Allison Williams didn’t think she was fit for a romantic lead before ‘Regretting You’

NEW YORK – Allison Williams has starred in horror movies like “Get Out” and “M3GAN,” soared across the stage in “Peter Pan Live!” and made us laugh (and cringe) in “Girls.” But she didn’t think anyone would want to see her in a romantic drama.

“Regretting You,” director Josh Boone helped changed her mind.

“I just didn’t think of myself as a romantic lead,” Williams tells USA TODAY in a sit-down interview. “I don’t know if I want to see myself get the guy or whatever. I don’t know if I would root for myself on screen. But I was like, if (director Josh Boone) thinks I can do this, then maybe there’s something about my vibe that I can’t detect that is actually going to work in this medium.”

Based on Colleen Hoover’s book, “Regretting You,” now in theaters, stars Williams , Dave Franco , McKenna Grace and Mason Thames .

Williams, also a producer on the film, plays Morgan Grant, a young mom who finds out her husband and her sister were having an affair after they both die in a car accident. Her complicated grief deepens a rift with her teenage daughter Clara (Grace), whose college dreams and new beau (Thames) Morgan does not approve of. Complicating matters further is her late sister’s partner, Jonah (Franco), who has had feelings for Morgan since their school days.

A movie that’s ‘not too scary’ for Allison Williams’ friends

Williams says acting in “Regretting You” is partially an act of service for her friends – it’s the project of hers that they’re most excited to see.

“I know friends who live across the country who are doing viewing parties, going with their girlfriends, taking their book groups,” Williams says. “I’m glad to make something that’s not too scary for a good chunk of the people in my life to watch.”

Filming “M3GAN 2.0” in New Zealand and “Regretting You” in Atlanta just a few weeks apart took a bit of the pressure off to craft the perfect romantic lead because she didn’t have time to “obsess” over channeling romance legends like Julia Roberts, Rachel McAdams or Meg Ryan, Williams says.

The romance genre guarantees one thing – a happily ever after. “Regretting You” touches on serious subject matter like grief and affairs, but you’ll walk out of the theater feeling warm and fuzzy. It’s different from other movies Williams has been in, which deal with serious topics like racism or artificial intelligence or sexual assault. But it’s helped her to reframe the way she thinks about escapist romance movies – they deal with universal, monumental issues, too.

“Honestly, it does feel weird doing press for a movie where I’m not talking about a big issue, but then I’m like, I’m talking about the biggest issues − the issues that make those other issues important, which is love and autonomy and loss,” Williams says. “The reason we fear AI is because we love humanity and we fear the loss of ourselves and human life. And the reason we hate sexual assault, which is what ‘The Perfection’ dealt with and grooming, is because we love people. We want to take care of them. We don’t want things that are bad to happen to them. These are the big issues that make those other things worth talking about.”

Allison Williams on entering the Colleen Hoover universe

With “Regretting You,” Williams enters a canon of newly explosive Hoover adaptations. “Regretting You” has skated by, so far, without much of the controversy (legal and otherwise) of “It Ends With Us.” Other Hoover novels, like “Reminders of Him” and “Verity,” will soon be movies, too.

Williams is a Hoover fan herself, with “Verity” being her favorite. She started reading the book of “Regretting You” after she read the script. Then began the “intimidating” process of bringing a beloved book character to life.

“It always feels weirdly intimate to create the definitive version of what so many people have imagined for themselves very privately. That feels intrusive,” Williams says.

Boone’s work faithfully adapting “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green soothed her worries. Hoover, too, was supportive of Williams’ Morgan.

“I also knew that Colleen loved the script, liked all the casting, was super involved in the cut of the movie, is very happy with the product of the movie,” Williams says. “Since she’s the ultimate authority on her original قیمت بک لینک work, that feels good. That’s a nice vote of confidence.”

Motherhood helped on-screen relationship with McKenna Grace

Williams, who has an almost 4-year-old son with “The Last Kingdom” actor Alexander Dreymon , tapped into her own maternal instincts to build a mother-daughter relationship with costar Grace, who plays her 17-year-old rebellious daughter. At first, she was worried about their chemistry. Bouncing between “M3GAN” and “Regretting You,” Williams didn’t get the time she thought she needed with Grace.

“‘Thought I needed it’ is the operative phrase, because actually we just connected really quickly,” Williams says. “There are things about us that are just kind of similar and fundamental, and I also just find her to be totally mind-blowingly talented.”

But much of Clara and Morgan’s on-screen relationship is contentious. Clara, grieving in her own way, sneaks out, gets drunk and high and sees her boyfriend without her mom’s permission. She’s grounded more times than you can count. Morgan, on the other hand, is dealing with the loss of her sister and husband and keeping their betrayal a secret from Clara. There’s plenty of door slamming, “go to your room” yelling and even a few scenes where Morgan smashes a car. It’s not her personal brand of anger, but Williams says that bit did feel surprisingly “cathartic,” saying, “there’s a reason there are rage rooms.”

Does all the teenage angst make Williams worry to one day parent one of her own? She doesn’t know how he’ll be, but admits she loves “anticipatory anxiety.”

“Being a mom has helped me in some ways learn that I can and will worry about things that are coming that will end up being irrelevant because it’s not the version of it that I’m experiencing and I will miss the opportunity to worry about the version of it that I am experiencing,” Williams says.

Allison Williams has this Taylor Swift song on the brain

Williams, a self-proclaimed Swiftie, has been thinking about Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” album. In one song, “Ruin the Friendship,” Swift sings about wishing she had kissed a friend she had a crush on before it was too late. It’s an apt soundtrack for Jonah and Morgan in “Regretting You,” who wrestle with letting themselves rekindle an old flame not examined.

She hopes the movie, like Swift’s song, is a cautionary tale for young lovers.

“Go for the thing that feels authentic and be as gentle about it with the people as possible − a choice that some characters in this movie didn’t make,” Williams says. “The whole movie is sort of encouraging that kind of brave living, brave thinking, just being brave. And in another way, Morgan’s admiration of Clara at the end is about how brave she is and that she’s not operating on the back foot. She’s not coming from a place of fear. She is going for it. I think Morgan envies that and admires it and is going to try to emulate it going forward.”