‘Hey, maybe take your time. People might be crazy.'”
From Republic Pictures, The Image of You will play in select theaters and be available to buy on digital Friday, May 10, 2024.
