Mckenna Grace is getting candid about the types of roles she’s not interested in at this point in her career.
The 20-year-old actress, who next stars as Maysilee Donner in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, recently told Cosmopolitan, “I definitely don’t do nudity or very hypersexual things.”
“I respect anybody who can, but it’s terrifying to me,” she explained. “I don’t know if that’ll ever change. It’s not like I only do wholesome things — my character literally gets gutted by Ghostface in [Scream 7] — but my dream is to try and be a Disney princess someday.”
Grace, who already has dozens of film and television projects to her name, rose to fame as a child actor. After landing her first commercial at age five, she quickly began making a name for herself before she was even a teenager with her roles in The Young and the Restless, Gifted, I, Tonya and The Haunting of Hill House, among others.
The Regretting You actress also opened up about how she navigated the transition from kid to adult on set, admitting she enjoys having “a bit more ownership” over her roles now.
“As a kid on set, you’re expected to act like an adult until you’re on camera. Then you’re a kid until everybody is mad at you because you’re acting like a kid,” she said. “Now it’s cool to be an adult and be able to give my opinion and have a bit more ownership over characters. I’ve really enjoyed sitting down with producers and pitching all my ideas.”
As Grace gets settled into adulthood, she’s already landed several major projects, from Regretting You to Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 to Scream 7, and she’s now preparing for the global release of Sunrise on the Reaping on Nov. 20.
When The Hollywood Reporter caught up with the actress at the film’s U.K. premiere in October, she admitted that taking on the role of Maysilee was “daunting and insane,” especially after seeing all the early fancasts for her to play Haymitch’s (Joseph Zada) arena ally.
“I think that what eased some of the pressure was the fact that people seemed to respond mostly nicely to my casting, which is not always the case,” Grace said. “That meant so much to me that the fanbase liked me as Maysilee because I was like, ‘I don’t even know if I like myself as Maysilee! How am I gonna do this justice?’ Like, taking on something like this in a franchise that I care so deeply about and a character that means everything to me. It’s been so daunting and insane.”