SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4) — Mckenna Grace is no stranger to emotional depth, but in her new film “Regretting You”, she is facing grief, family tension, and the messy art of forgiveness. Sitting down with ABC4’s Patrick Beatty, Grace opens up about how she connects with heavy emotions, the role of music in her creative process, and what she hopes audiences will take away when the credits roll.
Patrick B: You’re an exec producer on this, so I have to ask Who is the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City?
Mckenna Grace: I’m going to give that over to, like, maybe Allison or our producers, like Brunson or Flavia, because that wasn’t me. But I saw it in the film, and it makes me laugh every time.
Patrick B: Your character, Clara, is going through a lot in this movie. Grief, trying to grow up a little bit too quickly. When it comes to roles like this, when you’re dealing with grief, do you find that real-life applications, having gone through something in a scenario, can prepare you for that?
Mckenna Grace: It’s always a fine line to walk whenever you’re playing a character that’s dealing with so much grief or so many emotional scenes because it’s like, how long am I going to torture myself with things that have happened in my life, or dredge up old dramas or situations to connect with a character? I listen to a ton of music whenever I prepare for emotional scenes, just because I find that even if it’s not something I’ve gone through, listening to music and lyrics and the emotions that I feel whenever I’m like listening to the strings or the piano or something, really puts me in a certain mood or zone.
Patrick B: Your mom is going through a lot of different other things. If you could write a book for her as your character to be like, here’s how you can get through what’s going on, what would you write?
Mckenna Grace: I don’t know, because it’s such a hard situation, because watching the movie, I’m like, well, you guys should be doing this or you should be doing that, but whenever you’re watching it, neither of them knows what’s going on in each other’s lives. I don’t even think that it needs to be a whole book. I think it’s just a simple thing, communicate, just talk to each other is the only thing that I would say to them, because it’s just the biggest miscommunication trope. They don’t know what’s going on in each other’s lives, and one person’s thinking one thing, the other’s thinking another, and then it all gets tied up in the crosshairs. But eventually they figured it out and found their way.
Patrick B. And if there was one thing that you could give to younger audiences that are going to watch this movie that they could take away with them, what would you say?
Mckenna Grace: I used to say that everything happens for a reason and to keep that in mind, but I think that that’s really hard to keep in mind sometimes, and I think that that’s applicable to some things, but not others. Even thinking back to situations or things that I put myself in or that I’ve just been in, that I couldn’t help that makes me feel icky or upset. I look back and I’m like, everything that’s happened to me, everything that I’ve been through, it happened. I might not have been able to see a light at the other end of the tunnel at the time. But I have to be happy with who I am now, so I can’t look back and regret what I’ve done in the past. So I guess what I’m trying to say is just not regretting decisions you’ve made or being embarrassed by your past because it’s made you who you are today, and that’s something to be proud of.
As “Regretting You” hits theaters this weekend, check out See It or Skip It’s full coverage on Friday on News4Utah+, and for more celebrity interviews and reviews, go to See It or Skip It on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
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