Warning: This post contains spoilers for the HBO Max series “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin.”
Mallory Bechtel pulled double duty for HBO Max’s “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin,” playing twins Karen and Kelly Beasley. While Karen died in Episode 2, the rest of the season toyed with whether Kelly was really the twin who was still alive, or if it was Karen all along. For Bechtel, this meant adding nuances to her acting performance to differentiate between the twins, even as Kelly began to act like her sister as a way to cope with the trauma of losing her.
Before her death, Karen was considered Millwood High School’s resident mean girl, and Kelly was almost always willing to back her sister up. This created some natural tension between the twins and the five Liars of the HBO Max series, which continued even after Karen died. But as they all waded through their rocky relationship, the girls found they had more in common with each other — Liars and Kelly — than they expected.
In a new interview with TheWrap, Bechtel addressed Kelly’s redemption arc and where she’d like to see her character go from here, if the show is renewed for a Season 2.
“I was so grateful that they didn’t just throw Kelly in the back and say, ‘Oh, she’ll just keep being a bitch for the rest of the season,’” Bechtel told TheWrap of her character’s arc, which saw her begin bonding with the others when they realized their similar traumas.
TheWrap: I really started to enjoy Kelly’s redemption arc with the other girls. I was glad to see them all find a common ground.
Mallory Bechtel: Yeah, that was so much fun. We all met on the first day, and we were all such great friends and I was just always so jealous of all of the scenes they got to do together because I only just have these one-on-one scenes with either my dad or with Zaria, who I love working with, or with Bailey. So the [Halloween] party scene was one of my favorite days on set ever because it was the first time I got to also hang out with the girls.
What do you think helped Kelly see a little more eye-to-eye with the girls?
Well, I think Kelly and Imogen have had this friendship that they haven’t been keeping up [with], but they’ve been close friends since they were little. Kelly’s last interaction with Imogen [before the finale] was on the swings in Episode 3, and she totally confides in this girl who she has been nasty to, and still Imogen is able to put aside their differences and hug her and comfort her. So I think Imogen is definitely the gatekeeper into that group of girls for Kelly. I think a big part of it is Episode 8, when Imogen comes to Kelly and shares this huge, very traumatic secret with her and asks for her help and Kelly knows in the back of her mind, ‘Imogen has been there for me. She was there for me when I was really having to cope with the guilt of being responsible for my sister’s death.’
I really love seeing them rise above those differences when they realize that women supporting women is so much deeper than their past negative experiences with each other.
That’s such an amazing theme in our show, and I always say that’s what I loved about the original. You love all the creepy stuff and you love the horror, but it’s the friendship between the main girls and the way that they are always supporting each other, that’s where the heart of the show is at. I was so grateful that they didn’t just throw Kelly in the back and say, ‘Oh, she’ll just keep being a bitch for the rest of the season.’ She also got to be a part of that while having her bitchy moments.
You mentioned working with Zaria, and your scenes together are so great. How did you both develop the relationship between Faran and Karen/Kelly?
Well, I think we just leaned on each other a lot. We both love getting to be a little nasty. Faran and Kelly both really go for the jugular at times. It’s been fun to read people’s reactions to those scenes, because the writing is so great that if you take a step back and you think, ‘Well from Faran’s perspective, she should totally be saying these things.’ Then you think ‘Well, if that’s actually Kelly, then how awful, of course she’s going to bite back.’ I think a lot of it was stuff we come up with in the moment. We both approached each scene, like, ‘Let’s just try something different.’ You have to have fun with those scenes. And I certainly did. I know Zaria loved them too. We love coming for each other.
I wanted to also ask specifically about the Halloween party scene in Episode 5 with you and Zaria. I think I changed my mind four or five times about whether I thought you were Karen or Kelly.
That scene in particular is so cloudy in my memory because we actually did a reshoot for it. So there’s two versions of it that exist in my head. But for me, I just would think ‘I’m Kelly’ the whole time. I tried to come up with some complicated story, but to make it simpler for myself, I was like, ‘They told me I’m Kelly. I’m Kelly.’ Any ambiguous moment that you see, it was actually most likely the director stopping and just saying, ‘OK, and for sh—s and giggles be Karen now.’ I can tell you definitely when I say, ‘You just be a queen, girl,’ I had been doing it as Kelly and they were like, ‘Now just do it as Karen.’ It’s much more calculated. It was hard to conceptualize. Why would Kelly be trying to come off as Karen? Later in the show there is definitely more of that. Kelly is purposely trying to like Karen, especially in Episode 6, but I had a lot of help.
In the latter half of the season, we also start to really see why Kelly might be acting like Karen to cope with her trauma, especially after her dad makes that horrendous comment about how she should have died instead.
In Episodes 4 and 5, Kelly is trying to pave her own way … and Faran is the first person she really opens up to about her own personal struggles with self harm. And then she comes to this party, and it turns out Faran is not on her side and she’s not going to be there for her. Kelly’s awful in Episode 6, but there is a switch in her mind that’s like, ‘Karen was right about Faran. She never liked her and I’m going to do justice to her memory.’
In terms of a potential Season 2, what are your hopes for Kelly?
I hope Kelly sticks with this group of friends. That would be ideal. I hope she finds some sort of passion. I’m interested to see if she’s gonna keep throwing herself into dance. I don’t know if it’s just because I’m a musical theater girl, but I think it would be interesting if Kelly went and did the school play. She’s still got a lot of trauma to work through. It would be fun for her to explore these friendships with these new girls and hopefully she can stay on the right path, but who knows? I’ll be shocked if Kelly doesn’t encounter more drama.
