Colleen Hoover‘s third movie adaptation is about to hit the big screen, with Reminders of Him telling the emotional story of a young woman released from prison after an accident that killed her boyfriend, as she attempts to rebuild her life, reconnect with her daughter and find love again along the way.
Maika Monroe, Tyriq Withers and Rudy Pankow star, with Lauren Graham and Bradley Whitford as the young child’s grandparents who refuse to let Monroe’s character see her. It’s a departure from the kind of roles Graham usually plays, which was one of the main draws, the Gilmore Girls star told The Hollywood Reporter.
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“I feel so excited when somebody thinks of me for something that is not the things I usually get thought of for. I found something so moving in that actually, and I went to work on it in a way I haven’t worked on something in a long time,” Graham said at the film’s L.A. premiere on Monday.
She noted that she also did “this movie Twinless last year, where it’s also kind of against type,” in which she similarly played a troubled mother. Graham continued that when it comes to taking on more dramatic work, “if there was more Lorelai [Gilmore] to do, I would do it, but the facsimiles are not as good. And I think there’s something to growing older and you just hit a different kind of part.”
The film’s two leads also enter new territory with the romantic drama, as Monroe and Withers both have spent recent years working mostly on horror and thriller projects.
“It was so lovely doing a film so different than what I’ve done,” Monroe — who has starred in Longlegs, It Follows and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle — explained of the shift. “My favorite genre is romance movies, rom-coms and rom-dramas, and it just felt very surreal to be a part of one. And Tyriq is such an incredible partner in crime, so I felt very lucky.” Though it’s soon back to horror with her next project, They Follow, she adds she’s seeking more of a mix of genres these days: “It’s very fulfilling in a different way, so I’m definitely looking for other things.”
Withers, himself off of Him and I Know What You Did Last Summer, emphasized that it was refreshing not to be “covered in fake blood,” but “I had to live in that vulnerability, so there’s always challenges to these types of films. If you don’t believe the chemistry or the heart where we’re performing from then we’re not in a good place. It was a lot more emotional responsibility with this film.”
Reminders of Him hits theaters on Friday.
