A few months ago, Elizabeth Lail was a virtual unknown, with just a few student films to her name; which is not surprising, given she only finished school in May of this year. But this summer, things changed quickly for the actress, when she was cast as Anna -- one of the main characters from the massive hit/cultural sensation Frozen -- for a major arc on Once Upon a Time

Elizabeth Lail as Anna in Once Upon a Time.

Elizabeth Lail ("Anna") and Georgina Haig ("Elsa") at the recent Once Upon a Time: Season 4 premiere.

During a set visit to Once Upon a Time this week, I was among a group of journalists who spoke to Lail. She spoke about Anna’s journey, seen in flashbacks -- which will soon bring her into contact with even more notable Once/fairy tale characters -- and what it’s been like taking on such a notable role.Anna goes to Rumple for help. She’s on a mission to figure out what her parents were actually doing in the Enchanted Forest. David’s mom points her towards Rumplestiltkin. She is not that afraid of him because she doesn’t know anything about him and she goes to him and trusts him. He offers to help her and she trusts him. In the long run, he ends up manipulating her into doing something that she wouldn’t normally do, because she’s a good person and he’s not a good person.Yeah, she makes friends with Belle. She goes on quite an adventure with Belle. We did a lot of hiking in heels that day.It’s the best because it’s given me an opportunity to work with each actor one on one, which is a lot of fun because you get to really know them and watch them. It’s very educational for me and I get to do really cool stunts all the time because she’s on this mission. I love that kind of stuff.Well I’ve watched Frozen more times than I can count!I’d seen it once. I saw it in theaters and I had no idea that it was going to be something huge. Even when I saw it, I loved it but I had no idea the effect it was going to have on the world. I feel super honored to be a part of its legacy in just the most interesting way. I could have never, ever imagined that I would be doing this, with this show, playing this character that was created in cartoon version. It’s just been the most exciting time of my life.I think everybody’s really happy from what I can tell. People have been really nice to me so I hope they stay nice to me. I think it’s getting a really good response. I really love it so I hope everyone else does too.

Once Upon a Time airs Sunday at 8pm ET/PT on ABC.Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter at @EricIGN , IGN at ericgoldman-ign and Facebook at Facebook.com/TheEricGoldman