"I was able to ask her as many questions as I possibly could,” said Grace Van Patten of preparing to portray Amanda Knox. "She was extremely open with me."

Van Patten tells PEOPLE she remembers worrying, "What would [Knox] think of me, this random actress portraying her in a very traumatic time of her life?"

"She finally honors that young person that I was and the person I am today," Knox tells PEOPLE of the actress, who helped tell the story of her wrongful murder conviction