
The Summer I Turned Pretty Stars Lola Tung & Chris Briney Hope Movie Will Bring ‘Happy, Healthy’ Bonrad
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Warning: Spoilers ahead for The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3.
Lola Tung and Christopher Briney can heave a huge sigh of relief — the big secret is out, a The Summer I Turned Pretty movie is in the works.
It does unleash a whole new world of things they could spoil, though Briney insists he “doesn’t know sh*t” and can’t give any spoilers. Fair! The TSITP movie likely won’t come until 2027 at the earliest. While we wait, however, there’s a whole final episode to unpack, with all the twists and turns that take us to a Bonrad endgame.
Read more: Where to Buy Belly’s Red Lipstick From The Summer I Turned Pretty Finale
Below, Teen Vogue sits down with The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3 stars Lola Tung and Christopher Briney in Paris to talk about that finale, their hopes for the movie, and where Conrad and Belly go from here.
Teen Vogue: Well, I was gonna ask you how it feels to not have to worry about spoiling anything, but now you have a whole other thing to spoil, look at something.
Christopher Briney: I got nothing to spoil. I don’t know sh*t.
Lola Tung: I will say though, after the movie announcement came out, I think my body was just like [lets out a big breath] a sigh of relief. And I got home and I was like, “I feel so tired.” [It was] this just huge release. So I just went to bed.
TV: When did you first hear that there was going to be a movie?
CB: There had been rumblings about it for a while, but knowing that it was actually a thing happening [and being made] very recently. Jenny keeps things close to the chest.
TV: It seems that way. Well, there’s so much in this season to unpack, but I wanted to ask about the birthday party scenes and what it was like to hang onto that tension between Belly and Conrad for so long. How do you maintain that? You’re doing a lot of acting with just your eyes. How are you guys talking about how to approach those scenes?
CB: We don’t talk about it much. We just sort of do our own work and then get to it. No, I mean character wise there’s a lot of journaling and understanding of not only where they are, but also where we are in the story and things to come. So that’s before they go do their own thing. And so it’s sort of sussing out the situation, but there are definitely feelings of, this is kind of nice to be together again.
LT: Yeah, I think that also we just, with everything in Paris, wanted to really be able to show that both of them had grown. And that especially for Belly, it was like that she has this really nice little life here and I think she’s inviting him into it and you want it to feel like she’s very comfortable and he’s a little bit—
CB: He’s uncomfortable and sort of taking it all in.
LT: Yeah.
CB: I mean, simple job as an actor just to listen, and not understand what [Belly’s new friends are] saying. Oh, they have inside jokes, and they know this person who I used to know so well.
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TV: Especially in the scene where they’re reenacting their season 1 exchange, how do you show the character growth that you’ve been through while repeating these old lines in a different way?
CB: It’s funny because I’m like, “Does that work outside of a TV show?” Would you remember saying that?
LT: I mean, depends on the person. Maybe it depends on the person. It has to be the exact right…
CB: For them, of course it works. You now what I mean?
LT: Everything clicks. It’s like, “How do you even remember that?”
CB: Right, right.
LT: Yeah, it’s true.
CB: I think that’s why it’s so sweet. Because they do—
LT: —remember everything that the other says. They can quote conversations between the two of them. It’s a lot of that kind of role reversal of, Belly’s sort of the one who’s withholding a little bit. She’s excited obviously that he’s in Paris, but even hesitant to invite him to the birthday dinner at first and hesitant to show him her life here. And I think he’s so enthusiastic about it and excited about it and wants any little piece of information that he can get.
CB: Right. He’ll take whatever he can get it.
LT: Yeah. So I think it is funny to see those little moments where it feels like they’ve kind of swapped a little bit.
TV: Yeah, what you were saying about remembering every word, I thought about when Belly just magically thinks of Susannah saying something like, “You’ve always been a girl who knows her own heart.” I was like, “I wish that’s how life was.” That you could just call to mind the exact wording someone has told you.
LT: I will say, there will be specific moments where for some reason I’m like, I have no clue why, but I will never forget this little thing that someone said to me that they probably don’t even remember they said to me. But I remember it and it stays with me.
I mean, they remember everything. They have great memories, but yeah, there are certain things that for some reason you’re like, “I don’t know why, but I remember the exact way that the person said that to me.”
TV: In the scene where they are talking honestly for one of the first times about what is actually holding Belly back here, where she mentions that she’s worried that Susannah’s death has changed the whole course of their relationship — why did it feel important to have this moment where Belly is like, “It’s this thing that’s been bothering me.”
LT: I think that, like you said, it kind of is the first time that they’re both being honest at the same time.
CB: Right. Which scene is that?
LT: The one right before the train station.
CB: Oh, okay. I got it.
LT: Yeah, that we were talking about before. We were saying there are all these moments in season 1 and season 2 when Belly is honest with Conrad about her feelings, but he kind of isn’t as honest because he’s going through his own sh*t. And then this season, Conrad pours his heart out on the beach and Belly has to sort of not be honest because she’s about to marry his brother. So it’s like this is the first time that these two people have had time to think about their relationship and everything that happened, and can properly sit down and have a real mature conversation.
CB: What I find interesting about it is they both had these thoughts and made decisions about the situation and about what it is and labeled it with all these things. Then you say it out loud and the other person’s like, “What? That’s so ridiculous. That’s so out of left field.” I think that’s a nice thing as a human to be like, “I’ve been thinking about all this stuff.” And the other person’s like, “I was never once thinking about that.” It’s sort of refreshing to make those discoveries.
