“This was a much happier film to shoot than ‘It,’ Lillis says of working on the horror film based on the Stephen King novel. Toss in the dark cable drama “Sharp Objects” and the horror film “Gretel and Hansel,” and Lillis was looking for a slight change. She made “Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase” between starring as Beverly Marsh in the feature film “It” and filming the sequel, “It: Chapter Two,” opening later this year. Playing a character so positive and energetic in a light family mystery was a welcomed change for Lillis. She had not been on a board before filming started and learned what she calls “just enough” to make it look like Nancy could zip around a town with ease. Lillis laughs at the mention of her skateboarding scenes. You don’t see that often, and I feel like that is more realistic.” “When you read the books, she is like this really old, mature girl, and in actuality she’s just a teenager who’s trying to live her life and be with her family. She doesn’t attack the mystery alone but gets help from her two new friends (Mackenzie Graham, Zoe Renee) and her new frenemy, Helen (Laura Slade Wiggins). It is up to Nancy to come up with a logical reason behind floating lights, mysterious creatures and a house that comes to life to save the day. Her curiosity takes over when she hears that a local woman (Linda Lavin) is living in a haunted house. It doesn’t take long for Nancy to find some excitement in the sleepy city. The research helped her find clues to playing the character in the film, which features Nancy and her father (Sam Trammell) moving from Chicago to the small town of River Heights. So, I started working on them,” Lillis says. Now I have a parts of my room stacked with Nancy Drew books. “Once I started working on the project, my aunts and uncles and family got me all these Nancy Drew books.

That changed as soon as Lillis got the part.

Nancy Drew was not a complete mystery to Sophia Lillis before she was cast to play the female sleuth in the new feature film “Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase.” She had heard of the crime-solver, but the 17-year-old had not read any of the books in the series that started in 1930.

Cast of nancy drew movie