The actor and musician opens up to L’OFFICIEL about recording her new single, “Ugly and Rotten,” while balancing a packed filming schedule that includes Scooby-Doo: Origins and the upcoming Hunger Games prequel.

At 19, <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/mckenna-grace-mason-thames-regretting-you-movie-actor-dating" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mckenna Grace</a> has already spent more than half her life working in Hollywood. Though she’s earned a reputation as a modern scream queen thanks to roles in The Bad Seed, Annabelle Comes Home, The Haunting of Hill House, and Scream 7, her range extends far beyond horror. Over the years, she’s portrayed everyone from prodigies (Gifted) and ghost hunters (Ghostbusters: Afterlife) to superheroes (Captain Marvel) and survivors (The Handmaid’s Tale). With a résumé that spans prestige dramas and blockbuster franchises alike, her acting career shows no signs of slowing down—and between filming roles in the upcoming <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/sunrise-on-the-reaping-movie-cast-joseph-zada-haymitch-mckenna-grace-jesse-plemons" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Hunger Games</a><a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/sunrise-on-the-reaping-movie-cast-joseph-zada-haymitch-mckenna-grace-jesse-plemons" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> prequel</a> and Netflix’s live-action Scooby-Doo: Origins, Grace has also been making time for another creative passion: music. Her latest single, “Ugly and Rotten,” is proof that she’s just as at home in the recording studio as she is in front of the camera.
“This is definitely the heaviest song that I've written,” she tells L’OFFICIEL. “I’m a big rock and metal fan, and I’ve always wanted to dabble in those sounds and instruments. So it made me really happy to play around a lot more in these rock-y tones on the track.” Grace first began recording music during the pandemic, releasing her debut single, “Haunted House,” in 2021. The track was later featured on the Ghostbusters: Afterlife soundtrack and played over the film’s closing credits. She followed that up with her 2023 EP, Bittersweet 16, and released a trio of singles in 2024, the same year she made her festival debut at Lollapalooza. But arriving just weeks before her 20th birthday, “Ugly and Rotten” signals a new chapter in her evolution as an artist. “A lot of my earlier work is from when I was very young, because I first started releasing at 15 and had been writing some of those songs at 13 or 14,” she explains, on her way to the Scooby-Doo: Origins set in Atlanta just hours after the song’s release. “Since then, my voice has matured, my thoughts have matured. I'm growing up, and my music, I hope, is growing up with me. All of my songs are glimpses into points in my life, so every song I write is going to be from a different moment in time.”  
Storytelling is at the heart of everything Grace does, whether she’s stepping into a character onscreen or writing lyrics in the studio. “I just like to tell stories that feel meaningful—things with substance that I connect to and that could be impactful for other people,” she says. The difference, she notes, is whose story she’s telling. “In acting, I'm telling other people's stories. In music, I get to tell my own. It’s a lot scarier, but also really exciting to have that control. That creative freedom allows her to explore sides of herself that don't always fit neatly into a role. “I find that I get to be a lot angrier or messier,” she says. “When I'm singing, I don't want to feel like I'm putting on another identity, since that's what I do for work already.”
Stepping into the iconic role of Daphne Blake for Scooby-Doo: Origins—Netflix’s eight-episode reimagining of how the Mystery Inc. gang first met at summer camp—has been both surreal and intimidating for Grace, who previously voiced a younger version of Daphne in the 2020 animated film Scoob!. “I have the craziest impostor syndrome, but it's been so cool,” she says. “There are at least 20 times a day that I run onto set and I just look around like, Guys, we're doing Scooby-Doo. I freak out about it all the time.” The novelty has yet to wear off. “I'm practically in tears on set every other day, looking around at Abby [Ryder Fortson] and Tanner [Hagen] and Max [Jenkins] and thinking, Oh my god, you're Velma, you’re Shaggy, you're Fred, and I'm Daphne. I can't believe that we’re here doing this. It's insane. I've been over the moon.” 
Below, read our full conversation with Grace about growing up in Hollywood, finding her fashion footing, and how Daphne’s purple wardrobe managed to infiltrate her own.

