Every show has a few characters that you just can't quite crack from the get-go. In The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3, that role certainly goes to Denise Russo. Portrayed by 25-year-old Isabella Briggs, we first meet the sardonic and brainy Denise as a senior associate at Breaker Capital, the company cofounded by the Fisher boys' father.
From the minute she appears on screen, it's clear that work is a priority for Denise. She's been at Breaker for two years, and her goal is clear: climb up the ladder. However, her entire M.O. changes when “nepo intern” Steven and now “nepo baby” Jeremiah also get on the ladder alongside her, reluctantly — at least at first — turning her solo venture into a three-person team.
Before landing the role of Denise, Briggs — whose previous credits include Prime Video's Fatal Attraction, Apple TV+'s Sugar, and a guest starring role in CBS's Evil — already had a serendipitous connection to the TSITP universe, crossing paths with Lola Tung and Sean Kaufman, who bring to life the Conklin siblings, before even meeting Jenny Han.
Below, Teen Vogue sits down with Isabella Briggs to chat about landing the role, break down Denise's dynamics with Steven and Jeremiah, and get a peek at what's to come from the character as she enters a new arc. (Warning: This post contains mild spoilers for the first five episodes of The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3.)
Isabella Briggs: Well, I'm Isabella Briggs. I fell in love with acting and the idea of it when I was around three years old. I watched Pirates of the Caribbean with my family and that was when I sort of realized that the things that I had kind of already been doing to entertain myself as an only child — dressing up, creating characters, performing, things like that — was an actual path that I could pursue in life.
I begged my parents for years and years to let me join an acting class, and then finally, when I was six, my parents sat me down and were like, “Okay, if you enter an acting class and you stick with it for an entire year, then we will let you start acting professionally.” And that's what I did. When I was seven, I started acting professionally. I went to the conservatory at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, graduated back in 2022, and have been fortunate enough to be consistently working in TV.
IB: Yeah, so actually I don't currently live there. [Laughs.] I currently live in New York City, but I'm actually in LA right now visiting my parents. As much as I love New York and as much as I love the immediacy of it and the fact that my boyfriend is there, my friends are there, I do ultimately, in a few years, see myself coming back to LA and settling down just because the geographical diversity of Los Angeles is so important and satisfying for me. I want a garden and chickens and, you know, you can't really do that in New York City. [Laughs.]
IB: [Laughs.] Yeah. I don't know. I don't know what kind of life that is for those little guys. You know, I wanna give them free range to roam. But I do love New York City.
IB: After I graduated, I actually ended up sticking around LA for about a year and a half. I was working, and then the strike hit. I was just going to live with my parents for a little bit, but virtually everyone in my graduating class, which was about 26 people, moved to New York, including my boyfriend.
I had always wanted to live in New York. I feel like that's something that a lot of people want to do in their 20s or at least once in their lives, so that prospect was really exciting. I also really enjoyed growing into my adulthood away from the place where I was born and raised, and I wanted to continue that after college. I made the decision not to apply to any colleges in California for that sole reason. So about a year and a half after graduating, I moved to New York, and I'm probably going to be there for the next few years.
IB: Not at that point.
IB: She joined right after COVID hit. I was going in my junior year. She was coming in as a freshman, so we honestly didn't interact that much because they were keeping us socially distanced. You weren't really allowed to see anybody who wasn't in any of your classes, all of that.
I really didn't get to know her that well, which is why I was so happy that I had this opportunity to work with her, because she's just such a sweetheart. Even during the brief interactions that I had with her in college, I just could tell that she was such a lovely person, and when we all at school found out that she had booked the show, everybody was over the moon and coming up and congratulating her, just giving her hugs.
IB: Yes, I did! I did watch because of her, and she was so great. I remember just loving the show and texting in my little friend group chat with some people at school being like, “Look at Lola, she's so good. This is so exciting!”
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IB: I've had a lot of synchronicities throughout my life when it comes to booking jobs. So for me, that was almost like a little bit of a sign. I was like, “Oh, I think this is going in a pretty positive direction.”
Sean was just the coolest and kindest person right off the bat. I didn't tell him that I had auditioned for the show when I met him. But then a few weeks after that initial meeting, we were in a chemistry read together. I didn't know if he recognized me at first because we didn't really talk about it, but later, after I had booked it and I saw him again in person, we talked about it, and he was like, “Yeah, of course I recognized you.” And I was like, “Okay, cool.” [Laughs.]
