How Lola Tung Became Belly of 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' 🌊🐚

When she's around Conrad,

I think she tends to like freeze up a little bit.

And when she's around Jeremiah,

it's more of this playful energy

where they have this comfortability

where they can touch each other a lot

'cause that's what their friendship is

and that feels like Jeremiah's love language.

But with Conrad there's a lot of, like, eye contact

and she is pretty physically expressive.

Hi, I'm Lola Tung

and this is how I became Belly Conlin

in The Summer I Turned Pretty.

The audition process for Belly was in...

I started auditioning in February of 2021.

I was away in Pittsburgh at college.

Just did a self tape

with my roommates in our apartment and sent it in.

And then from there,

I did a bunch of chemistry reads on Zoom.

Everything was on Zoom.

It was 2021, very early 2021.

The two scenes I did for the audition,

one was the first scene with Taylor, with Belly and Taylor,

where they're like in Belly's room

talking about how Belly's leaving for the summer

and what her plans are.

And then the second scene that I did

was the scene on the beach with Conrad in the first episode

where I run away and I say, to see about a whale.

Wait, where are you going?

To see about a whale.

And I thought that line was very funny and very cute.

When I found out, it was super surreal.

You kind of just go, is this a prank call right now?

They were obviously like, don't tell anyone.

And I was very much like, I can't even tell my grandma?

And my sweet grandma was like looking for summer jobs for me

and sending me clippings from The New York Times

of like summer jobs and stuff being like,

you need to start looking into this.

When I found out I got it, I immediately read the books

and I felt like that was obviously

the most important step, step one.

We made the playlists,

obviously music was a huge thing for me at least.

It helps me just get into a scene.

First season I did a lot of journaling.

I like wrote letters to each of the characters

from Belly's perspective

at certain points in the story.

We read as many scripts as we had

and obviously like did all my drama school script work

of annotating and objectives.

And I think it was just keeping the spirit of the book alive

and being my own version of Belly,

but also not feeling like we were trying

to stray from the books completely

and do something completely different

because the books are...

That's the original material.

And Jenny Han, who's the creator of the show

and the writer of the books, she's obviously watched us now

for three years or whatever and knows the way that we speak

and when they were writing

add in the way that we speak to the characters,

which I think is really cool and interesting.

Yeah, no, you're right, you're right.

When she was younger,

I mean especially you can see it with like the scenes

where we're playing like 11 or 12

with my little braces and stuff.

And I was like, this too is a little more awkward

but also like very physically expressive,

just a little goofier

and even like when she gets angry,

I think like that scene at the bonfire on the beach,

it's bigger and lots of...

You feel the frustration

and the anger that comes out a lot I think

in the physicality.

Quit embarrassing yourself!

Are you okay?

I think it's just like natural instincts

a lot of the time,

but I do think she is pretty physically expressive

and I think it actually varies more scene to scene

than like year to year 'cause when she's around Conrad,

I think she tends to like freeze up a little bit

and when she's around Jeremiah,

it's more of this playful energy

where they have this comfortability

where they can touch each other a lot

'cause that's what their friendship is

and that feels like Jeremiah's love language

and maybe her love language with him, but with Conrad,

there's a lot of like eye contact and yeah,

I think it's very much seen to seen

and depending on what her relationships are like

with each other character in that moment.

I think my voice was pretty much the same most of the time

again except when we were like baby

playing the really young versions of ourselves.

I tried to pitch it up a little bit.

It's okay, it's fine.

Let's try again, come on.

I mean, my hand's kind of sweaty.

It's okay, mine too.

We actually had a whole conversation about that

because I think it can very easily go into like baby voice

and we were like, okay, they're not babies

so it could be like a little higher

but you don't want to get too like goo go gaga with it.

I also had swimming lessons for season.

I can swim, I can swim pretty well

but it was like I had to do some flip turns and stuff

and they're far from perfect,

but I had a little swim lesson before I started.

The hardest part and also most rewarding part of Belly

that I feel like I have down now is sort of going back

to that physicality

and when she's angry and confrontational,

like her ability to just be like, what's going on?

She'll just go up and say what's going on?

Why is this not happening, why is this happening?

I should've known you'd be like this.

What do you mean?

Forget it?

No, say it, tell me.

I don't like confrontation personally

and I tend to not take risks like that.

And I think it was cool just getting to do that

and play that a couple times

and maybe learn from that as a person.

I think I'm just very emotional, I cry all the time.

No shame about it, I'm a cancer moon.

Lots of water in the chart.

No, but I cry a lot and I take pride in it now.

I think it's like embarrassing

or feels embarrassing when you're in high school

and you say the wrong answer in class

and you're like, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry.

But in reality, like I'm very grateful that I'm able

to feel emotions at such an intense level I guess

'cause like I'll cry if I see a sunset.

