Best of 2023 (Behind the Scenes): “The” “Summer I Turned Pretty” team on Bonrad's season 2 beach scenes

"The Summer I Turned Pretty" stars Lola Tung, Christopher Briney, creator Jenny Han, and more unpack fan-favorite beach scenes.

This is 100 percent your look, The Summer I Turned Pretty!

The Summer I Turned Pretty season 2 took us on a roller coaster of emotions when it came to the Belly/Conrad/Jeremiah love triangle, portraying the highest highs and the lowest lows for both couples. Although there were countless heart-tugging moments during the teen drama's sophomore season, two scenes stood out among the rest, and they just so happened to take place at the same location. Yep, we're talking about those Bonrad beach scenes — the first featuring a true moment of bliss for the couple and the second featuring a blowout fight.

While audiences were able to see the evolution and downfall of this relationship over the course of multiple episodes, stars Lola Tung and Christopher Briney were tasked with filming those scenes on the same night. "We had been trying to film the first scene out on the beach [before], but the winds were really high so [we] kept being turned back from it," creator Jenny Han explains. "So this was kind of our last chance."

Tung remembers the "daunting" task of tackling both scenes in one night. "We had to be in very different emotional spaces for both of them, but doing the scene in episode 2 first was nice to have as like backstory cause it made [filming] the second scene more devastating," she says. "It was a great challenge."

When it came to that first beach moment — Belly and Conrad enjoying snow on the beach — Han "had such a vision of that Christmas memory. I think there's something so innocent and playful and childlike about that night. It was this perfect ornament of a memory."

Episode 2 director Zoe R. Cassavetes adds, "Lola [Tung]and Chris [Briney] were ready to connect and make it beautiful and we all laughed saying it was our ode to Terrance Malik as far as camera work, just letting them run around in the snow and the sand. And just like the characters, I don’t think any of us had witnessed snow on the beach so that really added to the magic."

In order to make the "snow on the beach" moment happen, The Summer I Turned Pretty team had to bring out snow machines, which were louder than anticipated. As Briney puts it, "Zoe would give us direction before the scene, but during the scene she'd be like screaming at the top of her lungs 'Do this! Do that! Spin! Jump!'"

After the frolicking in the snow, Belly and Conrad go back into the beach house and decide to sleep with each other (a major change from the book). "There was a lot of talk about how it would happen, feel and look," Cassavetes says. "It’s always a bit technical shooting that stuff, but we kept the set very intimate and full of trust. Lola and Chris are so wonderful to work with, along with the whole cast and crew. It felt like family so we really had fun and worked a lot on the connection, but also the separation and pain of being apart. I loved shooting that episode because there was so much heartbreaking stuff in it."

Though many fans were happy to see the beach scene come to life, there was one thing they had a major problem with. Han explains that this episode "was very controversial because everyone wanted me to play [Taylor Swift's] 'Snow on the Beach.' That was not the vibe!"

Four episodes later, Belly and Conrad were singing a very different tune. Rather than having the time of their lives on the beach, they were fighting. "[There was a] bittersweetness [to] it and the sadness is that they had this perfect moment on the beach and then returned to that and being so far apart," Han says.

Han wanted the second beach scene to be "a callback" to the first, which is why she decided to place Taylor Swift's "Snow on the Beach" in this moment. "When you hear those bells at the beginning of 'Snow on the Beach,' it's like a faraway memory almost. That night [in episode 2] is. I was always going to put it in [episode 6] because it's a reminder of the last time they were there and now they are just worlds apart."

"We talked about mirroring certain elements [from the episode 2 scene], but having the emotions change," Sophia Takal, who directed episode 6, explains. "The emotional collaboration of the scene is so different. I think there needed to be that catharsis that comes from this fight and also that moment that Belly realizes how much has changed. Jenny [Han] and I talked a lot with the actors about that moment you realize things could've been different, but they'll never be able to be the way you wanted them to be and making that feel real."

Tung cites "listening to music and journaling" as crucial elements to helping her find the necessary emotions for the scene, as well as having an acting partner she could trust. "I'm very grateful that Chris [Briney] is such a giving actor and when we are working together he is such a great person to... I was gonna say play as actors do, but I feel like it's too sad of a situation to say play," says Tung.

Briney adds, "When the actor that you're working with in the scene is doing something so vulnerable and intense, you just try to give them the space they need between takes. Just being communicative as an actor helped."

For Tung, it was about getting Belly "to a point where she is just completely opening up and saying everything that she's ever wanted to say. She's also drunk so there's nothing holding her back."

When it comes to the fight, Han says the moment where Belly says "I thought we loved each other" and Conrad responds with "We did" was pivotal for the couple's journey. "You see the hope extinguish out of her eyes," Han says. "Because he doesn't say what she wants to hear which is 'We do.' Not 'We did,.'"

Audiences were captivated by the scene, taking to social media to express their love for the moment, and Takal felt the same. "That was such a fun scene to shoot as a director cause they were just so keyed into what was going on with their two characters," says Takal. "And it was really just about giving them space to explore and express that."

Why was it so important for these moments to happen on the beach in Cousins? "They [always] just find themselves out there on the beach and to me that's sort of the magic of it," Han says. "Like at the end of the pilot, [Belly] goes out there without even knowing [Conrad]'s there and they're very connected in that way. I think a bit of the magic of that connection is finding themselves at the same place and at the same time."

Tung adds, "It's really lovely that they have this place where everything goes down and where a lot of their memories are made together."

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