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?"

After signing on to star in Hulu's "The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox," the actor only had two months to prepare for the role: "It was nice to kind of have a fire under me."

"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