Regretting You Allison Williams Interview

It has all the shape and feel of a normal family drama until some very big things happen about a third of the way through the movie that turn it into something that's decidedly different than that. Um, in many ways, depending on who I'm talking to, sometimes if I'm talking to another mom, I will say it's about a mom who is watching her daughter go through the exact same year in which she herself got pregnant and with said daughter. And so it's that kind of sliding doors moment of where Morgan's life became completely different from anything she predicted and she's kind of watching her own daughter go through that exact moment, kind of hoping that she won't do the same thing, but without being able to express that because she does not regret having her daughter, which brings us to the title.

The first time I read Colleen Hoover's book, I felt so struck by um her skill at being able to put the reader in the shoes of either Clara or Morgan, whoever we are with at any given moment in the book. It's written so personally and with such uh incredible unflinching honesty. It feels not like they are editing their thoughts for our consumption, they are just sharing their souls with us in the book. And I think that's something that's like a superpower of Colleen Hoover's is being able to She's a keen observer of humanity and she is able to make the parts of us that are confusing and and unflattering and kind of mysterious to us, uh very clear and kind of relatable on the page.

Immediately when you read this book and a lot of books by Colleen, you're picturing these you start to feel like you know these people so intimately and you picture these scenes and these houses and the car rides that so many things take place during and the church and all of the landmarks and the people involved in the story. Her writing is just so intimate and and descriptive that you have no choice but to put yourself in their shoes and build the world kind of three-dimensionally in your own mind. Um, and so naturally when you're reading it, you think, "Oh, this is an obvious adaptation." But then as part of the team of people who is responsible for bringing it to life, it's immediately intimidating because with any book adaptation, you know that you are breathing life into something that exists so personally for people up to this point. They have their own Morgan in their mind's eye. They have their own Grant house. They have their own, you know, Clara. All of these characters, they've already cast either with like their own generated images or people they've dream cast for the movie. And so it is equal parts uh intimidating and also really exciting to try to hit a mark that I as a book reader would have wanted this movie's adaptation team to hit. Um, but I think that the amount of story with the cadence of the amount of emotional internal character exploration made this a pretty obvious uh book that needed adaptation.

McKenna is an extraordinary actress. Like she really is special. First of all, she is so experienced. Like I'm humbled by how much experience she has. She's seen it all, she's done it all. And yet, she can access these parts of herself that are I know deeply uncomfortable to sit in and in this movie she's so often sitting in just total pain and sadness. And um she does it with such professionalism and skill and um also warmth. She brings so much life to Clara.

I think the Morgan and Clara relationship is pretty um relatable from kind of any angle. I often in the scenes that we're doing together, feel more aligned with Clara than Morgan. I feel like I'm a new I'm new to being a mom, so I don't feel like I quite have the like experience behind me that Morgan has. You know, she's put in 16 and then 17 years of of motherhood um and has spent the half of her life as a mom, and I'm just I'm very new at it and so I sometimes feel like I have more resonance with whatever Clara is going through than Morgan. But I do think that scene to scene and character to character people are going to find that they find kinship with one person or another. And there are a bunch of options for that through the movie that are not just Clara and Morgan. I think it's a movie that people there are a lot of different characters to relate to.

I feel so lucky to be working with Josh. Josh and I had a general meeting together maybe in 2012 for the first time. I met him about a movie that I don't think ended up happening. And we just hit it off and then we were pen pals for a little while and then as you do in the world like we just lost touch with each other. And then all of a sudden back onto my radar he comes with this project wondering if I would come in and and breathe life into Morgan. And it just felt like kismet. I love his work. I think he's super, super talented. And that is all before I actually had the experience of working with him and it has been one of the great working experiences I've ever had with a filmmaker. Um, he is so uh the best idea wins. He is so um, I don't know, his priorities are so clear that life is life and life is what matters and this is an incredibly fun job that we all get to do but he likes to keep those very clear. And he ends up with really good work and it's just incredible to me. It sort of violates what a lot of people believe, I think, if you don't treat work as it's your life, you won't end up with a good product, but he's living proof of the opposite. Um, he's such a um an economical storyteller in that he realizes that things can be told often more simply, more quickly in fewer shots with fewer kind of gadgets and stuff in a way that's more emotionally poignant. And uh it ends up feeling very organic as an actor. Like the scenes that we do as an ensemble where we're all moving around a kitchen together and it's shot on a steady camera and we don't do it a gazillion times. We don't cover it all perfectly and it's a little bit messy and we're bumping into each other. That all feels like a real family in a kitchen trying to maneuver around and pass a baby around and do dishes and it feels very real and it's just been so much fun. I I like could go on and on and on talking about how much I love Josh Boone. He's just the best. We're having the best time.