'REGRETTING YOU' IS A BIG EMOTIONAL MIX:

Actress tells us about Colleen Hoover's best-selling book-to-movie adaptation and why the cast was soon longing for horror

- By Manjusha Radhakrishnan

In the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel, Regretting You, out in UAE cinemas on October 23, Allison Williams stars as Morgan Grant, a mother whose life unravels after a tragic accident reveals shocking family secrets.

The movie, part romance and part emotional reckoning, explores grief, betrayal, and the fragile ties that bind parents and children. In this exclusive conversation with Gulf News, Williams discusses crying on set, motherhood, infidelity, and why every actor on this emotional drama secretly longed to go back to horror.

We’re always suckers for ugly crying and a bit of heartbreak. There’s romance, fragility, and drama. Did you love the concept of the movie as well?

I loved everything about the movie — the cast, Josh [Boone, director], the whole crew, the Colleen Hoover book — but I also loved the idea of playing Morgan and being part of this story. Like you said, it’s hard to pinpoint the genre because it’s a mix: there’s romance, drama, family dynamics, and even some big laughs. It feels like a nice emotional ride. From the moment it begins, you feel ‘I’m in good hands’. I’ll just let go and go on this journey. I'll probably cry, but not all the tears will be sad — it'll be a mix.

I’ve never been part of a movie where I wasn’t bloody by the end, so this felt like a nice change from horror films that I have been a part of! (laughs) We all have horror backgrounds — all four of the main cast have recently done horror movies. Dave had just finished one, and Mason, McKenna, and I have mostly worked in that genre. So this felt like, “Let's do the romantic, dramatic, tragic, comedic version of horror.”

About halfway through the shoot, we were filming a scene where Dave [Franco], McKenna [Grace], and I were all weeping over devastating news, and when we finished, we were all like, “I miss horror.”