Mason Thames as Miller Adams and McKenna Grace as Clara Grant snuggled up in Regretting You. Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
The Minaret was given behind-the-scenes insights by the stars of the film on the process of making it.
By Alyssa Cortes
TAMPA, Fla. — The Minaret was invited to a virtual college roundtable with McKenna Grace and Mason Thames on Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, to discuss their new film.
Regretting You, directed by Josh Boone, the director of The Fault in Our Stars, is an adaptation of the bestselling book written by Colleen Hoover. The story follows Morgan Grant (Allison Williams) and her daughter, Clara (Mckenna Grace), as they navigate a traumatic loss amidst a betrayal that threatens to tear their relationship apart.
Morgan married her high school sweetheart, Chris (Scott Eastwood), after falling pregnant at 17 years old. Her sister Jenny Davidson (Willa Fitzgerald) prepares to marry her former high school boyfriend, Jonah (Dave Franco). After tragedy falls on the family, Morgan and Jonah are left to deal with the aftermath. Meanwhile, Clara is left reeling, all while falling in love with Miller Adams (Mason Thames).
“The film is a story about loss, but it’s about much more than just loss,” said the film’s producer, Flavia Viotti, in the film’s production notes. “It is also about finding forgiveness and overcoming grief.”
At the roundtable, Grace, an executive producer, reflected on what part of filming felt the most emotionally honest to her.
“I mean, everything that I got to do with Mason was really easy, so that felt very…natural and honest to me,” said Grace. “I think I could relate to Clara and her relationship with her mom, and just being a teenage girl growing up and feeling a lot of emotions.”
Thames agreed with her, even as Grace teased him for connecting to being a teenage girl, “Always. It’s just me,” said Thames.
Grace and Thames’ chemistry bleeds through the screen, both via Zoom and on the big screen.
“[Working with McKenna] was the easiest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” said Thames.
This melodrama goes beyond a simple romance, resonating deeply with audiences of all ages, especially students navigating the challenges and changes of teenage and early twenties life.
“I feel like this time in my life and us, because I feel like we’re all kind of around the same age, that a lot happens,” said Thames. “You kind of find yourself, or you’re trying to figure out who you are.”
“The whole concept of the film is about not regretting things, but at the end of the day, I feel like that’s not what it’s truly about,” said Grace. “It’s about taking the things that we regret and letting ourselves feel that and learning from those mistakes or the things that we’ve done and not letting it like eat us alive and just kind of realizing that everything that’s happened to us has made us who we are, and trying to be happy with that is what I took away from it.”
At the heart of the film is Clara’s relationship with her mom.
“Morgan’s the one who keeps everybody going, but she hasn’t stopped to think about herself for 17 years,” said Williams, on her character, in the film’s production notes.
Morgan’s unwavering dedication to protecting Clara is evident in her complicated relationship with her.
“Every mother wants a life for her child without the hardships that she herself went through… But as a mother, she regrets nothing that happened to her,” said Hoover, the author of the novel, via the film’s production notes.
One thing Grace took away from this film, after playing out Morgan and Clara’s dynamic, is how important communication is.
To see the romance film Grace and Thames have been waiting their whole careers to star in, watch Regretting You in theaters on Oct. 24, 2025.