Merritt Patterson Talks Olivia Matheson and RAVENSWOOD

Merritt Patterson plays the twin sister of Luke Matheson, Olivia, on the ABC Family new drama series Ravenswood. Olivia tries desperately to hold her family together after the tragic murder of her father, even as she watches them all unravel. She herself begins to doubt, when her mother’s secrets are revealed.

Merritt got on the phone for a press junket recently, and talked about her role on Ravenswood.

On Being Olivia Matheson:

“Olivia and I are really similar, which was great as far as our tendencies and how we deal with things.  I think I brought more of a subtle characteristic to her because she is prom queen. And I think when you think of prom queen, you think of over-the-top.  It’s in my nature to be a little bit more subtle, so I think I added that to her character.”

“I like that she’s a very caring person; she cares a lot about all the people around her, and she’s very protective of them all, and I enjoy that about her.  She’s not this crazy popular girl who lives in her own world. Yet she’s still homecoming queen.”

“She’s really floating right now.  She’s unsure, grasping for anything at this point because it’s all new. She’s constantly making new revelations, like “Oh, that’s what I used to love – it doesn’t mean so much to me now,” and “Oh, this person that I had so much in common with now feels so different”. So she’s constantly dealing with that.  The curse isn’t a good thing, but at least she has something with those five people that she can connect to. ”

What Can Fans Expect from Olivia?

“Olivia’s kind of in a different social bracket at the beginning of the show, which is why I think she’s a little bit more separate; but obviously, as the curse continues and they continue to find out more, she’s brought together with the other four.  She continues to do research on her father’s murder, and she also has a supernatural experience for herself coming up, which is pretty exciting; so I’m looking forward to both those events.”

“I think that’s what’s really great about our show and what’s similar to Pretty Little Liars — are the cliffhangers, twists and turns. So you can definitely expect lots of those; and I love that.  It keeps you on the edge of your seat and it keeps it interesting.  I’m excited, and I think people will respond well to that.”

On Olivia and Luke:

“Their relationship right now is strained.  I think the whole family is strained.  They’re going through a lot with the murder of their father, and her mom has been hiding out.  She’s obviously struggling, and I think Luke deals with it by being very angry.  I don’t think he knows how to deal with it; neither does Olivia, but she’s trying to pretend like everything’s okay.  I don’t know if it has fully hit her yet, but I think their relationship is very strained because of that.  She doesn’t understand Luke’s process and how he’s dealing with the events.  There’s some miscommunication there, but ultimately they’re twins. They’re family and they love each other and they’ll always have each other’s back.  I think it’s like any relationship with siblings.  I think it’s very up and down. ”

“I think Luke and Olivia are trying to figure out who murdered their father, because it doesn’t seem like the cops or anyone in the town is. They’re really pushing to find out who did it, so they start to take things into their own hands and they find clues along the way.  Once the murderer is revealed, that will obviously help and make people realize. ”

On the Set of Ravenswood:

“The great thing about New Orleans is that it’s on location, and the locations here are amazing. There’s so much charm and history to this city. We’ve filmed a lot in a graveyard, which surprisingly isn’t that creepy, they’re really beautiful.  We have filmed in an abandoned hospital and we heard stories that part of it was haunted. There was water dripping from the ceiling and people have heard footsteps. So there had definitely been a few times we were like, “Oh, did you hear that?” I’m sure we’re getting ourselves worked up, but it’s for sure on our minds. ”

“The locations are huge, and they play a huge part because it’s so much easier to get into that headspace and that energy when you’re surrounded by an actual location that adds itself to the scene.  That’s helpful, and the writing is wonderful too, so it’s pretty easy, and once we all get into the scene and we start going, we build off of each other and that helps as well. ”

“We all get along really well, and I think we’re really lucky to have the cast that we have, especially the core five. Everyone’s done a lot and they’re well rounded in all different aspects of television and film.  Tyler obviously has been through this already with ABC Family and Pretty Little Liars, so he understands how the whole process works. That’s all new to me, so it’s good to have him and watch how he deals with it. Then, obviously Meg (Foster), who plays Mrs. Grunwald, has been in the industry for a while, and she’s really talented.  Having her around is really great, and hearing her stories and having her opinions. She’s a really great person to have if you have any questions or if you’re concerned about something, talking to her is really great. She’s wonderful.  I actually have a scene with her that we just filmed and it is my first one-on-one scene with her. She’s so intense that she would throw me and I would lose my lines because she was just in my face. It was crazy and wonderful, she’s brilliant. ”

Follow Merritt on her Facebook page and tweet her (@merrittpattrsn) while you’re watching Ravenswood, Monday nights at 8/7c on ABC Family.