Photography courtesy of Mckenna Grace.

L’OFFICIEL: “Ugly and Rotten” is officially out in the world. How are you feeling, and what did you do to celebrate?
MCKENNA GRACE: I've been checking in a bit here and there to see what people are saying. I’m in Atlanta right now filming Scooby-Doo, and I had an overnight shoot and then had an hour or two before I went to set today, so I went to the aquarium. I was like, You know what? That's what I'm going to do to celebrate.  
L’O: What inspired the song?
MG: I found an old diary entry in my phone that said, You said that we’d figure it out. Guess you were busy, figuring her out. From there, I went back and looked at a bunch of old diary entries from a big betrayal, took all those, and ended up crafting a story and a song. I was working with some of the guys from Ice Nine Kills, a band that I collaborated with in the past [on their song “Twisting The Knife,” from the Scream 7 soundtrack]. I just wanted to have fun with it.
L’O: At what point did music become something you wanted to pursue professionally, in addition to acting?
MG: I started writing music in 2020, when there was nothing else to do and I was trapped in my home. I don't like to not work, so I ended up meeting with a [record] label. I had always been musical; I played ukulele for a long time as a little girl, because I wanted to be like Grace VanderWaal. I eventually made my way over to guitar, too. But it was during the pandemic that I started taking music seriously and getting in the studio.
L’O: You've said in the past that songwriting is almost like therapy for you. Do you find any artists particularly cathartic to listen to? 
MG: I started writing music because of Conan Gray's [2020] album Kid Krow. That really helped me through the pandemic. I've been listening to Olivia Rodrigo's new singles a lot. I think they're so beautiful, especially her unreleased one, “Begged.” Ugh, killer. That one is major. When I’m in my car, I listen to a lot of Slipknot and Nine Inch Nails; those are kind of scream-along and cathartic for different reasons. 
L’O: Besides Conan Gray, who are your lifelong musical inspirations? Was there a concert that you went to as a kid that really impacted you? 
MG: I went and saw Taylor Swift with my mom when I was a little girl—it was the 1989 tour. That was my first concert. I started getting into pop rock in the first place because of Green Day. And then I love Flyleaf and Evanescence, because I love to see a female-fronted metal band. What I always really loved about Fly was that it's not only a female-fronted metal band, but it's a female-fronted metal band with a vocalist who screams. I don't find a lot of women in metal that scream, so I think that's super sick. I've loved them since I was a little girl. 
L’O: What can fans expect from your upcoming music? 
MG: It’s a bit all over the map. I've been getting a lot of comments and questions about love songs, and you can expect a good couple of those. You can also expect some more songs that are angry and fun to yell. I'm trying to find a way to streamline things, because I haven't released music in over a year. These songs have all accumulated over the past couple of years and represent different stories and moments from my life. 
L’O: On the acting front, you have The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping coming out this year and you’re currently filming the Scooby-Doo series. How do you balance recording music and being on set for production for these major projects?
MG: It's hard to find a work-life balance, but luckily I love my job. My job is my life. So it's like, this is all I do. I don't like to sit still, so I spend my weekends in the studio. But I do find that the two coexist really well. One of my favorite things to do is write music for a project that I'm on and pitch it to the directors.

