Tonight, Freeform premieres the new series The Watchful Eye. Mariel Molino stars as Elena Santos, a cunning young woman, who with the help of her boyfriend Scott Macedo (Jon-Michael Ecker), cons her way into the position of live-in nanny for a rich family at The Greybourne in Manhattan. Elena quickly discovers, however, that the history of the apartment complex is full of mysteries, and she’s not the only one with secrets.

For star Molino, it was the dark side of her character that made her want to be a part of the project. “For me, it was that duplicity with Elena,” the actress told SciFi Vision during a recent interview. “[It was] not knowing what her motivation was, and why she was being deceitful and kind of what this grift was, why was she, in a sense, conning this family? That was that was that was really interesting to me, because I love to play someone who is complicated like that.” 

Ecker was intrigued by the story right away. “We base our decision pretty much off of one episode, the pilot episode,” he explained. “When I read it, I was curious to see what happened, where it went. It was pretty ambiguous about what genre we were working in and who was doing what and for what reason and why. So, [there was] curiosity, and it seemed [like] something different from things I've done in the past.” 

Aliyah Royale, who plays the role of Ginny Welles, another nanny in the building who becomes Elena’s friend, agreed. “I feel like if you come across a script where you actually want to know what happens, then you should probably do it,” the actress told the site. “I mean, just being so curious about the storyline, and looking at it from the eyes of a fan or the audience, I felt just encapsulated by the story. I just knew that I wanted to be a part of it, because then I'd have all the answers. [Then], I found out that working on the show, getting things script by script, I really couldn't know what was going to happen, and that was a lot of fun.” 

For more from the performers, including working with costumes, their favorite parts of The Greybourn, and more, watch the full interview below, and be sure to tune in to the double-episode premiere, tonight on Freeform, and available to stream starting tomorrow on Hulu.