IB: He did say, “Hey.” We both said, “Hey.” But I will say when you do those things, sometimes it really is get in, get out. I remember for that, we just kind of jumped right in and started playing around, so there wasn't a lot of room for small talk. But it was okay. I think the fact that we had met each other previously was also nice because, even if we didn't acknowledge it in the moment, there was an ease there between the two of us.
IB: I got the self-tape for it in early January, and I got the call that I had booked it, I think it was the day before Valentine's Day, if I remember correctly, in 2023. So it was about a month-long process, I would say. I sent in a self-tape, found out that I was pinned, which basically means they're holding you for dates, strong interests, blah, blah, blah. Then I had a callback with Jenny, the casting directors, and I believe some of the producers were on there too. Did that and then had a chemistry read with Sean and Gavin [Casalegno], so Steven and Jeremiah, to play out our office banter. And then maybe a week or two weeks after that, I got the call that I booked it, and I was over the moon.
IB: Yes. I was sitting on my couch in the apartment that I was subletting. My boyfriend was right next to me. I'd been waiting for a call from my agent. So when I saw it pop up on my phone, I immediately lunged for it. That was such a fun moment because he was so happy for me and gave me the biggest hug. And then I called my mom and my dad, and I told them, 'cause you know, they had been checking in with me along the journey.
IB: I was like, “God, it happened. It happened, guys! I knew it. Yay.” [Laughs.]
IB: Oh God. Yeah. My friends know that if they have any astrological questions, they come to me. [Laughs.]
IB: I'm a Gemini Sun, Leo Moon, Virgo Rising. We have very mercurial energy.
IB: I know. [Laughs.] And you're like, “I'm so outta whack. What is going on?”
IB: When I was auditioning, I bought a journal, actually, to really bang out all of my ideas when it came to her backstory and who she was, and also to immerse myself a little bit in VC and figure out why that was the career path that she chose.
Then, throughout the process of filming, journaling was a huge thing for me. Especially with Denise's more type-A, analytical mind. I felt like writing things down and beating things out was akin to who this character was.
And then I also created a playlist that I pictured her listening to on the way to work. That had some Nina Simone in it, some Beyoncé, some Victoria Monét, Esperanza Spalding… Just a little bit of a mixed bag. I would figure out the placement of her voice. She has a little bit of a sharper tone than I do. It's very subtle, but it just lives a little bit more in her throat sometimes. And so that was fun getting to create that and explore that.
IB: Yeah. I know it pierces you sometimes. [Laughs.]
IB: Yep, you gotta have a balance.
IB: I think the softer side of her. She kind of comes out guns a blazing in the first few episodes, and something that I was really excited about in episode 5 was the fact that you, the audience members, get to know Denise in a much more intimate way. She is slowly but surely breaking down this steely facade around Steven. You get to understand a little bit of her backstory and begin to realize why she is the way that she is and why she presents herself in the way that she does, especially at the beginning of the show.
IB: I think Denise is someone who has had to play defense for so long in her life that sometimes it almost comes off as if she's playing offense, and that, for me as an actor, was really interesting. It was really interesting justifying some of the things that she says initially to Steven and to Jeremiah, and the way that she says those things. But ultimately, I think she's just a woman who wants the world for herself and her family and realizes how hard she has to work to get there. I think it's beautiful that we get to see that sort of softer, more vulnerable side of her now.
IB: Absolutely. I mean, she talks about wanting to do more and she kind of feels stuck in this position at Breaker because it's a great job and she's a senior associate and she has worked her way up and she doesn't wanna let down her family, you know, but she sees growing and expanding past this and now that's something that she has to deliberate and figure out.
IB: Hmm. No. [Laughs.] I played The Sims 4 and that's about it.
IB: I know! I would say that's the extent of my gamer girl persona. But when I was a kid, I would play the Wii. [Laughs.] Let's bring back the Wii. It makes me so sad that we got rid of it and that it's not a thing anymore. I mean, I guess, I know we have Switch, but I don't know what that is. I want the Wii again. I want the tennis racket. I want to bowl in my living room.
IB: [Laughs.]
IB: We're seeing a pretty accurate progression of their relationship. Steven in episode 2 mentioned this messiness going on with his girlfriend and his ex-girlfriend. And so I think throughout the episodes, what we haven't seen is just Steven talking on the phone with Taylor, mentioning her, or you know, even Jeremiah mentioning her. Nothing that Denise really wants to invest her time in. And because she's a smart girl, she's a quick girl, I think in that moment when she sees Steven kind of falter in his steps and she looks at this girl who's dressed in this beautiful dress and is looking at him, she's like, “Oh no, I'm not getting involved in whatever this is. I think I know what's happening here, and it's none of my business.”
