As a young actor, growing up in front of the camera is hard enough. But making the jump from child star to adult roles? That's not a leap that all careers survive.
But Mckenna Grace, 19, and Mason Thames, 18, who each thrived on screen throughout their adolescence, had been waiting to make that jump for what felt like a lifetime. They dreamt of the day when they could tap into the emotions they were feeling as they became adults. They wanted to do a romance – even though it felt like the types they liked weren't being made as much any more.
That's why Regretting You, based on the novel by Colleen Hoover (who also wrote It Ends With Us), felt like a dream. And like most that come true, it's a bit daunting when you're actually faced with it. Luckily for them, they found each other in the process.
“It was so scary,” Grace tells The National. “This was one of my first mature roles. I was finally getting to play my age, when I've almost always had to play younger.
“It was exciting to do my first romance, but it was also terrifying. But you know, there was nobody I would have rather done it with than Mason. So I'm grateful for that.”
In the film, directed by Josh Boone (The Fault in our Stars), the pair play Clara Grant and Miller Adams. Clara has just lost her father in a tragic accident and bonds with Miller, in part because he has also lost his parents. “I feel like it's really just two broken people finding each other, and that's kind of all they need,” says Thames.
Grace and Thames met to prepare for the roles before production, but they weren't expecting their personal connection to forge as strongly as it did.
Thames says: “Before filming, Mckenna and I had about a year to really get to know each other and build that relationship. And honestly, I've never been closer with somebody in my life. I've never had so much fun with somebody in my life.
“She truly is one of the most special people. Of all the work we did to get this right, I feel like the chemistry part was probably the easiest.”
There was a lot of work to be done, however. While young love is universal, and their director built his reputation with one of the defining millennial romances, Gen Z love is different in many ways. Thames and Grace both made it their mission to ensure the film avoided the dreaded millennial cringe.
“I remember Mason and I were always rewriting, like the texts between our characters,” says Grace. “We were like: 'Josh, no, we're not using that emoji. No, we're not saying that. No, Josh.'
“There was one thing … I can't believe I'm talking about this in an interview. This was so bad,” Grace laughs. “There was one scene where one of us sends an eggplant emoji to the other. We were like: 'That's so weird, Josh. We're not doing that.'
“So to this day, we still joke around about the first draft of the script, and we still send it back and forth. It's so funny to us.”
While Grace gives them both credit, Thames mostly remembers being in awe of his fearless co-star, who was willing to have any uncomfortable conversation.
“Me and Mckenna would go through [the script] and make little notes. Mckenna was very good on her notes in the meetings. And I was always behind her, because I didn't want to speak up. And she was always just telling it for me, which is hilarious,” says Thames.
While it took all of them working together get the voices appropriate for teenagers in 2025, ultimately, they felt director Boone was the right choice because he understood the story's most universal truths.
“People are confusing – because people are confused,” says Thames. “And I feel like, out of all people, Josh really understands that. We couldn't have done it without him.”
Even after production, the bond between them continues. Both Grace and Thames have many ambitions to fulfil. Thames wants to have a career like Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt or Timothee Chalamet. Grace is a cinephile who writes scripts with her father, and hopes to get her own stories out there some day.
For now, they continue to trade notes, while Grace, an avid Letterboxd user (“I got doxxed! Everyone found my account,” she laments) catches Thames up on the history of cinema, particularly the horror genre.
“I just made Mason watch the Evil Dead remakes with me, actually, which is really funny,” Grace says. “I am gonna make him watch the 2013 one soon, and the original Blair Witch Project, because those are my two favourites of all time. I'm on such a horror kick. It's bad.”
Regretting You is released in UAE cinemas on October 23
