Lucy Hale was ready for a break. She had just spent seven seasons on the hugely popular “Pretty Little Liars.” The last thing she was thinking about was doing another TV series.

Then she got the script for “Life Sentence.”

“I thought it was a really important story to tell,” Hale says. “I wanted to be the girl who told that story. It came as a surprise to me that I signed on to do something so quickly but with me, if something resonates then I have to go do it. It’s not every day that you read something you fall in love with.

“I have never been more proud of anything in my life. This series reminded me of what I love to do.”

The story that pulled Hale back to work so quickly has her playing Stella, a young woman who has spent the last eight years living each day as if it could be her last because of a battle with cancer. She traveled the world, faced her darkest fears and found true love on a whirlwind trip to Paris. But the story doesn’t end there.

Stella’s cancer has been cured, and now she must face the long-term consequences of the decisions she made, including marrying a total stranger. At the same time, she leans on those around her who have been living their own lies just to keep Stella from knowing the truth.

“All these things were hidden from Stella. She did live in a fantasy world. Her family tried to give her the best last years of her life. So you later find out that her family’s about as dysfunctional as they come,” Hale says. “Tonally, the show is very heavy. Cancer is very heavy, but it’s more about taking those moments to laugh at yourself.”

Hale was excited about starring in the series, but at the same time knew there would be some pushback just because it deals with cancer. That’s a subject that hits home to a large part of the population.

Many of those questions are being handled by the executive producers, which includes Bill Lawrence. He says the thing that is interesting to him in television is taking chances.

“I can’t tell you how many people I sat in front of when I handed ‘Scrubs’ in that said the amount of comedy and silliness you’re doing with these people living and dying is not going to work. And I believe this is where you take chances,” Lawrence says. “I believe tonally for the show.

“Right now all the beginning questions are about cancer and I would tell you that after the opening show, we are really policing ourselves to say we’re trying to do an optimistic family show that has real-life ramifications for the family members that went through an ordeal like this, which we find to be a universal theme.”

Because “Life Sentence” picks up with the cancer out of her life, the background work Hale needed to do was more about how dealing with cancer affected family and friends. Hale has not been personally affected by cancer. The Memphis native often visited St. Jude Hospital and has been to Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles to observe patients. She was impressed and moved by how people facing one of the worst possible scenarios could be so positive. It’s that perspective on life that is at the core of the series.

The series is the latest to use the popular theme of young people battling with cancer while dealing with life. Hale’s theory as to why that has become such a big theme with young people is everyone wants to love their loves as if they were dying.

“But, at the same time we all live with fear. Fear of what people will think. Fear of not enough money. Fear of getting fired,” Hale says. “But Stella says ‘Eff that. I’m going to do whatever I want for whatever time I have left.’ I think that resonates with everyone.”

Hale says she’s a Type-A person where everything in her life had to be tightly scheduled. Playing Stella has opened her eyes to living more freely. As proof she’s really opened up her life, Hale went skydiving for the first time.

The Type-A personality she’s trying to soften didn’t come along until after she started her acting career as a teenager.

“When people ask me how I got into acting, I always loved performing but I never really knew what I was going to do. I eventually knew this is what I wanted, but I had no backup plan,” Hale says. “I have been lucky enough to have been able to keep working but I am still trying to figure out who Lucy is as a person outside of what I do in the industry.

“This show has been good for me in that way.”

Figuring out her personal side has been pushed aside as “Life Sentence” comes in the wake of “Pretty Little Liars,” a series that earned Hale six Teen Choice Awards for Choice TV Actress. In 2014, she won a People’s Choice Award for Favorite Cable TV Actress and in 2013 she was presented with the Gracie Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Rising Star. Previously, she starred in “Privileged.”

The cast of “Life Sentence” also includes Elliot Knight (“Once Upon A Time”), Dylan Walsh (“Nip/Tuck”), Gillian Vigman (“The Hangover”), Jayson Blair (“Whiplash”), Brooke Lyons (“The Affair”) and Carlos PenaVega (“Big Time Rush”).

Hale says it felt a little bizarre leaving one tight-knit family to join another in the space of a month.

“But I feel like the luckiest girl in the world,” Hale says.

"Life Sentence" airs at 9 p.m. Wednesdays on The CW.