IB: I think that Denise still has her guard up around Jeremiah and is still very wary of him, but I think she is accepting the fact that, you know what, he is here to stay, and we just gotta get our work done and do what we gotta do. But I think especially in the train, she's starting to realize, “Okay, maybe he can step up to the plate, you know.” Catching what he did during this episode and bringing it to Adam and telling us about it. Even if it's to Denise's chagrin, she will ever so slightly relent to the fact that he did good. [Laughs.]
IB: Just this one time! We'll see about the other times, hopefully!
IB: I think exactly what you just mentioned, they're calling people out, they're speaking their mind. I feel like that's been something that Taylor has sort of held down throughout the past few seasons, and now we're joining her in that way. I also think it's nice to see these characters with people who are not related to their immediate family, or like close family friends. And I mean, I love Zoé [de Grand'Maison] so much, and I love her portrayal of Agnes. Every time I watch her on screen, I just smile because I think she's doing such a great job.
IB: Her best trait is that she's incredibly smart and driven. I think also when you get to know her, she can really open up and be deeply grounded in a way that we may not get to experience in an office scenario, and I feel like that also sort of grounds the people around her in a really beautiful way.
In terms of the qualities that are different from me, or that, you know, I think she can work on… I do think she is a little bit too harsh with her judgments at times, which I can empathize with just because of where she's coming from and all that she's had to do to get to the position that she is in in this company. I think she's even starting to realize that, too, you know, with her initial judgment of Steven and Jeremiah. I think she's having to admit to herself that she judged them too harshly in the beginning and that she needs to give credit where credit is due.
With characters like these, they're rarely ever just mean to be mean. There's always something else going on. There's always something that's happened in their past that has led them to hold the judgment that they do and to act and speak in the way that they do. And I'm excited now that we're seeing that loosen up and move.
IB: I think you'll just see it through her actions and get to understand and get to know her better as a character and as a person. There may be a few other conversations in there. [Clears throat.] But yeah, I think ultimately you'll get to know a new side of Denise that wasn't initially presented in the first few episodes.
IB: Oh God, no. Not with the airport theory. That stresses me out. Every single time I see one of those TikToks, I roll my eyes because that's not even a theory! That's just showing up late to the airport. Or with barely any time! That's not a theory. [Laughs.] I always see the TikToks end being like, “Well, I missed my flight.” Na ah. I do show up two hours early for domestic and three hours early for international. That is common knowledge. I will get a little coffee, I will sit at my gate, I'll get some food, I'll chill. I have my iPad, I'll watch a show. I'm like, I'm chilling in my peace knowing that it'll be on my flight. [Laughs.]
IB: I have seen a few of them. I try to honestly, as best as I can, stay off of it, but I've definitely taken a peek and seen the theories, yeah. [Laughs.]
IB: “Hmm. Okay!”
IB: Iiiiinteresting. [Laughs.]
IB: The last two, I would say. They were just so fun to film.
IB: Oh, it would totally be a spoiler! I can talk about it when they're out, but at the end of anything, you just become so comfortable with the people that you're working with, and I feel like you're able to have a little bit more fun with them. I feel like that's what we had even when we weren't filming the scenes, honestly, when we were hanging out outside. Around that time, it was just really lovely and nice, and I have many fond memories.
IB: The biggest lesson is to be gentle with yourself. That was the biggest takeaway for me. My favorite memory, I mean, we just went to the beach a lot. We had a great 4th of July. That was so fun there. One of my most favorite memories that I don't think I can necessarily talk about [much] because it was on set, but I was with a bunch of people, and, in between takes, we were playing charades and it was just the most ridiculous game of charades and I was laughing so hard, I think I was crying. I look back on that and think how much fun it was.
IB: I'm just really grateful to be a part of this show, which has such a loyal and passionate fan base. That's something that I haven't experienced yet. I just feel very humbled and very grateful to have had this experience and to be a part of this cast and this story that is so amazing.
IB: Yeah, it's kind of crazy. [Laughs.]
IB: Yeah. Mostly. I would say mostly. It's cool.
Photographer: Ackime Snow
Hair: Geo Brian
Makeup: Dani Parkes
Stylist: Maren Taylor
Styling Assistant: Dominic Turiczek
