Lily Collins Had An "Awful" Time Getting In Character For Controversial Ted Bundy Movie

There's been a lot of talk about how recent adaptations of Ted Bundy's story have romanticized the idea of serial killers, but Lily Collins says filming her movie was not a walk in the park. The actress plays Liz Kendall in the Zac Efron-led Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, which just premiered at Sundance Film Festival, and in conversation with Variety, she admitted to having a difficult time getting into character for such a dark film.

"I actually had an awful time in prep for it," she told the outlet. "I woke up every single night at 3 or 4 a.m. for a month. I was woken up with visions of destruction around rooms, logs, and broken glass."

What makes these visions so stunning is that Collins had purposefully not looked at any crime scene photos, and it wasn't long before what was happening in her dreams came to life on set. She admits she wondered if something otherworldly or subconscious was happening with her head.

"I told my mom that I had been woken up by all these images and I said 'There's probably so many people trying to get in there right now that are no longer here,'" she remembered. "And she's like, 'I mean it could be Ted.'"

Supernatural or not, this just speaks to the commitment Collins had to the role, which Efron told E! was clear whenever he watched the actress on set.

"I remember a few days into filming, I just came to work to watch on set because [Lily] was having scenes with Haley Joel Osment, and I was watching her performance and I was blown away," Efron said. "She was bringing it, and this was, like, the fourth of fifth day of filming. I was like, I really need to step up my game. Lily is killing it."

Still, the film remains controversial, as a few critics have even deemed it "shockingly pointless."