Chloe Grace Moretz discusses 'If I Stay' character

DALLAS, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- Chloe Grace Moretz thinks her upcoming film If I Stay is more than a love story meant for an exclusively female audience.

While speaking at a press conference for the film in Dallas, the 17-year-old actress says the movie was "just a basic story about love of life and the family."

"I think no matter how old you are, you can have a love of life and family," she continued. "It's not just about your first love. That's a very small plot point in the scheme of this gigantic, all-encompassing kind of story."

Moretz plays shy high school student and cello player Mia Hall in the film. Her character is tasked with deciding whether to live or die after landing in a coma following a car accident that kills her family.

"One of the biggest things [that attracted me] was the fact of the familial love and the kind of palpable relationship between every character in this story," Moretz said of the role.

"There wasn't a moment left untouched where you didn't feel that this girl had so much love in her life, and to feel the impact of that all leaving. And I felt that it really hit home with me and my family -- and how much I love my family and how close they are to me -- and I think it was so much more than just a typical young-adult, novel-oriented story. It really reached levels that I didn't expect to be hit with in my life."

Moretz went on to say the film is more about "witnessing life" than to have "some sort of societal issue being shoved down your throat."

"The older generation might actually like this movie more because it's not based around all the new, young stuff that we all live with," she explained. "Honestly, it's much more of a '50s kind of movie in that sense, which is based more around naturalistic things."

Co-starring Jamie Blackley, Mireille Enos and Joshua Leonard, If I Stay opens in theaters Friday.