‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ stars set sail in exclusive EW portraits

Cousins Beach forever

While Tung and Casalegno tell EW they felt very much like their characters Belly and Jeremiah during the cover shoot, Briney admits he did not feel like Conrad at all — even though he unintentionally acted in-character. “Usually Conrad is there when I work for it, and I do acting work, you know what I mean?” he says. “But when we’re on the beach, it’s hard not to be like, ‘This is the world that we play in.'”

Belly’s back

Meanwhile Tung found it easy to play Belly again, despite filming her last scenes on the show a few weeks prior to this shoot. “I was feeling very Belly,” Tung says. “She’s a beachy girl, she’s always in her little bathing suits and flip flops because that’s her safe place, and so I felt very close to her.”

Jeremiah’s turn

When the trio found a rogue volleyball to hit and kick around in the sand, it helped Casalegno get back into character immediately. “I feel like Jeremiah and I are pretty similar at a lot of times, especially being on the beach,” he says. “I’m like a little puppy. ‘Oh my God. There’s the volleyball!’ I’m easily excited.” 

The beginning of the end

It took a while for Prime Video to confirm that the show is ending with the third season — the official announcement came just a few months ago in March, long after filming finished in October. But the trio learned the news sooner, when Tung and Casalegno were having dinner at Han’s house after wrapping season 2. It was also Briney’s birthday, and even though he was away shooting Mean Girls, Han and Tung baked him a cake and made him blow out the candles over FaceTime.

Three books, three seasons

“You don’t want to be presumptuous,” Tung says about assuming season 3 would be the last. “I remember season 1 filming and just being so excited about the first season and it not even being a thought in my mind that there could be a possibility of a season 3. If you’re lucky, you get picked up again, and who knows what’s going to happen. It’s so unpredictable. I’m just grateful that we’ve gotten to do this for three seasons.”

Conrad’s new direction

The final season begins with a massive time jump of two years, and Casalegno says it’s actually Conrad who appears to have changed the most. “Conrad probably grew the most in the beginning episodes, and then throughout the season you start to see there’s still some similar things in the behaviors he has,” Casalegno says. “And then we don’t really see too much of Jeremiah’s growth in the beginning, but then you really see it towards the end. There’s kind of that flip flop of, in the beginning, you could tell Conrad is very different and then in the end you could tell — oh snap! — Jeremiah is very different. It was pretty cool to see growth in both.”

Time heals all

Casalegno is excited for fans to see how much Jeremiah grows up this season. “As I’m growing up, I’m able to use a lot of my own life experiences and stuff for the season,” he says. “It was cool to see the progression of my personal life and the character’s was growing together.” 

Team ‘Jellyfish’

Team Jeremiah fans will finally get to see Belly and Jeremiah in a real relationship since they’re still together after the time jump. “Any relationship two years in is outside of that honeymoon phase,” Casalegno says. “I guess there’s always going to be a little bit of that, but you just get to see them in a more mature, more long-term-thinking in their relationship. You’re jumping right into that.”

Connie baby’s time to shine

While Conrad had to let Belly go at the end of season 2, fans will get more of the story with an episode told from his perspective this season. “It’s cool to steal the voiceover spot for a little while,” Briney says. “It’s fun to have the insight. It’s fun to have exactly what the subtext is, makes the scene easier, because that’s half the work.”

Team Conrad vs. Team Jeremiah

The stars love seeing how passionate the fans can get about the show’s love triangle. “I always root for the story,” Briney says. “I think whatever works in the context of the story for these characters is the answer, but it’s cool that people have such strong opinions. It’s nice to have people actively being like, ‘I root for your character.’ That’s a cool thing.”

The whole point

But don’t forget whose story this is! “It can be hard because sometimes people don’t root for my character specifically,” Tung says. “It’s about what she’s feeling. It’s her story. And it’s a beautiful thing to see the love she has for both people.”

Prepare for heartbreak

Author/showrunner Han warns that it’s impossible to make everyone happy when it comes to which Fisher brother Belly chooses in the end. “Hopefully people will feel satisfied no matter what, in terms of the story,” she says. “You might be feel disappointed if it’s not your ‘team,’ but I think hopefully you’ll still feel like it was time well spent with the characters and that you still came away with something.” 

An emotional roller coaster

There will be tears. Lots of tears. Both onscreen, and for viewers watching the final season. “Every one of the characters is put through the ringer at some point, and really makes poor decisions or does things that people don’t like,” Han says. “To me, that is a good character where it’s not a perfect prototype of a person. People are messy, people do things for various reasons and we’re just there along for the ride and hopefully you still come out of it rooting for the characters.”

