alike.com.ph—Joe Goldberg and Peach Salinger aren’t exactly the best of friends in the Netflix adaptation of Caroline Kepnes’ bestselling novel, “You.” In fact, they’re the fiercest of competition.

The charming bookstore manager (played by Penn Badgley) falls in love with Beck (Elizabeth Lail), an aspiring and struggling writer. They first meet at Mooney’s, where Beck buys a copy of “Desperate Characters” after Joe’s recommendation. From their first interaction, Joe seems to be overly observant—alarmingly accurate, in fact—as he tries to interpret Beck’s flirtatious hints.

He soon meets Beck’s friends, and the Queen Bee of the group is none other than Peach Salinger (Shay Mitchell)—this extremely loaded Brown alumna, who also happens to be JD Salinger’s relative. First off, Joe isn’t exactly a fan of the “Catcher in the Rye” writer—just cause he thinks he can see straight through the phonies of his world (how ironic). He called Salinger’s readers pretentious. And that prejudice doesn’t really change towards the other Salingers of the show.

But it’s precisely this tension, this undeniable friction between these two characters that Penn Badgley and Shay Mitchell enjoyed portraying. Shay, who became a household name after being part of “Pretty Little Liars,” shared she enjoyed being the mean girl. “I’ve played such nice, sweet characters for many years and to be able to play on the other side—I finally get why people love being the antagonist,” the actress shared at the “You” press conference held at The Peninsula Manila earlier today. The pair was flown to the Philippines for a quick “You” fan tour.

“I have to say that I really did enjoy playing her truthfulness. As brash as it was, she was very honest and I admire that element to her,” Shay added.

According to Penn, he’s been inclined to see the best in the other characters of the show. He described Beck’s controlling friend as an extremely smart, extremely strong female lead. “I think Peach, in a way, is kind of the best person on the show—she really is. Cause she sees Joe for who he is when others couldn’t,” Penn said.

Compared to the psychopath he portrays, he said Peach seemed to be the least jaded, and the most pragmatic of the lot. Penn actually hates it whenever fans and viewers of the show point out that the two characters’ lunacy and obsessions are at the same level. “She’s the only one that sees things clearly. She knows what she wants and she goes for it. She’s extremely honest,” the actor explained.

Shay also mentioned that after reading the script for the first time, she already imagined how her scenes with Penn would map out. They both agreed that their snarky and scathing exchanges on screen turned out to be most fun they had with their characters on set.

Netflix’s “You” is a twisted story of finding the one. So twisted that it’s recorded three deaths in the name of love.

“It’s funny, I am literally having to kill him with my eyes,” Shay said of Joe Goldberg. “And what he literally does is kill people.”

Photos by Raniel Hernandez. “You” is now streaming on Netflix.

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