Bailee Madison was one of the busiest child actors in Hollywood. Photo / Supplied
Bailee Madison was one of the busiest child actors in Hollywood. Photo / Supplied
Bailee Madison was one of the busiest child actors in Hollywood, having starred in a string of major films since she was just 6.
The US actor, whose early on-screen credits included lead parts in Bridge to Terabithia (2007) and the Adam Sandler-Jennifer Aniston-led romcom Just Go With It (2011), is now a 22-year-old young woman transitioning into her debut mature role.
Madison takes the lead in the upcoming Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin – a spinoff to the incredibly popular drama, which debuted in 2010.
In the new 10-part teen thriller, which hits streaming on Binge on July 29, Madison portrays Imogen Adams, a pregnant schoolgirl dealing with a whole lot of emotional trauma.
And the mysterious "A" – the masked assailant who terrorised the characters in the original series – returns for the updated chapter to stalk the new cohort of "Liars", which includes Chandler Kinney of Disney Channel fame, as well as rising stars Maia Reficco, Malia Pyles and Zaria.
She starred alongside Selena Gomez and David Henrie in Disney's Wizards of Waverly Place. Photo / Getty Images
It's quite the leap from the innocent roles of her youth, but Madison tells news.com.au she's ready to show her maturity on screen.
She said: "I think for me with this show coming out, it feels deeply personal because I do look at this show as a next chapter, hopefully for my life and as an introduction to myself as a young woman," she says.
"My character, when we meet her, and as an actor, it was an immediate dive into the world that she was experiencing, which is a whole lot of tragedy. A lot of pain. And so for me, obviously, that was going to be a really big challenge, but I think that's what excited me so much.
"I was really looking for something that was so opposite and so far away and removed from anything else that I had done, so I'm just really grateful for the support and I hope everyone loves it and that I get to keep doing what I love and I get to keep growing up with you guys."
Madison has racked up almost 60 acting credits since she first broke into showbiz in the 2006 thriller film Lonely Hearts, alongside John Travolta, Salma Hayek and Jared Leto.
In fact, she scored her first acting gig long before that, starring in a television commercial for US supermarket chain Office Depot aged just 2 weeks.
The Florida native admits she felt an element of fatigue in her early teens after years of auditioning, learning lines and long days on set.
"There definitely was a moment when I had where I was like, 'Does this bring me joy? Am I happy?'," she says.
"Thankfully, I have a family, and my mum is so amazing that I knew that in two seconds, if I said, 'I don't wanna do this any more', I wouldn't have to.
"But if I'm being honest and truthful, I love this business. I love being on set. I love being surrounded by a crew that becomes family. That is my safe place. That is my home. So to not have that would be the worst breakup of all time."
Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin was co-produced and co-written by Riverdale creator Roberto Aguirre Sacasa, alongside his Chilling Adventures With Sabrina co-writer Lindsay Calhoon Bring.
Aguirre-Sacasa was considered a pioneer in elevating the uber-popular teen drama genre with the 2017 debut of Netflix's Riverdale; lauded for bringing a moody and sophisticated depth to the high school setting.
One of his aims is to progress a genre that more often than not looked the same in the early 2000s, but he won't hide away from paying homage to the well-defined tropes that shaped the teen-centred shows he adored.
"There are certain tropes in YA [young adult] dramas, the love triangle for instance, there are certain tropes in horror movies ... I happen to love all those things and I think with any show that's a genre show, you want to honour those tropes and hopefully deconstruct them," he says.
"Most of the horror movies we loved and grew up with were directed by male directors, and were trafficked in the male gaze ... Objectifying women, always shot from the point of view of the killer, often with women in compromising positions.
"I think it's about celebrating tropes because we all love them, they're familiar and they work, but it's about finding a unique way to sell it to subvert them or add a new dimension."
Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin hits Neon on July 29
