McKenna Grace on starring in Colleen Hoover's 'Regretting You' film adaptation: 'I'm so excited'
McKenna Grace says she's "so excited" to get started on the upcoming film adaptation of Colleen Hoover's bestselling novel, "Regretting You."
Speaking with "Good Morning America" at the 2024 KIIS FM iHeartRadio Jingle Ball on Friday at Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, the actress and singer spoke about playing one of the book's main protagonists, Clara Grant.
"I'm jazzed. I play Clara, and I'm so excited, because a really good friend of mine, Mason Thames, is playing Miller," she said. "And you know, it's a love story, but it's also about a mother and a daughter and the way that they're dealing with their grief."
"It's gonna be a fun project," she added. "I'm so excited to get started on it."
Hoover's novel follows the relationship between Clara and her mom, Morgan Grant, who became pregnant with Clara at a young age, according to a synopsis for "Regretting You." When Chris, Morgan's husband and Clara's father, is involved in a tragic accident, Morgan and Clara are left to rebuild their lives.
"While struggling to rebuild everything that crashed around them, Morgan finds comfort in the last person she expects to, and Clara turns to the one boy she’s been forbidden to see," the synopsis continues. "With each passing day, new secrets, resentment, and misunderstandings make mother and daughter fall further apart. So far apart, it might be impossible for them to ever fall back together."
Grace, who is known for her roles in the films "I, Tonya," "Gifted" and "Ghostbusters: Afterlife," as well as the series "The Handmaid's Tale," said that what drew her to the film was the script. She added that she "wasn't aware that it was a book" at the time that she signed on for the film.
After reading Hoover's 2019 book, Grace said it was the relationship between a mother and daughter at the novel's core that touched her most.
"It was the story of the mom and the daughter and the way that they're working through their grief together," she said.
"My character has a lot of anger toward herself and toward her mother," she added. "I think it's beautiful to watch her through that and end up growing closer together."
"Regretting You" follows "It Ends With Us" as one of Hoover's latest book-to-film adaptations. "It Ends With Us," an adaptation of Hoover's 2016 bestselling novel, starred Justin Baldoni, Blake Lively, Brandon Sklenar, Jenny Slate and more.
Hoover's books "Reminders of Him" and "Verity" will also be heading to the big screen.
