Sarah Paulson (Glass, American Horror Story) stars opposite newcomer Kiera Allen, and Conan Hodgkinson in the thriller Run from Lionsgate.

Run follows a smart, cool teenager known as “Daughter” (Kiera Allen) who uses a wheelchair and is raised in complete isolation by “Mother” (Sarah Paulson), and the girl slowly learns that her mother is keeping a sinister secret.

Aneesh Chaganty: “Our last movie, Searching, featured a mostly Korean-American cast, but the plot had nothing to do with race or ethnicity. It was just a thriller. We all thought it would be really cool to advocate for a group of people who weren’t media-represented in a major way.

So when we started Run, we tried to do the same thing, except this time with a teenage lead who uses a wheelchair.

Maybe we were just coming off the high of Searching, but internally we never really discussed any other possibility apart from looking for a super-talented actress with a lower-body disability in real life, even though we knew the search to find this person would be insanely unconventional.

We had a great casting director, Rich Delia, who went out to [cast in the] “traditional way.” But ultimately, the most success came via a grassroots approach: word-of-mouth, flyers at theater groups and art programs, and outreach to disability-minded organizations around the country.

It was a months-long process with extremely specific parameters, but we were convinced that person was, statistically, out there. We just had to find her. And eventually, we did. It’s probably the thing I’m most proud of.”

Run will receive a wide release on January 24, 2020.