The Summer I Turned Pretty love triangle made a live appearance at this year's Teen Vogue Summit, dishing all about their characters' dynamics and giving a small taste of what's to come for TSITP season 3.
The show's three main actors — Lola Tung, Christopher Briney, and Gavin Casalegno — along with The Summer I Turned Pretty's author Jenny Han joined Teen Vogue's Associate Culture Director P. Claire Dodson on November 23 in Hollywood for a discussion about the series in front of hundreds of fans eager for more intel about the upcoming third season.
The foursome somewhat provided; while they were very careful about spoilers, Casalegno (who plays Jeremiah Fisher) hinted at “magical, fun” moments on the horizon for Jeremiah and Belly. His favorite Jelly moment so far, however? Well, it's the little things.
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“The story is very dramatized and something that's so beautiful is getting to be in the car with each other and be able to sing songs together and enjoy each other's presence,” Casalegno said. “That's something I personally enjoy. There's something sweet about those moments that build the relationship and the kind of foundation for those relationships.”
The actors also shared that playing their characters for the last few years has helped them grow in their personal lives as well. “I started this process when I was 18 and I'm 22 now and it’s just been cool cause I learned so much from her,” said Tung, who plays the main character Belly Conklin at the center of this coming-of-age story. “I’m bringing some of myself to her and I understand that experience of just like, teenage girlhood.”
Briney, who plays Conrad — and one of Belly's love interests in the show — agrees that the messiness of a character is what makes them exciting to play. He said the show starts with an introduction of who Conrad is, but his evolution “will pan out” as the story goes on.
“The great thing about acting is justifying what the character does, especially if at face value it's difficult to justify,” Briney said. He also hoped that Conrad “could benefit from not being so hard on himself.”
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For Casalegno, playing Jeremiah was all about playing into his maturity. He said in season two, Jeremiah started to grow into his “battle with his brother," along with his budding relationship with Belly.
“[The advice] I would have for Jeremiah is to protect [his] heart,” Casalegno said.
While the main conflict in The Summer I Turned Pretty centers around Belly's love triangle with Conrad and Jeremiah, creator, executive producer, and author Jenny Han said that she wanted to focus less on centering men and more on Belly's coming-of-age story. Han said that each season is a transformation from Belly as a young girl, to season three where she grows into a young woman.
“We’re just with her every step of the way and hopefully having empathy for her and empathy for ourselves in moments where we have acted less than perfectly,” Han said. “I think it’s hard to see characters really like go through it or make these big mistakes and say those things that they really regret.”
As for the highly-anticipated season three, the four were pretty tight-lipped about it but said that the audience can expect to see the three characters continue to grow — both in their relationships with each other and beyond.
Han, Tung, Briney, and Casalegno, meanwhile each had warm things to say about each other when asked about their favorite qualities in their colleagues.
“The reason Belly's feelings are taken seriously is because of you,” Tung told Han. “Your impact is really incredible and I'm grateful to be any part of it.” Briney added that he appreciated Han's decisiveness and her ability to "put the story first." (Han, for her part, told Tung, “What I love about Lola is she's an amazing secret-keeper. She's an angel … she's a leader and you're never gonna get less than 100% from Lola … I'll tell you guys, season 3 is a lot. She goes through the ringer.")
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And among our favorite trio? “You always give me and the other actors space to deal with things,” Briney told Tung. “We have fun, a lot of fun on set a lot of the time. But sometimes you aren't in the space to have fun, sometimes you just need to do your own thing. And that never takes away from the energy that everyone puts into the scene. I appreciate that, the way you give people space.” Briney told Casalegno, “You're so kind to the people on set, you go out of your way to make people feel comfortable … I f*ck with you, I'm glad you're here."
Casalegno praised everyone's work ethic — “It makes me feel so lazy!” — as well as Han's vision. And he even worked in a little spoiler: “Chris, dude, we have some scenes in the next season that were the pinnacle of just a joy to work with you. That brotherly dynamic, we don't really get to flesh it out in one and two but we really do in three. I really enjoy working with you and those were always some of my favorite days. You're also so intentional.” Casalegno added, “Lola, you're awesome, you're so cool … I really got to see you come out of your shell these last couple years … it's so fun to be able to do scenes with you because I never know what I'm going to get besides an amazing performance. I love all three of you guys.”
“Both of you are really wonderful scene partners and are really giving and really present,” Tung said. She then told Briney, “You have an ability to be still and still incredibly captivating in a moment. It's really beautiful.” And to Casalegno, she finished, "I have so much fun doing scenes with you. I think we have figured out … Belly and Jeremiah's rhythm, to the point where you really see these two people who are best friends. You make it very easy to do that."
The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3 will be on Prime Video in summer 2025.
