Lola Tung Is Growing Up Alongside Belly
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Spoilers ahead for the first episode of The Summer I Turned Pretty's second season.
If last season, The Summer I Turned Pretty's Isabel "Belly" Conklin had Taylor Swift's "lover" on repeat, in season two, she's definitively in her "folklore" era. The popular Prime Video show, which is based on the bestselling book series by Jenny Han, premiered last year, and fans were quick to obsess over its central love triangle. But when the coming-of-age story returns this week, with Lola Tung once again starring as the headstrong-yet-lovable Belly, it proves that there's more to being a teenager than the highs and lows of high school and first loves.
Season one ended on a hopeful note as Susannah Fisher, the mother of Jeremiah and Conrad (and best friend of Belly's mom, Laurel) finally agrees to try a second round of cancer treatment. But, in the first episode of the new season, viewers quickly learn that the beloved matriarch has passed away, and we see that the Fishers and Conklins are struggling to deal with her death in their own ways. While this darker tone is a stark change from the previous season, it reminds the audience of what it’s like to grow up and deal with not only life and love—but also loss.
Ahead of the premiere, Town & Country spoke with Tung about growing up alongside her character Belly, the cultural significance of Taylor Swift, and the importance of being bold.
What was it like for you to return to the show and see your character's growth?
She's in a very different place than she was at the end of season one. A lot has happened. It's been a year, and she is really weighed down by her grief. It's this overwhelming, all consuming feeling that has affected every aspect of her life and all of her relationships.
And on top of that too, grief aside, she already had sort of strained relationships with Conrad and Jeremiah. So she's just feeling this overwhelming sadness and feeling really alone in it.
A lot of her arc throughout the season is just trying to figure out how to move forward while dealing with grief and how to repair her friendships, relationships, and connections. And learning how to be the one to initiate those things without sort of the help of her parents, necessarily.
What did you connect to the most about Belly's story this season?
I feel like I'm at that stage of my life—of more self discovery and really figuring out my own path and how to deal with a lot of really big life changing experiences. Whether that be grief, or something to do with love, or anything like that. The journey of self-love that all the characters [go on], and falling in love with yourself again, is really special and something that I'm trying to do as well.
What helped you channel your emotions to get into character?
I was journaling a lot. I was going into the script and just annotating and figuring out all of those relationships through writing and journaling and also through music. That was such a huge part of it. I had my updated “Belly” playlist with a lot more sad songs, more emotional songs. There were a lot of songs about nostalgia and about things changing and not being the same. And I think that last year her anthem was Stupid by Lizzie McAlpine, which is really about love and all that.
But one thing that I started to realize with this season, I was listening to a lot of Mitski and I thought about “Two Slow Dancers” and how I felt like it really encapsulated the feeling of season two. There’s really this belief a lot of the time that things will stay the same and they just don't. But that's part of life and it doesn't mean it's better or worse, it just means you move forward and you learn how to grow from everything that you've experienced.
Do you have any advice for people who are struggling to open up and share their emotions? Or figuring out how to grow and move through grief?
It's always hard no matter how you attempt to cope with it. So I think just trying to open up to the fact that you're not alone and there probably is someone who really wants to be there for you or who wants you to know that they're there if you need anything. There's this sort of discomfort around talking about grief but my mom always told me to just let them know that you're there for them. Send them a text, write a card, whatever it is. I remember being a kid and feeling uncomfortable and like they don't wanna hear from me or that I'm bothering them but it's always better just to let someone know, “I'm here for you.” I think that goes a really long way.
What has been your favorite part of getting to play Belly?
All of it. She is such a complex character—more than people give her credit for. And now getting to do two seasons, two very different seasons, and getting to grow with her and figure out how I relate to her, I have just so much love and respect for her. I have learned so much just from stepping into her shoes. I'm someone who's not as much of a risk taker as she is (especially in season one). She goes for what she wants and she's bold. That's something that's so admirable because I’m not typically as bold as she is. It's inspired me to be more bold, because I think ultimately most of the times when she is, it always pays off.
Do you have a favorite memory from filming this season?
Chris [Briney] who plays Conrad would take pictures on his camera all summer of everyone. I was looking through the pictures and there were so many little moments that I kind of forgot about because sometimes with the theme of the season being so sad, it can sort of cloud your mind about all those little really lovely moments.
We had an ice cream truck on set one time and there's a picture of me and Sean [Kaufman] in our really nice dress clothes for one of the scenes and we're just all eating ice cream together and we were so happy. There was also one scene where we were on a golf course and we had a pillow fight just behind the scenes.
Tell me about the connection between Taylor Swift and The Summer I Turned Pretty.
Jenny Han, who wrote the books, has talked about how when she was writing the book she used to listen to Taylor Swift all the time. Some of that influence is in the story. A lot of her songs are so descriptive and she has so many songs for so many different emotions and so many feelings.
Also it's been really cool to see what each era has to do with our story at the time. The first season was so much about first love and so many of her early albums related to that. Now it's been really cool in season two to have music from folklore, which is such a different feeling. It makes you feel so much more nostalgic and reflective and it's been so cool to just see how perfectly Taylor narrates this world.
If Belly were a Taylor Swift Era in season two, which one would she be?
It’s changed from season one to season two, but I would say folklore.
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