It’s no secret that Lucy Hale’s had a busy year. On top of starring in the addicting drama, “Pretty Little Liars,” the 25-year-old is also actively promoting her first country album, “Road Between.” But we had no idea that we almost saw Hale on the big screen, too, playing Anastasia Steele in “Fifty Shades Of Grey.”

As the cover star of Cosmopolitan’s September 2014 issue, Hale opened up to the magazine about her awkward experience auditioning for the erotic thriller:

“That audition was so uncomfortable! It’s exactly what you thought it would be: a big monologue but very, very sexual. There were some things that I was so embarrassed to be reading out loud, but it’s one of those things where you have to commit wholeheartedly or you’re going to make a fool of yourself.”

So maybe it’s for the best that Hale lost the role to Dakota Johnson, who plays Steele in the film, which is set to be released in February 2015.

Hale was also candid with Cosmopolitan about “Pretty Little Liars” and how it’s unrealistic beauty standards can negatively affect the show’s young fans. The actress and singer told the magazine:

“[‘Pretty Little Liars’] is about how we look too. That’s terrifying sometimes because you’re breaking out or you feel gross and you still have to be in front of the camera. We’ll post pictures on Instagram and people will be like, ‘Y’all are so flawless.’ Little do they know it’s fake hair, fake eyelashes, and a good filter. Little girls see that and think they have to be like that.”

Hale has made female empowerment part of her agenda in her music. In a recent interview with The Huffington Post, she spoke about a song called “Nervous Girls,” which she says is “something every female should hear.”

“We all kind of struggle with different things, we all go through the same emotions and [the song is] kind of like my way of spreading girl empowerment. I think that the song is very uniting and it makes us feel like one in the same which is something that we always lose sight of,” Hale said.

Read the full interview with Lucy Hale in the September issue of Cosmopolitan, on newsstands and available for digital sale August 12.