The Summer I Turned Pretty stars on those heartbreaking Belly and Conrad scenes
Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Summer I Turned Pretty, season 2, episodes 1-3.
It's a tough time to be a #TeamConrad fan.
After Belly (Lola Tung) ended up with Conrad (Christopher Briney) in The Summer I Turned Pretty season 1 finale, it seemed as if she was about to live out her romantic fairytale dream. But season 2 kicked off with the brutal reveal that Belly and Conrad were officially broken up, as everything had taken a bleak turn in the wake of Susannah's (Rachel Blanchard) death. Through alternating flashback and present day scenes, fans saw the entire tragic timeline of what happened to Belly and Conrad, including the long-awaited cocoa scene, their gut wrenching breakup at prom, and emotional post-breakup fight at Susannah's funeral.
Below, The Summer I Turned Pretty stars Tung and Briney break down all those pivotal Belly/Conrad moments in the first three episodes (now streaming on Amazon).
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Fans finally got to see the cocoa scene come to life in episode 2, which is one of the most fan-favorite moments from the book. What was it like filming such an important moment for Belly and Conrad?
LOLA TUNG: Kind of stressful, honestly. I remember that being a thing. They wanted something just really specific because it's such an important book scene. I'm pretty sure it's taken almost word-for-word out of the book. I was like, "I have to get this right." Just that one line I think of, "Are you going to drink your cocoa?" I was getting so frustrated with myself. I remember that day specifically. But it was really fun to film that because it is such a special moment in the books and for book fans, and I know that Jenny [Han] loves surprising the book fans with those really special, specific moments.
CHRISTOPHER BRINEY: It was sweet, really sweet. There was a lot of detail in that scene that Jenny really wanted to get specifically, down to the mug being used — it was a Simpsons mug, which is a direct reference from the book. And if I said a line a little bit wrong, it just wouldn't work the same way as pulling that moment directly from the book. There's a lot of nice moments in this season, honestly, that are pulled so directly, and that's one of the really good ones that was like fan service.
Immediately after that, episode 3 takes a turn for the worse for Belly and Conrad. What was it like filming a lot of those emotionally heavier moments, with their breakup and fight, all in one episode?
BRINEY: Yeah, it was a lot.
TUNG: It was definitely a challenge. I think having prom and the funeral in the same episode, those are two of the moments that I was most nervous for, and I was just really grateful that Jenny was guiding us through all of it.
BRINEY: When it comes down to working, we're shooting two episodes at a time. We were shooting episodes 3 and 4, and we're bouncing all over the place, so those heavier things usually are kind of spaced out, which is nice. You have time to be like, "Alright, at the end of this week, or on Monday and then Tuesday and Wednesday, those are going to be the big days." It's not like I'll then take it easy for the rest of it, because it's never easy, but I'm going to prepare and know what I'm signing up for that day and know what we're getting into and be really clear about how those beats work.
TUNG: Working with Chris, he just made it so easy to be in the scene and to discover new things every time we would run the scene. We would do a take and try it different ways and try to stay in that very emotional head space for as long as we could. But it was definitely a lot. I don't know if there's really one certain way to ever get through it without being affected in some way because it's a lot of an emotional toll on yourself. But I was really glad that we got to do those really big important moments together.
What was your reaction when you read the script and saw how Belly handled those moments?
TUNG: Sometimes she makes choices that I wouldn't particularly make, but I think when you're playing a character, there has to always be a reason for what they're doing. You have to justify what they're doing because otherwise, if you can't see it from their point of view, how are you going to be able to play that? With prom, I just saw her as trying to finally put her foot down and be like, "You just have to give me some clue about what is happening with us here, because I feel so lost in the dark and in the dark."
With the funeral too, just seeing Conrad so soon after the prom incident, it was bringing up all of those feelings and heightened even more because they were already at this really sad event and they had both lost someone really important in their lives. It was just really hard because they were also losing each other just because of the distance in their relationship. So I can see why Belly was upset in both of those situations. I think it came from a place of love.
Chris, what was it like getting into Conrad's headspace as he's pushing Belly away as his way of coping with his grief?
BRINEY: It was really fun to explore this different Conrad, because it's a weird thing. It's a character that I've explored for a whole season, I had a whole summer last year with the same character. And then you come back to this same character that is in a lot of ways, very different. And so to step back into those shoes and feel a little wobbly and be hurting people in different ways and not knowing how to take care of yourself in other ways, It's a fun challenge to try and balance all these aspects and keep a character grounded and defend the things they do and fight for them.
It's sometimes hard to defend, but gradually and step by step, I would whittle my way down and defend each one of them within the world of it and forgive him for it in my own mind. It's fun to do that as an actor, and play a character who's being a jerk, because I'd like to think it's outside of my realm of existence — it's outside of Chris. [Laughs] So to be able to play that unapologetically is really fun.
The Summer I Turned Pretty season 2 debuts new episodes Fridays on Prime Video.
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Based on the beloved novels by Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty is a coming-of-age drama about a love triangle and the magic of summer.
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