Mckenna Grace’s viral red carpet moment has fangirls everywhere sympathizing
Mckenna Grace’s career has been something to behold. She starred in and executive produced one of this year’s most surprising box office hits, the adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s Regretting You. Next year, she is set to join both the Scream and The Hunger Games franchises. Prior to that, her years as a child actor means that she has probably played the younger version of at least one character that you really love.
This week, another fact about Grace is going viral… and is garnering the sympathy of fans and fangirls everywhere. Earlier this week, on the red carpet for the Hollywood premiere of Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, Entertainment Tonight brought up a quote from Grace’s recent profile with Teen Vogue, where she admits to having created Hunger Games fancams on TikTok years ago. More specifically, those edits centered around the character of Peeta Mellark… played by Josh Hutcherson, who Grace co-stars with in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.
The interviewer reveals that, earlier on the red carpet, they told Hutcherson about Grace’s fan edits… and she proceeds to go through a slew of emotions. She flat-out asks “Well, why would you tell him?!” and briefly hides, before reemerging and continuing to say that: “This is so diabolical. The thing is, I would have never said this, like, actively in the press if I had known I was going to end up working with him!”
Posts of Grace’s reaction have been all over the Internet ever since, and the responses have ranged wildly. Some have been amused by the exchange. Some have quickly memed her facial expressions as she learns the information. (Some have also realized that she might be the perfect choice to star in the long-gestating Britney Spears biopic… which I, honestly, would like to see.) But a lot of people have also gone to bat for her, arguing that the interviewer telling Hutcherson and now awkwardly putting her on the spot invaded her privacy.
We get it, Mckenna!
The clip of Grace has inspired an interesting debate in fandom spaces: about just how bizarre it is when your extremely online posts about a thing make their way offline. A lot of people have related to Grace’s reaction on a fundamental level, arguing that it’s not too dissimilar to how they felt when their classmates, coworkers or offline friends found their fandom-focused accounts. But we’ve also seen it happen more and more in the entertainment industry itself, especially as the next generation of actors make their way into big franchises.
As soon as Iman Vellani was cast as Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, fans quickly discovered her (still-active) Letterboxd account, and relished in her reviews of some of the franchise’s previous installments. Meanwhile, everyone’s hearts broke when Ayo Edebiri deleted her Letterboxd account earlier this year. (Her review of The Empire Strikes Back where she argues that “adult Yoda is fucking busted” may be gone, but it will live on forever in my heart.) Hell, Grace’s Hollywood doppelganger-turned-costar Kiernan Shipka admitted earlier this year to actively running anonymous meme accounts.
Honestly, there is something iconic about Grace going from making fan edits of Peeta from The Hunger Games to not only starring alongside Hutcherson, but playing a major role in the saga’s next prequel film, Sunrise on the Reaping. She even acknowledged this in the initial Teen Vogue interview, saying at the time that: “I’m still so tapped in with that community. It’s so weird getting to be a part of those sets now. I’m like, ‘[franchise director] Francis [Lawrence], I used to edit this.'” Maybe we should just let her have more of a say in how that information is revealed… especially to her now-costar.
(featured image: Savion Washington/Getty Images for Universal Pictures and Blumhouse)
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