Cruel Intentions’ Zac Burgess ‘Didn’t Want the Pressure’ So He ‘Purposely Didn’t Watch’ the OG Movie Before Joining Reboot Series (Exclusive)

Zac Burgess is stepping into Ryan Phillippe’s shoes in the new Cruel Intentions reboot series, but his preparation for the role was a bit unorthodox.

The Australian actor, who plays campus hottie Lucien Belmont in the new Prime Video show, tells PEOPLE he has never watched the original 1999 film.

“I still haven’t seen it,” Burgess, 22, admits, before elaborating on why he chose not to watch it. even after securing the role.

“I purposely didn’t watch it. I didn’t want to replicate any performances by accident or intentionally, and so I decided to just sidestep it.”

He says that wanting to avoid the “pressure” of living up to Phillippe’s performance of Sebastian Valmont was “probably a big segment” of why he never tuned in.

“I didn’t want the pressure of having to, I guess, replicate someone’s performance,” Burgess says. “And we were very fortunate that the showrunners were adamant — they did not want a replicated performance. They wanted something that was new and they wanted us to bring our own freshness to it.”

Though not watching the original film didn’t stop him from making a statement as Lucien — who teams up with his step-sister Caroline (Sarah Catherine Hook) to lure freshman Annie Grover (Savannah Lee Smith), who happens to be the daughter of the Vice President, to join Caroline’s sorority — it did mean he was out of the loop about one major plot detail.

“I didn’t know [Sebastian dies] until I was halfway through shooting,” he reveals. “And I was like, ‘Am I being killed off?'”

The Cruel Intentions series takes place at the elite “Manchester College, a Washington, D.C.-adjacent university, where reputation means everything, fraternities and sororities are the gold standard, and two ruthless step-siblings, Caroline Merteuil and Lucien Belmont, will do anything to stay on top of the cutthroat social hierarchy.”

When a brutal hazing incident involving Scott (Khobe Clark) “threatens the entire Greek Life system,” Caroline is willing to do “whatever is necessary” to preserve her “power and reputation,” and to save her sorority, which is where Annie comes in.

Cruel Intentions premieres Thursday, Nov. 21 on Prime Video.