I literally finished my run in Hades Town on Broadway

on a Sunday at like 6:00 PM

and then woke up the next morning at like 5:00 AM,

got on a flight and went down to Wilmington to film.

Some days you'll be called at 6:00 AM

and work till 6:00 PM or your hair and makeup,

usually two hours earlier and then some nights,

you have night shoots

so you're called at 5:00 PM

and then you work until 5:00 AM.

So it's like different every single day,

which is kind of fun and exciting.

Not fun for your sleep schedule,

but fun and exciting for life experience.

It can take like half a day to film a big scene.

I have no sense of routine.

I feel like when we're filming a cup of coffee,

trying to hydrate

and drink water, I try to see the sun a little bit

if we're doing night shoots, get outside.

I haven't found the perfect routine yet, but I'm looking.

If anyone has tips, let me know.

Belly's in college in season three,

so there's a little time jump.

I was playing my own age which was really, really cool.

She's with Jeremiah, she's living her life

and enjoying being away from home

but still having her friends around her

and having her boyfriend around her.

Yeah, she's having a good time.

On the same sort of note as I cry all the time,

I also laugh all the time 'cause they're very close.

There was a scene that we were filming,

I'm sure it will be talked about this season.

That was not funny for any reason.

I think Chris like said a line

and then made a joke about the line.

That was like the stupidest joke ever.

We couldn't stop laughing.

I think I laughed for 10 minutes straight,

just tears streaming down my face and I felt so bad

because you're like wasting everybody's time.

But I can't control what's happening right now.

But I think it was like late at night

so I was probably a little delirious.

I mean I think the fun thing about TV too

and about film is that you get to do so many different takes

and try different scenes in completely different ways.

And I love that feeling of like going into a scene

and sometimes you read it so much

and you like overanalyze it

and you're sort of stuck a little

and then when you get a note from the director,

that makes you see it a completely different way

and it feels so fresh and new.

And I mean season two, the scene on the beach with Chris

who plays Conrad, I was very proud of myself

'cause I mean Belly's a little drunk in that moment

and sometimes when I do a scene like that,

I feel physicality can be hard for me

and I feel a little like I'm stopping myself

from fully going to a certain place,

but because she had this added layer of like she's drunk

and whatever, it allowed me

to sort of loosen up a little bit

and feel and be present and Chris is so great.

I would've been there for you through everything--

I thought you knew, I thought you knew.

From the moment we kissed on the beach, I thought you knew.

Why, why did you throw it all away?

And then also that same night,

we did the like invisible string sequence from episode two,

which is so crazy that that happened in the same night.

But I'm very proud of that scene

and I'm happy that people enjoyed it

and quoted quite off.

I mean costuming and makeup

and all of it is such a huge part of story storytelling.

As the seasons went on,

we did get to have a little bit of input.

I think when she's younger

and spending a lot of time at the beach

and in the beach house, she's in her big t-shirts

and in her comfortable clothing

and she's always in a bathing suit

'cause she loves to swim, which is awesome.

And coming from New York

and being far away from the beaches

was a whole new experience for me.

But I've grown to love the beach.

Yeah, it was really interesting to see the evolution

and to see

how like Taylor influences the way that Belly dresses

and to see how Susanna

influences the way that Belly dresses.

And in that party scene, that was a huge moment

'cause they're supposed to have sort of retro outfits on

and that was really fun to see those colors on everybody.

And there are some moments I think like no matter what year,

like the Deb Ball was a huge moment

and that's supposed to feel like a stepping up moment

for Belly in a moment of growth.

So it is nice that it feels very grand

and like very different from what else,

everything else she's been wearing.

But I was very excited about season three's wardrobe.

Again, dunno how much I can say, but even in the teaser,

I think you see there's a slight preppiness,

a sort of classic simplicity

and a more elevated shoe occasionally

'cause she loves her flip flops.

But there were a couple things I loved

and there was one outfit, it's very simple

that like reminded me of like my mom.

I just remember I sent it to her

and I was like, this is just in the best way.

My mom is very cool and she's very cool style.

So I wanted to keep that little outfit.

Just like a slightly longer denim short,

a little bit of a nineties vibe, which I loved.

And like a flowy shirt.

Don't overthink everything.

That's just a life lesson I guess in general

with this whole journey that started in 2021.

But like when you're filming and you film a scene

and you leave being like, I don't know if we got it

and I don't know how I feel, at a certain point,

you have to just let go

and like trust that you did the work.

And I think with everything,

like even with interviews and stuff,

I constantly overthink everything I say

and get a certain point.

You just have to trust that you are smart enough

and like doing a good job

and that the people around you are supporting you.

And I've got some really incredible people in my life

that I'm very grateful for

and many of them have come from that show too.

So I'm overthinking this answer.

When something needs to be talked about or needs to be said

or needs to be communicated, especially in relationships

and in friendships, say it.

It's important to communicate

with the people you love and to be honest,

it will help you avoid

far worse issues in the future, thanks Belly.