Lucy Hale, from “Pretty Little Liars” to “Truth or Dare”

Multi-talented and dynamic, Lucy Hale captured the attention of millions as the star of Freeform’s smash-hit series Pretty Little Liars. For the role of Aria Montgomery, Hale won the People’s Choice Award for Favorite Cable TV Actress in 2014.

Now, Lucy Hale joins Tyler Posey (TV’s Teen Wolf) in leading the cast of Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare, a supernatural thriller from Blumhouse Productions (Happy Death Day, Get Out, Split). A harmless game of “Truth or Dare” among friends turns deadly when someone—or something—begins to punish those who tell a lie—or refuse the dare.

“We were so lucky to get Lucy and Tyler,” states director Jeff Wadlow. “They are lovely people, and after having gone through this grueling process together, I consider them great friends. They’re artists, and their ability to convey emotion is so authentic, so finely tuned. They have been working since they were kids and brought all of that experience and talent to our film; they delivered intense, thoughtful, funny, performances.”

Auditioning isn’t just for the cast, it’s also for the actors to see if they want to work with the director. “During her audition, Lucy blew us out of the room,” lauds Wadlow. “She’s insanely talented, and we knew we had our female lead as soon as she finished the scene.”

The heart of her tight-knit group of friends, Olivia (Hale) cares more about helping the world at large than she does about taking care of herself. She wants to spend her spring break building houses for the less fortunate, but her best friend, Markie, who she’s known since she was little, convinces her to go on vacation to Rosarito Beach in Mexico. When Olivia and her friends get back—and terrifying moments can no longer be brushed off as coincidences—she has no choice but to accept that the game is real, and that it’s followed them home. Now it’s up to her to convince her friends that this is happening; if she doesn’t, people are going to lose their lives.

What interested the actress was the deep bond between the young women who are the core of the story. Hale reveals: “Whenever I read a script, I come up with a backstory for my character. I imagined that Olivia and Markie grew up on the same street. Their parents were friends, and they took dance classes together. They’ve been through all of the stepping stones with each other. They fight like sisters, but at the end of the day they’re blood and will always have each other’s back.”

Hale appreciated that Wadlow allowed the game to get more and more twisted. One of her more memorable moments of production was when the characters try and trick the trickster demon who’s forcing them to play. “Everyone thinks, ‘all we have to do is tell the truth and we’ll be fine!’ But they find out that if two people choose truth, the next one has to do a dare. It gets very dark. Earlier in the story, Markie tells Olivia, ‘I’ll break your hand if you touch me again!’ When Olivia is forced to take a dare, she has to do it, or Markie will die. It just escalates from there.”

In Philippine cinemas May 9, Truth or Dare is distributed in the Philippines by United International Pictures through Columbia Pictures.