Regretting You stars Mckenna Grace and Mason Thames have no regrets about starring in Colleen Hoover’s latest big screen adaptation, following all that behind-the-scenes-turned-public drama on It Ends With Us, another of the author’s novels-turned-movies.
The bestselling romance writer’s work has dominated headlines over the past year due to the ongoing legal battle between It Ends With Us director-producer-star, Justin Baldoni, and leading lady, Blake Lively (Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment and launching a smear campaign, leading Baldoni to file a countersuit alleging defamation and extortion).
But Grace and Thames — who portray the young romantic leads in new movie Regretting You — tell Entertainment Weekly that they didn’t let any of that noise get in the way of their work while filming earlier this year.
“It’s just a vastly different vibe and topics,” Thames says of their new movie.
Jessica Miglio / Paramount Pictures
Mason Thames and Mckenna Grace in ‘Regretting You’
“Yeah, it’s a completely different film, different everything,” Grace adds. “And I think that we just went into it making a film as we normally would, and trying to make the best film we could outside of any other [influences].”
In fact, the stars reveal that one of their first times hanging out was going to see It Ends With Us.
“When Mason and I first met, we went and saw that film,” Grace says. “Because we wanted to go and prepare for this.”
Regretting You follows multiple love stories, but its larger theme is all about grief. It follows a mother, Morgan (Allison Williams), and her teen daughter, Clara (Grace), as they — book spoiler alert! — navigate losing two family members amidst the realization of a major betrayal. The two women are forced to confront family secrets as they redefine their relationships with their late loved ones, and learn how to move forward with each other and new loves. The movie also stars Dave Franco, Scott Eastwood, and Willa Fitzgerald.
“I didn’t know that it was a book when I first read the script, but then afterwards I read the book like a hundred times over by the time all of this was said and done,” Grace says. “And I very much had my entire book highlighted and noted to the seams months prior to shooting.”
Jessica Miglio / Paramount Pictures
Mason Thames and Mckenna Grace in ‘Regretting You’
Thames also didn’t realize at first that Regretting You was one of Hoover’s bestsellers, but he knew he wanted to join the movie when he saw that it was directed by Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars).
“I watched Fault in Our Stars, that movie is so, so good, and it made me bawl my eyes out,” Thames says. “And after watching that, I was like, ‘Okay, I have to do this.’ And Mckenna, I saw she was signed on, so that was kind of a no-brainer. But after that, I read the book, and Mckenna took so many notes, and whenever I was with her, we just went over things and talked about stuff we wanted to bring from the book into the movie, and really just do our characters justice for the fans — and for us, we love these characters.”
Regretting You also features a major moment for Grace’s career, as the 19-year-old steps into the romantic leading lady role for the first time after working steadily in TV and film since she was 5.
“It was a big first for me,” she says. “I’d always wanted to do a romance film. I’ve done a lot of more mature films and series and roles, but it was my first time playing a more mature character as I’m an adult legally in the industry. It was just such a fun experience, and I felt like I was surrounded by the best people to do it with.”
There was one particular scene that she was nervous about filming, however. Another book spoiler alert — Clara’s relationship with her mother becomes extremely strained after her father (Eastwood) and aunt (Fitzgerald) die, because Morgan keeps it a secret from Clara that the two had been having an affair — that’s why they were in the car together the night of their fatal accident. Unaware of what’s causing her mother’s weird behavior surrounding their loved ones’ deaths, Clara begins to act out to hurt her mother in various ways, usually involving her crush Miller (Thames).
The “nerve-wracking” scene in question is when Clara, furious at her mother, decides to lose her virginity to Miller earlier than they had originally agreed. Miller ultimately gets mad and feels used when he later discovers the reason behind Clara’s change of heart about waiting until prom night to sleep together.
“That scene was nerve-wracking to shoot for a lot of different reasons, especially coming off of being a child actor, doing that kind of scene,” Grace says. “I felt as comfortable with it as I did because I felt like it served such a big purpose for the story, it served a purpose [for] the characters, with everything that was going on, it was kind of a breaking point for her.”
But Grace also worried that the scene would turn audiences against Clara. It wasn’t until she watched the final cut of the movie that she realized it was actually an empathetic moment for the struggling character.
“I was like, ‘Shoot, I hope she’s not too unlikable with all the mistakes that she makes,'” Grace says. “But then I was watching it and I was like, honestly, she’s just a very human character. She’s very broken and kind of lost, and to me, it felt just very authentic and real, watching her make as many very big mistakes as she did.”
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That’s why she and Thames are excited for people to see Clara and Miller’s romance play out in the movie.
“Both of them felt very relatable and authentic,” Grace adds. “It was very sweet to bring a love story to life that didn’t feel perfect. They both made a lot of mistakes.”
Thames agrees, adding, “They’re just people.”
Regretting You is now playing in theaters.
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