When your mother is one of its legends, it can be even tougher.

A college freshman learns those ropes the hard way in "Sorority Wars," a Lifetime drama movie premiering Saturday, Oct. 17. Lucy Hale of last season's CW series "Privileged" plays the student who goes against the expectations of her mother ( Courtney Thorne-Smith) by shunning the sorority Mom helped found.

When she pledges that house's fiercest rival instead, she feels parental heat. She also gets the cold shoulder from a friend (Amanda Schull) whose own mother (Faith Ford) was another charter member of the rejected sorority – whose members do not take rejection well and proceed to make the heroine's life as tough as possible.

While she's also been acting on such other shows as "How I Met Your Mother" and "Private Practice," Hale hasn't had time for college herself. "I'm 20 now," she says, "but I play 18 in this movie, so it was kind of like going through the experience I haven't had in real life. A lot of the girls (who co-starred in the film) were a bit older, in their mid-20s, but we stayed in the same hotel, and they were really cool."

A mother who wants her daughter to join the same sorority isn't an alien concept, but Hale allows, "Hearing about it, you might think, ‘That's a little ridiculous.' People who want to do this take it very seriously, though. I visited a sorority in California, and it's their life. It's very real for them."

Hale didn't encounter any resistance while doing her research, recalling her guide "walked me around and showed me all the rooms, then let me ask as many questions as I needed. I had a lot of those, since I have never had any interest in wanting to be in a sorority."

Being preceded by the ABC Family series "Greek" may have helped the cast and crew of "Sorority Wars" with campus access, since that show has been well-reviewed for its respectful treatment of sorority life. "We were pretty up-front that we weren't making fun" of the Greek system, Hale attests, "so they were very welcoming."