‘Mckenna brings so much life to Clara,’ says Allison Williams, who plays Morgan Grant, mom to Mckenna Grace’s Clara in the upcoming tragic romance Regretting You. ‘She’s an extraordinary actress.’
In ‘Regretting You,’ movie adaptation of the best-selling novel of the same name, Williams and Grace play the mother-daughter duo of Morgan and Clara Grant, respectively, as they explore what’s left behind after a devastating accident reveals a shocking betrayal and forces them to confront family secrets, redefine love, and rediscover each other.
Directed by Josh Boone, ‘Regretting You’ is a story of growth, resilience, and self-discovery in the aftermath of tragedy, also starring Dave Franco, Mason Thames and Sam Morelos, with Scott Eastwood, Willa Fitzgerald and Clancy Brown.
Shortly after the trailer was released in August, fans quickly fell in love with Grace, with one fan commenting, ‘OMG, Mckenna is perfect as Clara.’ Find out more about Clara Grant and the young actress that breathes life into the beloved character:
1. Mckenna, 19, started acting at age five and has starred in everything from ‘Captain Marvel’ to ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ for which she was nominated for an Emmy award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. In ‘Regretting You,’ she plays Clara Grant, a young woman torn apart by grief after a family tragedy, who falls in love with a boy that her mother, played by Allison Williams, most definitely does not approve of. ‘Clara has been such a special role for me,’ says Grace. ‘She’s so complicated, mature and immature all at once.’
2. Clara’s boyfriend, Miller, is played by Mason Thames, who just so happens to be Mckenna’s best friend in real life. ‘We already knew each other so well because we’ve been goofing off for the past year, doing all these stupid things,’ she says of Thames. ‘Then all of a sudden, we were working together, running around, having a blast!’
3. The set in this page’s picture is of Miller’s bedroom, on which the production of the film began its very first week. ‘I especially loved that first week,’ remembers Mckenna. ‘Those scenes were all shot at Miller’s house, which had all these goats and horses.’ And they weren’t the only animals on set. As always, she travelled on location with her beloved pet Yorkshire Terrier, Gizmo.
4. Clara and Miller love each other deeply. Although during one big argument, Miller accuses Clara of using him to ‘piss off’ her mom – something Grace concedes may well be true. ‘Clara does some things that she knows will piss off her mama,’ Mckenna laughs. ‘The interesting thing is that sometimes I don’t think she knows there’s a part of her that’s doing it to piss her off. Sometimes she definitely does, though, and does it anyways!’
5. Clara and Miller share another love, too: the movies. And their passion extends to both sides of the camera. Clara’s big ambition is to go to her dream college, to study to become an actor. His is to direct. ‘Miller is a filmmaker, so he’s very creative,’ notes Thames.
6. As well as the classics, Miller is a huge fan of romantic movies, which is perhaps why Thames calls him ‘a lover boy.’ Amongst what Thames says are Miller’s ‘guilty pleasures’ is Elizabethtown (hence the poster in his room) by Cameron Crowe, one of ‘Regretting You’ director Josh Boone’s favorite filmmakers.
7. Clara has a great sense of humor and can be hilariously sarcastic. She is also quite captivating, especially if you’re Miller. ‘Whoever his first kiss was with, I bet it was nothing like his first kiss with Clara,’ says Thames of when Miller and Clara’s romance first blooms. ‘That is a moment that everybody is looking for. And once you find it, it’s pretty special.’
8. Clara and Miller are both high school students. But while before the tragic family accident Clara is a straight-A student, after it she goes off the rails, rebelling against her mom’s rules. ‘There are a lot of bad decisions that Clara makes within her grief, just trying to figure herself out. Which I think makes her very human,’ says Grace. ‘This film is about her and her mom trying to find each other again.
9. Music plays a key role in ‘Regretting You,’ hence the R.E.M. logo on Boone’s hoodie in the photo showing Miller’s room. ‘Music is almost the starting point for me to even know whether to make a movie or not,’ Boone says. ‘I worked at a record store for many years before I made movies, so the first thing I do is build a soundtrack. Music is important to Clara, too.’
10. The movie in many ways is about buried secrets. Thankfully, in real life, the person who plays Clara is pretty good at keeping them. ‘I don’t have a lot of secrets of my own, but I am a vault for other people’s,’ says Grace. ‘I’m somebody people tell a lot of secrets to. I never tell. I am a really, really good secret-keeper.’
11. In real life, Mckenna is a musician herself. She has released over 30 songs since her debut single, ‘Haunted House,’ in 2021. ‘Music writing,’ she says, ‘is my therapy.’
‘Regretting You,’ from Paramount Pictures, opens in Philippine cinemas October 22.