With Scream VI now playing in theaters nationwide, franchise newcomer Liana Liberato joined me for a Collider Ladies Night Pre-Party conversation to recap her journey from aspiring actor to becoming an unforgettable and significant new addition to Scream canon.

The sixth installment finds Tara (Jenna Ortega), Chad (Mason Gooding), and Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) in New York City for college with Sam (Melissa Barrera) tagging along to make sure her sister and friends stay safe. While Chad and Mindy opt for the dorms, Tara and Sam get an off-campus apartment and find a roommate to share it with via the internet. That roommate is Liberato’s Quinn Bailey, the daughter of an NYPD detective (Dermot Mulroney). As one might expect, a new Ghostface killer emerges in The Big Apple putting a target on everyone’s back while also making each and every one of them a potential suspect.

Image Via Paramount Pictures

During our Collider Ladies Night conversation, Liberato went back to the beginning of her acting journey and explained why she veered away from studying acting in college even though that’s a route many aspiring actors pursue.

“I feel like [my parents] never really encouraged me to play life by the book and check boxes. They were like, you don’t have to go to school. Well, I mean, obviously normal school I had to go to, but you don’t have to go to college. You can kind of pave your way in whatever way you see fit. It was kind of crazy that they were just so willing to give it a shot in Los Angeles. I’m basically an only child. I have a half sister who was already married and taken care of and out of the house when I was born, and so my life was very much treated like an only child. And I think they just had time to prioritize my dreams, which I feel really, really lucky to have had and they were just willing to kind of start a new life in LA and really dive headfirst. So I didn’t really have to wait until I was 18 and move to a new state or go to college or anything like that. I just got to kind of dive headfirst in, which I would suggest people do. It’s really intimidating, but I think it’s worth it.”

At this point, it’s abundantly clear that it was indeed well worth taking that plunge. Liberato’s been working on professional sets consistently since she was 10 years old and has amassed a stellar filmography packed with powerful titles, complex roles, and some especially talented collaborators. Which on-set experience does Liberato credit with putting her on such a path and giving her the most clarity in terms of the types of projects she’d like to do going forward? Liberato immediately pinpointed the 2010 movie Trust. She began:

“I would say one of my first more serious projects, which was a film that I did called Trust, which was directed by David Schwimmer. Catherine Keener, Clive Owen, and Viola Davis are in the film. I was 14 when I did the movie, I think I was 13 going on 14 when I was auditioning for the project and, I don’t know why, but I was like, ‘I think I’m just really ready to sink my teeth into something serious and really test myself as an actor.’ I knew the only way to do that was just to immerse myself in a really serious project and be around people that are veterans and can guide me in the right direction. And then Trust came along and it really set a high bar for me as an actor. It was also a huge learning experience for me because I had never played a role that demanded so much for me emotionally and I don’t think I really knew how to handle that or how to process it.”

Image via Millennium Films

How did she wind up overcoming that challenge? Via advice she got from co-star Catherine Keener. Liberato continued:

“I was shooting in a mall and I was sitting in a booth and Catherine Keener came up to me and she was like, ‘Are you okay?’ I was like, ‘I don’t really know.’ And she took a walk with me around the mall and kind of explained to me that this is what being an actor is. [It’s] sort of cracking your heart open and feeling things that you’re not used to feeling because you’re putting yourself in the mind of someone that has gone through something that you haven’t gone through, and you almost get these phantom feelings because of it. She really helped guide me into that not feeling weird and the sense of acceptance and openness that I really look for in jobs now.”

Liberato may have a firm handle on her craft and goals, but she’s always open to new approaches to the work and got just that from her Scream VI co-star, Dermot Mulroney.

“Someone that I really admired working with was Dermot Mulroney. He is so fearless as an actor. I know where it comes from [with] him because he’s just so seasoned and so good. And he comes on set, he knows his place, he’s so prepared, but he has so much fun and he has this fearlessness in his acting and he’s open to trying new things and saying new things. He doesn’t care what’s used, what isn’t used. The amount of versions of his character I witnessed while filming with him was so cool, and he gave an abundance of performances for Matt and Tyler to work with in the edit. So that was really cool. That was something that I was like, ‘I’m gonna take that with me.’ I need to enter my sets being overly prepared and ready to throw out any idea that I have in my head, and just being fearless about it. So that I thought was really cool.”

Image via Paramount

In addition to finding inspiration in Mulroney’s fearlessness, Liberato also credits Scream VI directors Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin with having a hugely positive influence on her own work via the trust they place in their actors. Here’s what she said when asked for a quality that makes them standout leaders on set:

“I would say their ability to make you feel like time is working for you, which I think is one of the biggest cruxes of this job is you’re always fighting against a clock. It’s a real talent to convince your actors that you’re not working against a clock. I felt like I had all the time in the world with them. And they genuinely valued my opinion about my character and wanted to give me the time and space to execute those thoughts properly. And also, the fact that they’re stepping into such a beloved franchise and I know they feel the pressure of that, and yet they are so collaborative. They don’t act as if they’re being crushed by any type of expectation. They trust you with the work they’ve given you and they want you to have input. It’s just really nice. It makes me feel really valued as an actor. They make you feel very valued.”

You probably know what comes next in this interview — spoilers! If you’ve seen Scream VI and are ready for them, you can read all about Liberato’s journey with the new movie right here. You can also watch Liberato’s full Collider Ladies Night Pre-Party interview in the video at the top of this article or listen to the conversation in podcast form below. (Be warned! Both include the non-spoiler half of the interview and the spoiler half with very clear spoiler alerts baked into the conversation and in the video graphics.)