L’O: In addition to The Hunger Games prequel and Scooby-Doo: Origins, you also have the horror film Kiss of Death and the Green Day–inspired comedy Nimrods coming out. What can we expect from those? 
MG: They’re all very different genres, and I'm thankful that I was able to play in each one of them. I filmed Kiss of Death two or three years ago, so it's funny that it's finally coming out. But all of our casts are incredible. I've been lucky to go from job to job with so many talented and kind people. Hunger Games and Scooby-Doo are both huge IPs that we are taking really good care of and really taking our time to craft something to the best of our abilities. On these jobs, everyone is a fan. We've all sought these projects out because we're so excited about them. I was after Scooby-Doo for the longest time, and as soon as the new Hunger Games book dropped, I went to Barnes &amp; Noble and read it without the audition even being in consideration. We're trying to make something that we're all proud of and the fans can be happy with. So everybody should be stoked. 
L’O: As you said, they’re all very different genres—and that range has been a hallmark of your career. Is there a role or a project that resonated with you most? Or a character that’s been the hardest to shake?
MG: I was actually just talking to [actor and boyfriend] Mason [Thames], who is also in Nimrods, and my mom about this today. They were like, Your personality changes a bit after each of the sets that you're on. I asked what I was like while playing Maysilee [Donner, a tribute from District 12 in The Hunger Games prequel], and they said I was just tired, which makes sense. And then I asked how I’ve been while playing Daphne in Scooby-Doo, and they were like, This is the bubbliest we've ever seen you. I've been racking my brain now since they told me that, trying to think if my personality really changes. I do find that I take a little bit of each character, although I'm not method in any way, shape, or form. But I was recently around my Hunger Games cast, and our director was like, Oh god, she's using Scooby-Doo lingo. Because I kept saying “jeepers” and “toodles.”
L’O: Do you find that the same thing happens with your style? Do you kind of pick up little fashion or beauty habits from your characters?
MG: Daphne has been the most extreme. Like, my entire closet is purple. As soon as I booked the role, I was like, Once I get my red hair, nobody will see me in anything but purple. I've made it my mission to never be without an element of purple in my outfits while I'm shooting this season of Scooby-Doo. It's been ridiculous and so fun, because I've never played a character that has such an iconic wardrobe. When you think of Elle Woods, you think of her in pink. When you think of Santa Claus, you think of him in red. And when you think of Daphne Blake, you think of her in purple. Right now I’m using purple headphones, wearing purple shoes, and have purple nails. And I’m also wearing my Daphne necklace. 
L’O: Having grown up in the public eye, where do you feel you're at in your own fashion journey? 
MG: I've really struggled with style my entire life. I attribute some of it to the fact that I had a major spine surgery [to address scoliosis] a few years ago, which really changed my life. Before then, it was hard for me to lose weight—not that I really needed to, but I like to work out and I would work out hard and never notice a difference or see any results because my body was off. It was exhausting. I was driving myself crazy, like, What is going on? Why do I stand like this? Why don't my clothes fit right? Why can't I work out properly? It was a really confusing time, and it was hard for me to like the clothes I was wearing or feel confident in them. So I've been on an up-and-down fashion journey, but after my surgery, my confidence changed, my body changed, and my quality of life just went up tenfold. Now that I've started playing around in that space, I'm having so much fun.
L’O: Are you gravitating towards anything in particular?
MG: I love Old Hollywood, like ‘50s and ‘60s classic stars. Style icons like Bridget Bardot or Marilyn Monroe or Audrey Hepburn. I also think of Gwyneth Paltrow at the Oscars in that pink [Ralph Lauren] dress [in 1999] as an Old Hollywood look; even though it’s not technically Old Hollywood, it still has the vibe. I love to be girly—I love dresses and skirts. Being super feminine is kind of my thing right now, which is funny because I used to veer away from that when I was younger. I was dorky and awkward and leaned a bit more tomboy as a kid. Now I’ve fully swung the other way.
L’O: You're turning 20 at the end of this month. What's your mindset going into your 20s? Are you manifesting anything for the next decade?
MG: I haven't wrapped my head around the fact that I'm turning 20, much less the fact that I'm about to move into my 20s. When you've been working since you were a little kid, it’s weird to change and evolve not only with the industry, but with the people around you. I never set too many expectations for myself when I look to the future, but going to the Oscars was always my dream, and I just got to cross that off my bucket list. Maybe the next thing to cross off on my bucket list will be doing a musical. And hopefully I get to do more horror movies, because I've really enjoyed the horror resurgence this year. But really, I'm just thankful for where I am and what I'm doing. I'm on my dream job right now, and I treat every project like it could be my last. I don't want to get too ambitious; I just want to keep working, putting things out there that I can be proud of, and spending time with the people that I love. I spend my 20s doing that, then I think I'll be very happy.

Mckenna Grace on Stepping Into a New Creative Chapter—And Her 20s

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