16 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About The Cast Of "The Summer I Turned Pretty"

Several media outlets reported that Jackie Chung, who plays Belly's mom, was 62 years old, but she finally debunked the myth once and for all and revealed that she's not — in fact — in her 60s.

1. The Summer I Turned Pretty is actually Lola Tung's first professional project; she took a year off from college at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama to film the first season.

@jennyhan / instagram.com

"I was a major theater kid before this," she said. "I had done the whole, you know, school auditions and college auditions, but this was my first real TV audition — and job. The audition process was entirely over Zoom, which was very interesting. But it's also all I've really known. I was at school at the time, in my first year at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, and so I was Zooming in after classes for my chemistry reads. Jenny [Han], you made the audition process so smooth, everyone did. It was so much fun to get to read with so many different actors. I had a blast." 

2. Gavin Casalegno, who plays Jeremiah, played the younger version of Damon Salvatore in The Vampire Diaries back when he was just 16 years old.

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3. Chris Briney, who plays Conrad, is currently set to play Aaron Samuels in the upcoming film adaptation of Mean Girls: The Musical.

@thesummeriturnedpretty / instagram.com

He's starring in the movie alongside Reneé Rapp, Auli'i Cravalho, Angourie Rice, Tina Fey, Jon Hamm, and more. 

4. Elsie Fisher, who plays Skye, uses “they/them” pronouns in real life and actually worked closely with Jenny Han in developing their role.

@elsiefisher / Instagram: @elsiekfisher

“I found this a really fun opportunity to [play] a character that could so easily fall into many conventions because Skye on paper could be a total stereotypical nerd, and there’s also the fact that they’re nonbinary, and I think it would be really easy for that to become tokenization,” they said. 

“For me, Skye being nonbinary felt important because I think trans people in general, but specifically people who don’t fit into ‘male’ or ‘female,’ can be portrayed as very ‘other than’ and don’t always have those happy endings or any sort of connection to others,” they added. “It felt important to tell a story that didn’t feel forced and, I think, feels very true to how life works out.”

They said they also put together a mood board and a playlist for Skye, too. 

5. Series creator and author of TSITP trilogy, Jenny Han, makes cameos in both seasons. Her appearance in Season 1 occurs during the last episode at the deb ball drinking a glass of champagne. In Season 2, she can be spotted in Episode 6 at the gas station where Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah try to get alcohol for their party.

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6. Rain Spencer, who plays Taylor, said her favorite behind-the-scenes moment from Season 2 was filming on the golf course, where apparently the cast had a pillow fight and stole some golf carts.

@thesummeriturnedpretty / instagram.com

7. Kyra Sedgwick, who joined the cast as Susannah's half sister Julia, also had a lot of influence on how her character was developed since Julia wasn't in the books.

@jennyhan / instagram.com

She explained that in her mind, Julia's parents bought the Cousins house before they got divorced — before her father married Susannah's mom. She said, "This sort of very special place that was [Julia’s] haven turned into this really ugly mess. She moved to Boston with her mom, and my father married another woman and ended up having a kid. I would still have to go on the weekends as the child was growing up, to be with them as they became more of a family, I felt more of a stranger in that house, and Rachel’s character was to me — She was just one of those people that just lit up a room as she is — And I was one of those kids for whom life was just harder a more complicated, difficult personality.”

8. Lola fractured her foot back while filming a scene in the very first episode of the series, and the rumor was that Sean Kaufman, who plays Belly's brother Steven, was the one who caused the injury. But Lola and Jenny Han confirmed that Sean didn't technically have anything to do with Lola's fall.

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"Lola broke her foot," said Jenny, and Chris responded by saying, "Sean broke it!" Jenny continued, "The internet gossip was that Sean broke her foot. But the truth is, in the first episode, remember when he's, like, tossing the muffin back and forth? They were running around the kitchen island. Then, Lola slipped. So, did Sean break her foot? Was he, like, the cause of it? I mean sort of?" 

Lola added, "It's not Sean's fault. But at the same time it is, right?"

9. During their downtime on set, Chris and Sean played a lot of chess with each other, and several of their cast mates.

@jennyhan / instagram.com

They also said they like to play video games to "wind down." 

10. Back when the series first released in 2022, several outlets reported that Jackie Chung, who plays Laurel, was 62 years old. However, Jackie recently took to Instagram and debunked the myth once and for all.

@anotherjackiechung / instagram.com

11. Lola and Jenny are both Taylor Swift fans and even attended the Eras Tour together — they got to sit in front of Taylor when she sang "False God," which appeared in Season 1 of TSITP.

@jennyhan / Instagram: @jennyhan

Jenny also said that at the time she was writing the books, she was listening to Taylor's album Fearless. Her love for Taylor also really influenced how much of her music has ended up in the series. 

12. Lola, Sean, and David Iacono, who plays Cam (aka Cam Cameron), all went to the same high school — LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City.

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Sean is two years older than Lola, so she wasn't sure that he'd remember her. She said, "I didn't expect Sean to remember me since I was a sophomore while he was a senior, but I remember I was like, 'I remember you. I saw you in a show at my school!'"

13. Lola, Gavin, and Chris all have recorded parts for their respective characters in TSITP books.

@jennyhan / instagram.com

"It was really fun to do. I wouldn't mind doing another one," Lola said. "It was very quick, actually. I think it was about six days for three books. Then the guys did some of the second and third book. It was really cool to figure out how to convey all the things that Belly was feeling and get those emotions across through my voice when I'm used to the physicality [of acting] — and facial expressions. It was cool to work in a different medium."

You can buy your own copies of the audiobooks here. 

14. In Season 2, Episode 5, for the scene where Steven takes a bite out of the apple bong, Sean actually had to take giant bites out of five different apples because of how many takes they shot.

Prime Video / @thesummeriturnedpretty / instagram.com

15. Lola and Jackie both sing and have been known to break out into song on set. Lola said a few times they even sang The Sound of Music together.

@thesummeriturnedpretty / instagram.com

She said, "Sometimes, we're goofing around. Jackie was saying that I sing, I think Jackie has a beautiful voice. She loves to sing, sometimes we sing Sound of Music songs together — not actually, like, all the time, like once or twice — but it's fun!"

16. Finally, when asked what brother they're rooting for, Elsie and David are Team Conrad. Rain and Kyra are Team Jeremiah. Meanwhile, Lola is Team Belly.

@jennyhan / instagram.com

Chris said that his girlfriend even is Team Jeremiah.