Screaming, crying, throwing up

Tung hopes that fans are ready for the emotional devastation that’s coming (in a good way!). “I’m that girl who will react screaming and crying to these types of things,” she says. “So I love watching others have that reaction. It makes me so happy and it feels like this is why we do it and we’ve done our jobs. We want to give you that screaming-crying feeling of being on this emotional rollercoaster and not necessarily knowing what’s going to come next, or what you even want to happen next.” 

Expect the unexpected

Han’s final book in the series has been out for 14 years, but don’t assume the final season will follow that story religiously. “There’s definitely changes,” Han warns. “There are surprises. And there are things that aren’t exactly like the books. It’s inevitable.”

The perfect memory

One of the biggest changes from the source material is how Belly lost her virginity to Conrad in a season 2 flashback.

“Belly choosing to have sex with Conrad was really driven by Belly and her desire and what she wanted to do,” Han says. “It was really important to me for that moment to be just a very nice memory for her, that is a moment in time where she really loved that person and it happened exactly how she dreamed of and how she wanted it. I don’t think that has to follow her anywhere else other than what that was, a really special moment to both of the characters. But I don’t think it has to drive everything else that comes after it.” 

The kids are (going to be) alright

The Fisher brothers may be fighting over the same girl, but the actors are thrilled to reveal that they won’t be fighting with each other throughout the entire final season. “That’s something I really wanted to see, and that I talked with Jenny about before we did season 3,” Casalegno says. “I wanted to see more of the brotherly relationship, and even Jeremiah’s relationship with Steven [Sean Kaufman]. In season 3, Jenny did a great job of fleshing out how they actually really love each other and fight for each other at times, and they’re not just against each other all the time.” 

New faces

Han loved expanding Belly’s world to introduce many new characters this season. “We’re going to see Belly in college, and so there’s new friends to meet,” the author says. “Then we’ve got Steven with his new job, so we have new characters that you’ll meet in that setting. And also we get to meet Taylor’s [Rain Spencer] mom, and see more of Taylor’s world and think about who raised this girl and what her home life is like.”

Soundtrack by Taylor Swift?

Taylor Swift’s songs have become the show’s unofficial soundtrack, but Han “literally can’t” even tease what — if any — tracks she was able to include in the final season. “Regardless of whether or not we have anything for season 3, we’ve been extremely lucky to have her music in seasons 1 and 2,” Han says. “It just really fits the mood and when it works, it really, to me, feels like you’re in Belly’s head oftentimes, specifically with that artist. It feels very tied.” 

Returning to Cousins

Briney admits he felt “super intimidated” when season 3 began filming with a solo Conrad scene. “We were down for a while, so it was definitely weird to come back, how long it had been?” he says. “It had been a year and a half? It was really weird.”

Mother knows best

Belly’s relationship with her mother Laurel (Jackie Chung) takes center stage for a lot of the final season, and Tung warns that it’s going to be just as devastating as the love triangle drama. “That story is very important to me,” Tung says. “I know that feeling of when you are trying to be your own person and make your own decisions, but your mom’s approval still matters to you. Laurel and Belly are both very strong personalities and Laurel raised Belly to be that way, but that means they butt heads sometimes and it’s hard for both of them.”

Back to the beach

Belly’s with Jeremiah now, but there will still be plenty of “Bonrad” scenes this season. “Conrad’s been away from everyone for a while, and now he’s back in the mix with people,” Han says. “It’s almost like rediscovering and also seeing the ways that they’ve both changed and have had some distance from each other, and who are these people now?”

Buckling down

But where exactly is Conrad now? “We know that he went to Stanford, and so he’s continuing on his journey to become a doctor,” Han says. “I think people won’t be surprised to see that.”

Not-so-smooth sailing

Get your tissues ready now. “They all had very emotional scenes,” Han says of her characters in season 3. “And [the actors] all brought it. I was really bowled over by the level of intensity that they brought in, and the preparation.”

Growing up

Tung admits she was a “mess” while filming the series finale, because it meant closing the chapter on such an important part of her life. “I started when I was 18, and we finished filming when I was 22,” she says. “So it was a very formative experience and wild time in my life, and also the first real acting job I have ever had, so it is so important to me. This will always be a special time for me. I cried, naturally, many times.”

Jeremiah’s final scenes

On the other hand, Casalegno says filming his final scenes as Jeremiah was his favorite part of the season. “It was fun, especially on my side of things, seeing how much the character grew throughout the season and how you could really see the maturity in the decisions towards the end of the series,” he says. “So the final scenes were kind of a nice, happy button, for Jeremiah — at least I hope that people watching feel that way.”