TV: Conrad has been celebrated as a real yearner this season.
CB: Cool.
TV: Why do you think fans love to see a man specifically just yearn and long for someone?
CB: I don’t know, maybe because it’s often the other way around…
LT: There’s a shortage of yearning.
CB: … in a lot of things. Yeah. I mean I can think of, I don’t know. I don’t know. Because I can think of a bunch of examples where we got boys yearning.
LT: In film and TV?
CB: Yeah, in film and TV.
LT: Not in real life.
CB: No. But I don’t know. I think part of it’s just his growth and willingness to be honest with his feelings. And that’s exciting to see someone who knows themself better.
LT: Someone who goes to therapy.
CB: Someone who goes to therapy.
Christopher Briney Insists He Can Be a ‘Piece of Sh\*t,’ But We’re Not Buying It
Briney’s Hollywood end goal? “To make things with the people in my life that I love.”
TV: They also have a conversation about Belly thinking that she’s the villain. I was interested in it kind of as a meta commentary on how people see the season and these characters as a whole. I think Belly kind of takes a lot of sh*t from fans online who sometimes applaud Conrad in ways they aren’t applauding Belly when they do the same things. I’m curious what you think of that, and if you think the show does a good job of saying she’s not the villain.
LT: I don’t think anyone’s the villain. I don’t think that’s the point of the story.
CB: People are really quick to label.
LT: Villain is such a strong word.
CB: Right, you’re right.
LT: I think that it’s a beautiful thing to get to see how much Conrad grows. And not to diminish that at all, but I also think it can be a little harmful to label certain things as good and bad. When you’re like, “There’s a whole picture.” And you have to see where each character’s coming from and why they can’t share all their feelings. I mean, again, Conrad went through this for seasons of having something that made him…
CB: The label of emotionally unavailable.
LT: I think people were able to start sympathizing with him in those moments because he was going through a lot. I think Belly is also going through a lot and I think they’ve all been through a lot together. And when you have that sort of history and when it is as complicated as it is, where there’s a love triangle with two brothers, it’s so much more layered than that. And I think we can all just—
CB: —Get along and enjoy something.
LT: Get along.
CB: I just think trying to define characters, that is sort of fighting against the whole point of it. They’re all growing and learning.
LT: They’re all people who are messy, which is literally how people are, and it’s life.
CB: Also, that’s how you make a drama. You make drama by creating conflict.
LT: Drama by creating drama.
CB: Drama by creating drama. Now I don’t know what I was going to say.
LT: Sorry.
CB: But if you’re frustrated with the character’s decision, what if that was intentional?
LT: Wait.
CB: I don’t know. Crazy, crazy idea.
LT: I also think, and again, I know online it’s just like people feel so strongly about it — which it makes me so happy — that I think sometimes you just start typing and you’re like, “I hate this.” Send. Post it, whatever. But hate is…
CB: Send it to yourself first.
LT: Send it to your friends. Hate is such a strong word in this context, I think. And I hope in the end, I hope the journey was an enjoyable experience because I think that’s what it’s supposed to be. A chance for you to feel all the emotions, but hopefully also realize that Belly’s the good one.
*The Summer I Turned Pretty* Star Lola Tung on Life Beyond Belly, Fame, and Growing Up
TV: I’ve seen a lot of jokes that Belly’s true love is the beach house. But I’m also wondering on a more kind of symbolic level, do you feel like any of that is true in the way where the house encompasses her childhood and her family and the way she’s loved? Do you think the house is her true love?
LT: I think because of what it symbolizes, sure. She grew up there and all of the people that she loved were there. Maybe there’s some stuff to figure out with that, having the attachment to that and also feeling so indebted to Susannah. They all want to make her proud and all want to make her happy. There were so many promises made to each other. It’s a little bit in this moment, too, kind of letting go of that responsibility in Paris. And being like, “We’re just here together and it’s okay that we’ve made all these mistakes and everything can still be okay.” The house represents most of her childhood and her love for these people.
CB: If you think about it, those uninhibited moments as a kid will always be your happiest really, because you’re so unaffected by the world and society and these anxieties. So are we all not yearning for our childhood? Trying to get back there in one way or another? Speaking of yearning.
LT: Then I also think it’s important that Belly’s in Paris because then she has another place that feels like part of her heart is there as well. So I mean that apartment’s beautiful.
TV: What would you be excited to explore in a movie as far as their dynamic that maybe we haven’t seen yet about Belly and Conrad? Or in relation to other characters too?
LT: I guess with Belly and Conrad maybe what a happy, healthy relationship looks like.
CB: Sure.
LT: And then I guess with other characters, I mean I love Steven and Belly’s relationship obviously. And your scene with Jackie is so good. So more Laurel and Conrad.
CB: Yeah, that’d be great.
LT: And I guess Belly and Jeremiah’s relationship, maybe how it’s changed or what that would look like.
CB: There’s a lot of, in relation to Jeremiah. I mean I think there’s a lot of different ways in my mind that it could play out. You could understand harboring resentment. He also has grown a lot and I assume that he will have grown by the time we get to him in the movie, so maybe things are okay. I don’t know. I don’t know. It’s hard to say. I just want a golf scene.
TV: Because you and Sean golf in real life?
CB: We golf all the time.
TV: Yeah. Love that.
LT: All the time.
CB: All the time.
TV: Tired of hearing about it?
LT: I like mini golf.
Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
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