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Liberato opens up about her much larger role opposite Kaley Cuoco, Chris Messina and Tom Bateman for the show’s second season — and reveals a pinch-me moment with fellow Scream killer Matthew Lillard.
Scream VI alum Liana Liberato is caught up in the middle of another serial killer saga, thanks to a much bigger role in the second season of Peacock’s Based on a True Story.
The dark comedy, which stars Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina as a California couple who start a podcast after befriending a real-life serial killer, is back this week, with Liberato’s character Tory moving to the forefront.
While she was on the sidelines most of Season 1, the finale ended with a cliffhanger revealing Tory was in a secret relationship with Tom Bateman’s killer, Matt Pierce. That thread will continue when the new episodes drop Friday — with the trailer for Season 2 teasing an engagement between the pair, as Tory remains in the dark about her lover’s predilection for murder.
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“I was really looking forward to it,” Liberato told TooFab of her expanded role. “I mean, when I signed onto the show, I was sort of prepped for a potential arc on Season 2. They were like, ‘We’ll meet Tory, but we might not get to know her unless we get another season.'”
“Ultimately, I loved the script, but I also was excited to work with Chris, Kaley, and Tom. I just think they are so talented and so fun,” she continued. “I was stoked, I couldn’t wait to get on set and work with everybody. It exceeded my expectations. Sometimes we would walk off set and be like, ‘Did they get anything?’, because we were just laughing the whole time.”
Of course, her character’s relationship with Matt will change up the dynamic between her and her on-screen sister, Ava, played by Cuoco. Ava is very well aware of Matt’s extracurricular activities — and one can only assume Tory dating a serial killer isn’t what she hoped for her sister.
“Yeah, it certainly causes a bit of a rift between Ava and Tory,” teased Liberato. “Ava sort of grew up taking care of Tory and she wants the best for Tory. She wants more for Tory than she had for herself. So, Tory making this insane veer into this relationship is horrifying to her.”
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“But also, she has to tread lightly because with a sister dynamic,” she added. “If you say, ‘Don’t do that!’, she’s going to be like, ‘I’m going to do it.’ So, she has to be a little supportive. It’s funny because Ava especially is the only person that is really onto Matt. She can read him well.”
Liberato also teased a “darker” feeling overall for the new episodes.
“Theres a mystery. You know, I think in season 1, Matt was the threat and — not like Matt isn’t the threat this season, but there is also more,” she hinted. “There is so much unknown, and it definitely is darker. I think that there were a lot of tricks played in Season 1 on our audience. You would be watching a scene, and suddenly it wasn’t real. I think that fans should look out for moments like that … You’re probably going to think that they’re not real, but they are.”
Watch the video above to see what being on the show also made Liberato realize about the way she consumes true crime in her own life.
Liberato’s Scream Family
Before appearing in Based on a True Story Season 1, Liberato was coming off filming Scream VI, where she — SPOILER ALERT — was unmasked as one of the killers. The film saw her playing the secret sister to Jack Quaid’s killer from the fifth movie, as she, Dermot Mulroney, and Jack Champion were all revealed as Ghostface.
In the time since playing Quinn — and getting killed off in the same movie — Liberato has gotten a chance to meet some of the other actors who have spent time behind the Ghostface mask.
“Yeah, I have, they’re wonderful. It’s kind of weird to say because we’re all crazy,” she told TooFab.
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“I got to meet Skeet Ulrich on Scream 6, which is awesome. He’s so lovely. I just recently met Matthew Lillard, which he is the coolest person on the planet and such an icon,” she continued. “I met him in Florida, and I met him with Mikey Madison and Tony [Revolori]. There are so many of us!”
“Whenever you get the Scream people around each other, whether we’ve been in the same movie, we like gravitate towards each other,” she shared, before opening up about an “out of body experience” with Lillard. “I found myself playing cornhole and drinking cocktails with Matthew Lillard. I was like, ‘Wow, this is really going to go in the books for sure!'”
Based on a True Story Season 2 drops in full November 21 on Peacock.
