Fuelled by viral online reactions and the popularity of Han’s bestselling novels, The Summer I Turned Pretty was renewed even before the series premiered last June, and skyrocketed Tung and her co-stars, Christopher Briney and Gavin Casalegno, who play brothers and romantic rivals Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher, to social media fame virtually overnight.
This season, the characters “are not the same people they were a year ago”, says Han, who is also the series creator and co-executive producer. “Every single one has lost something and also gained something.”
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Tung admits that she was nervous going into the debut season, especially with ardent fans of the books. But after returning to film season two last year, she and her cast mates felt a renewed confidence about bringing their characters to life, with Han on hand to guide them through important scenes and character backstories.
“The character and the books have existed for so long, and so many people love them and already have a vision of who this character is,” Tung says.
“Belly is probably different to every person; you imagine yourself in her shoes when you read the book. But I was never going to try to be whatever version of Belly one specific person had in mind, other than the version that me and Jenny were learning about together while we were filming. She really let me trust my instincts.”
“I’ve received some of the sweetest messages ever from people talking about how much they love the show and the characters and how they relate to Belly and love seeing an Asian-American family on screen in this way,” says Tung.
For this season, filming pivotal book scenes had Tung so nervous that she spent extra time annotating her scripts, journaling and listening to music to prepare.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself,” says Tung of the emotional scenes she shares with both Casalegno and Briney in the second episode. “When you’re in the moment you just have to be present and trust your scene partner. And I was very lucky to have such wonderful scene partners who I could just play in the scene with and let it all go.”
This season also gave Briney the chance to find new dimensions in Conrad, now a first-year in university. Still experiencing panic attacks, his sudden disappearance from school leads to a reunion with Belly and Jeremiah that sets the season in motion.
“As much as you can be like, wow, he made some breakthroughs in the first season and he found someone who he could talk to and confide in, he’s still f****d up,” says Briney. “He’s still learning. It’s not like he’s been fixed. I don’t think any of us ever are, but I appreciate Jenny giving him the space to be like that.”
In season two, the actors build out their sibling relationship further on screen, exploring more of the home life and history they share outside Belly’s perspective.
“They’re brothers. They care about each other. That was something that we [wanted] to really expand on. And we have some beautiful scenes towards the end of the season that are some of my favourites,” says Casalegno.
Like many contemporary dramas, music plays an important part in this show, and some of the tracks were cleared ahead of time so that actors could hear it during filming, including Des’ree’s “I’m Kissing You” from Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, heard in episode two when Belly loses her virginity to Conrad, and Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License”, which plays during Belly’s tearful drive home in the season two opener.
“They let me play ‘Drivers License’ over and over,” says Tung, who pays homage to Rodrigo’s music video in the scene. “It was 4am and it was the last scene we had to film. I put the song on in the car and they just let me drive and cry.”
As for the show’s central romantic rivalry, The Summer I Turned Pretty’s producers are well aware of how invested their fans are in the great debate: Team Conrad, Team Jeremiah or Team Belly? The fun is in seeing if they can get viewers to change their minds.
“In the season two romance, there is a lot of, who feels like the soulmate versus who feels like the surprising option?” explains co-producer Sarah Kucserka. “I think it’s always nice to twist the audience on its head and maybe win some folks from one side to the other.”
As fans find their loyalties tested or confirmed, Han is focused on how Belly learns from her mistakes and grows into who she is meant to be.
Another season has yet to be approved, although Belly’s fate has already been written in Han’s final novel of the trilogy. How it may evolve for the screen remains to be seen.
“I like the idea of it being ultimately what makes her happy,” Han says, “and how you grow as you get older and your ideas change about love.”
