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One scene in Regretting You terrified Mckenna Grace so much that she “made” costar Mason Thames practice — but he wasn’t worried at all.
Speaking with PEOPLE about the new Colleen Hoover adaptation, Grace, 19, reveals she was so worried about getting one of the biggest scenes just right, she made Thames, 18, rehearse it the night before filming.
Discussing the climactic moment between their characters Clara and Miller, Grace turns to Thames and asks, “Did I ever tell you how nervous I was for that?” She did not, he reveals, as she adds, “I mean, I made you practice it.”
The pair practiced the scene, which involves a jump and kiss, in “the hotel hallway,” Thames recalls of their unofficial rehearsals, as Grace adds, “So bad.” (See PEOPLE’s behind-the-scenes look at the sequence in the video above.)
Jessica Miglio / Paramount Pictures
Thames had been walking Grace back to her hotel room when, as he puts it, she began “talking about how nervous” she was for the scene. So he asked her if she wanted to practice.
“I was just so scared,” Grace recalls. “I was like, ‘What if I run and jump at him and he just falls on me?’ ”
“Not that I think you’re not strong,” she clarifies — inspiring a faux-offended reaction from Thames — but “as a girl, sometimes it’s a scary thing to be picked up.”
“She’s like 30 lbs.!” Thames says, as Grace playfully fires back, “Shut your face. I was scared and it was scary. But then it was really fun.”
That memorable moment sparked a trend on social media as it inspired some fans to recreate the jump in theaters over the weekend, sharing their reenactments on TikTok.
The lift and kiss is one of several sweet moments the pair share as Clara Grant and Miller Adams in Regretting You, along with a special prom-posal scene in which Grace and Thames improvised “a lot of kisses,” he tells PEOPLE.
Jessica Miglio / Paramount Pictures
During one moment in particular, the stars felt that their characters would smooch, “and so we did — like, every take,” Thames says, recalling that there was “maybe one take where we didn’t do it.” But the actors’ many kisses “didn’t always make it” in the final cut of the Josh Boone-directed film, he admits.
“That’s the best part,” Grace adds with a laugh. “We’re watching the movie. And we did that and it didn’t make it!”
Based on Hoover’s 2019 novel, Regretting You stars Allison Williams as Morgan Grant, a young mother who puts her ambitions on hold to raise her daughter Clara (Grace). When a family tragedy puts more strain on their already complicated relationship, they must figure out how to navigate life together.
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Other cast includes Scott Eastwood, Willa Fitzgerald and Dave Franco.
Along with Regretting You, Grace and Thames are uniting onscreen in another forthcoming film, New Year’s Rev, a comedy about and produced by Green Day.
Regretting You is in theaters now.
