Joey King takes on a type of role that we’ve never seen her in before for Hulu’s The Princess.

On the heels of her last film The In-Between, King stars as a royal with secret fighting skills in the upcoming dark fantasy film.

The film centers on a “strong-willed princess who refuses to wed the cruel sociopath to whom she is betrothed, and is kidnapped and locked in a remote tower of her father’s castle. With her scorned, vindictive suitor intent on taking her father’s throne, the princess must protect her familyand save the kingdom.’

While speaking with Shadow and Act about playing your not-so-typical fairy tale princess, the actress revealed that taking on the role was a big stretch for her.

“It was one of the craziest things I’ve ever done. It was filled with so much literal blood, sweat and tears,” she said. “And just so much love and hardship and exhaustion and excitement. Everything. Every emotion honestly.”

King noted that though the film required a lot of her physically, it was still one of the most fulfilling experiences she’s had so far. “This was the coolest, one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my life,” she added. “And I’m so proud of how it turned out.”

Similar to King, The Princess director Le-Van Kiet also found himself stepping outside of his comfort zone when filming the movie.

“We had to be very detailed actually, because we were trying to make this tower work. It had to be oriented in a way where they’re going from floor to floor and from going from the top of the tower visually had to make sense,” Kiet explained when asked what the filming process was like. “So we were shooting on [the] ground floor on set. And so I found myself having much more work than I usually have to do, meaning more storyboards, more writing things down, more being exact about everything and every moment. And obviously, we’re always under the gun. But I think that’s the hardest part was that trying to orient the audience that this is a real tower that she’s going down from floor to floor and that it made sense.”

He added, “During COVID times that was shot in created a different kind of challenge. And so the professionalism had to be you know, on top of everything and I did get that with everybody and it pushed me to a level that I’ve never been pushed.”

The Princess debuts on Hulu on July 1.

Watch the full interviews below: