'The Summer I Turned Pretty' cast Lola Tung, Sean Kaufman, Rain Spencer tease Season 3 relationships

Yahoo

6 days ago

Easily one of the most highly anticipated TV releases of the year, The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 lands on Prime Video July 16, the final season of the show adapted from Jenny Han's book trilogy. Starring Lola Tung as Belly, Christopher Briney as Conrad and Gavin Casalegno as Jeremiah, fans are waiting to see the outcome of this complicated love triangle.
While it may be obvious that the series will end just like the book, which we won't spoil here for those trying to avoid the potential finale moment, the hit show has been known to throw in some surprises. It's a testament to how the series works to service original fans of the story and newcomers alike.
"I think of the work that we did this season, I think it really comes together beautifully," Han told Yahoo Canada. "I think the intention is always to honour the original fans of the story and also bring some new things to the table as well, just to keep things exciting."
"For me, I always have to be excited about whatever I'm doing, and feel energized ... to tell the story and play in the world."
When asked what Taylor Swift song Han and Tung would say best represents Belly in Season 3, they agree on "Bejeweled" from the Midnights album.
A significant element of The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 is that we're starting four years after the end of Season 2. Belly is in her junior year of college and as we see in the trailer for the season, Belly and Jeremiah make plans to get married. But things seem to get complicated when Belly reconnects with Conrad, who moved to California where he's continuing his journey to become a doctor.
"We had a year off because of the strike, so I kind of got two years off between filming Season 2 and Season 3. ... I ended up playing my own age, which was kind of cool. I feel like that doesn't happen that often," Tung said. "And I felt like over those two years I had grown so much, and I know that Belly had also grown so much over the four years that we didn't see her."
"So it was cool going into Season 3 with a sort of new perspective, and all the lessons that I'd learned in my life, and all the lessons that I knew Belly had learned and was going to learn this season."
"That's the coolest part about it, is that you get to bring all that into the character," Han added. "And I think it just really deepens and enriches the story when you can bring your own lived experience to it."
Watch — 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' Season 3 cast tease show's finale: 'It feels so bittersweet'
'She is stubborn and she definitely gets that from Laurel'
With the jump in the timeline comes a new exploration of the mother-daughter relationship between Belly and Laurel (Jackie Chung). Many will recognize that the bond between a teenage daughter and her mother is quite different once that daughter is in her 20s, and we've already been teased that Laurel isn't particularly supportive when Belly and Jeremiah tell her they're going to get married.
"When I think back to being in high school, ... I feel like I was always just so impatient with my mom and so mean, ... where you're often locked in battle a lot with your mom," Han said. "I think because you're coming into your own. You want independence. You want to make up your own mind about things, but you're still living under her roof and you actually don't have much control. ... If one day your parent was like, we're moving because I got a job change, ... you don't really get a say whether or not you're staying or going."
"I think that can feel ... really confining. But then, when you have that space to go out to college and forge your own path a little bit, I think you can have more grace for your parent when you come back home, and you can see them more as people. And I think that, for Belly and Laurel, as Belly gets older, they really are seeing each other more as people and in a more equal footing."
"They're really similar though, too," Tung added. "And that's the thing that also happens where teenagers are often pretty stubborn when it comes to their parents, ... and don't always want to listen, even if what their parents are saying is probably for the best."
"But then Belly, I think, continues to be pretty stubborn, just as a person, that's how she is, which is amazing, because it makes her headstrong and driven and determined. But she is stubborn and she definitely gets that from Laurel ... they're both stubborn."
Jackie Chung explained that in Season 3, Laurel is trying to maintain connections with not just her own kids, but Conrad and Jeremiah as well, after their mother's death.
"When you're in high school, you're still a kid, and then when you jump to college all of a sudden you've already turned 18, you are now an adult," Chung said. "And so I think some of the decisions that you make have bigger repercussions, perhaps."
"Laurel is always there for her daughter and always supportive of her, but they don't always agree on the decisions. I think, like any parent, you're trying to guide your kid, but you don't always agree with what they're doing. And so sometimes they're on the same page, and sometimes they are not."
In terms of parental influences, Conrad and Jeremiah have had a contentious relationship with their father Adam (Tom Everett Scott), and we do see a slight reconciliation by the end of Season 2 when Conrad and Jeremiah wanted to keep the Cousins' house.
Tom Everett Scott highlighted that it was "emotional" to see Adam "break down" about the loss of Susannah, Conrad and Jeremiah's mother, in Season 2, and teased things do evolve in his relationship with his kids in Season 3.
"I think you see a little bit of that coming back together with the boys, and at the beginning of Season 3 he's certainly a little bit better off with Jeremiah, but there is still quite a gap with him and Conrad," Scott said. "So Adam is ... working as best as he can at making amends with his sons."
'On and off again' with Taylor and Steven
But aside from the infamous love triangle, fans are also waiting to see how the relationship between Steven (Sean Kaufman) and Taylor (Rain Spencer) unfolds in Season 3, with the stars teasing that it hasn't been a "fairytale."
"There's a lot of change that goes on," Sean Kaufman said. "Four years means that we're not at the same place where we left off at Season 2. ... There's been some ups and downs, and it's been a little on and off again between these two. ... That leaves us at a very interesting place to start Season 3."
"Our characters have probably broken up and gotten back together a million times," Rain Spencer added.
We'll also get to meet Taylor's mom for the first time, diving into what that mother-daughter dynamic looks like.
"There's a sort of push and pull of like, how much do I help my mom versus how much do I pursue what I want to do, and leave the nest," Spencer said.
Throughout The Summer I Turned Pretty, Taylor has been a character that is bold, brash and has an energetic personality. Moving into Season 3, Spencer thought a lot about how that evolves as we meet the character four years later.
"I was a very different person when I was 16 versus when I was 21, or whatever, and so that was really fun," Spencer said. "When we last saw her in Season 2, there were themes of guarding her heart versus being vulnerable with Steven, and I think when we see her in Season 3, some of that is still there. She's still working on how to be vulnerable with another person."
"Healing isn't linear. .... So sometimes you can make a breakthrough and get somewhere, ... and then maybe later you were more closed off again, and that's cool. That's OK. So she's sort of navigating that now."
Meanwhile for Kaufman, a highlight for many has been seeing how supportive Steven and Conrad are of each other, including being open around conversations about mental health, specifically Conrad's anxiety. And fans can expect more Steven and Conrad scenes in Season 3.
"Chris is a very dear friend of mine. I love him. We hang out like every day, and to get those scenes together were not only amazing to be able to work together, but the magnitude of the scenes, obviously talking about mental health, and then ... just friends being there for friends, ... and having scenes where we get talk and be vulnerable with each other, ... was very interesting," Kaufman said.
"I will say, no spoilers, but we have some scenes together in Season 3 that I'm very excited for the fans to see, and I'm very proud of. I know he works extremely hard, and I'm very excited for you guys to see it."