Light up:Grace Van Patten Got Inspo from This ‘Guilty Pleasure’ Bravo Show for Tell My Lies: ‘Prep for Me’

Tell Me Lies is never short on drama and star Grace Van Patten is revealing where she pulls inspiration from to dive into the tumultuous world.

Van Patten plays Lucy Albright in the Hulu drama, a college sophomore who can’t seem to escape the toxic cycle she’s developed with Stephen (Jackson White), and the actress, 27, uses a guilty pleasure reality TV show as a way to “prep” for the role.

She told IMDb that her “guilty pleasure reality show” is hands-down Vanderpump Rules, but it’s not only escapism for her — it’s also a way to dive into the chaotic mindset of Lucy.

“It was a huge guilty pleasure of mine in prep for Tell Me Lies, actually, because I find it to be very inspiring for these characters,” she told the outlet.

Van Patten went as far as to compare the storylines of the Hulu series and the Bravo show, as she said, “I really feel like Tell Me Lies is the scripted version of Vanderpump Rules.”

Both are about “a bunch of young people just being awful to each other,” she continued. “So, not only was it a guilty pleasure, but it was prep for me. So thank you, Vanderpump Rules.”

Ahead of the season 2 premiere of Tell Me Lies earlier this month, Van Patten caught up with PEOPLE and dished on how the new installment of the sexy series continues pushing the envelope.

“Each scene is so loaded and so tense, there were so much going on beneath the text,” she said of the moments between her character and Stephen. “Those scenes were so fun to shoot.”
The actors are also a couple in real life, which she admitted can be “trippy” at times. She explained, “He knows me better than anyone. So I had this fear of, ‘You’re going to know when I’m acting.'”

“And then once we were on set, I was like, ‘No, it’s actually the opposite.’ It makes me feel so safe and so comfortable and able to go there and be vulnerable, because I’m so comfortable with him,” she added. “And that part of it was so beautiful.”

She also clarified that while their onscreen relationship is addictingly toxic, they are “wildly different” in real life. “Thank goodness,” she said.

“It’s like — we get to fight and let it all out on camera and then we’re great. It’s our couple’s therapy.”
The show’s creator Meaghan Oppenheimer told PEOPLE that season 2 is “more of a war story than a love story,” as it picks up with a new school year following Lucy and Stephen’s devastating breakup — and with Lucy “out for revenge.”

Per the official synopsis, season 2 finds Lucy and Stephen “very much at odds” yet “in a new version of their addictive dynamic – which is as infuriating as it is inescapable.”

“Meanwhile, the story expands deeper into the lives of Lucy and Stephen’s friend group as the fallout from season one impacts all of their lives in unexpected ways,” per the description.