From the high school friends blowing up her phone to the moms at her kids’ drop-off, everyone wants to know: Is Jackie Chung from The Summer I Turned Pretty Team Conrad, or Team Jeremiah?
“Team Belly,” Chung has told them diplomatically, but not unsurprisingly. Like the other members of the cast, who have been promoting the third and final season of the Amazon Prime show non-stop since it premiered on July 16, the actor is sworn to secrecy about Belly’s fate, which may or may not differ from the book trilogy by Jenny Han that the series is based on.
However, as the season has progressed—episode seven out of 11 premiered today on the streamer—another will-they, won’t-they storyline has emerged, this one centering Belly’s (Lola Tung) divorced parents, Laurel (Chung) and John (Colin Ferguson).
In the years since their split, John and Laurel have become reacquainted as friends. And then, in episode two of season 3, as something…more? After running into each other at a work conference, the pair find themselves in Laurel’s hotel room, tipsy and uninhibited. Immediately after their night together, Laurel seems regretful, while John is hopeful. And fans are eating it up.
The cross-generational appeal of The Summer I Turned Pretty—which on paper is about a teenage love triangle, but in reality is as much about parenting teenagers who make poor decisions—has been a surprising side effect of the show’s success. Since it premiered on Amazon Prime in 2022, the show has become a global phenomenon, and season 3 is the number one most-watched show among women 18-34. However, if the TikToks on my own For You Page are to be believed, the audience is a motley mix of people, from Gen Alpha to Boomers, who tune in every week to watch protagonist Belly choose between one of two brothers—Conrad (Christopher Briney) or Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno). “YA”—a.k.a. Young Adult—is merely a suggestion.
Over the past three seasons, viewers have grown fond of Laurel, Belly’s stern but loving mom, whose friendship with the Fisher boys’ mom, Susannah (Rachel Blanchard), is the reason Belly’s in this whole brother-love-triangle mess to begin with. Some have called for a spin-off series about Laurel’s middle-aged quandaries, about how she’s dealt with the loss of her best friend, a divorce, and a daughter who makes messy, almost unforgivable choices. Maybe it’s women who see themselves in Laurel—a woman who says she regrets her decision to marry and have kids so young, without taking the time to get to know herself first. Or maybe it’s Chung’s charm, or her quiet ferocity, that’s ignited such a fierce debate about where the character should go next.
Read moreThe Summer I Turned Pretty Book Ending, Explained: Who Does Belly End up With?
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Chung hasn’t heard anything from the powers that be about a Laurel-focused spin-off, though she’s aware of the discourse, as well as the hype around a potential prequel centering on John, Laurel, and Susannah’s college days.
“I think it’d be super interesting to see how they all met, how Susannah and Laurel became friends and how the relationship started,” Chung says. “I probably wouldn’t be part of it. I don’t think I could pull off young Laurel anymore.” For the record, Chung is 46—not 62, as the shocking internet rumor from a few years ago would have you believe.
“It was so random, and my friends would bring it up to me, and I just assumed no one would believe it, but then everyone believed it,” says Chung with a laugh. “My niece was like, ‘Well, you should work this into some kind of skincare brand.’ I’m like, ‘It’s all a lie. I’m not 65!’”
Below, Jackie Chung from The Summer I Turned Pretty answers your burning questions about Laurel’s reaction to Belly’s engagement, those Laurel-Susannah romance rumors, and her skincare routine.
Glamour: I have a lot of questions about Laurel. I’m sure you get them probably every day now that season 3 is in the thick of it.
Jackie Chung: Yeah. I have some high school friends who are on a text chain. They’re like, “Oh my God, this happened.” And then one will be like, “Don’t tell me. I couldn’t watch yet.”
Are you still tight with your friends from high school, or did they kind of come out of the woodwork being like, “Hey, you got any spoilers”?
No, I have a core group from high school that I’m friends with, and a core group from college that I’m friends with.
Do you get stopped on the street and stuff with people asking you for intel?
I do get stopped on the street. People have not asked me for spoilers. They often just ask which team I’m on. And they’re often just asking if it’s really me. It just happened at my kids’ camp pickup. I don’t think people expect to see me at the camp pickup, I guess.
I wanted to ask about the diner scene between Laurel and Conrad from episode 6, where he’s trying to get her to come around on Belly and Jeremiah’s wedding. I feel like I was getting that Laurel is Team Conrad… How do you feel about their relationship?
I think they have a deep understanding of the other person’s nature and way of thinking just because they’re very similar. I do believe, though, that Laurel is Team Belly.
I think even if the tables had been turned, and Conrad had proposed, that she would still feel like it’s too early, and that Belly has so many years to finish college, first of all, and then to explore her career and other relationships. So, I know how it can seem that she’s Team Conrad, but I do feel like she is and will always be Team Belly.
In addition to them both being kind of on the quieter side, what do you think that makes their relationship so special and seemingly different than Laurel’s relationship with Jeremiah?
I think she loves both of the boys. But I think she and Conrad, as I said, are just very similar. They move through the world in a similar way. I think they’re very thoughtful. They care so deeply about the people in their lives. They’re two folks that keep their feelings close to the vest, and I think that’s a lot of why Laurel takes in Conrad’s thoughts on the wedding, because she knows that he’s in a similar place where he might think it’s “ridiculous,” and he might not believe it’s the best thing for Belly and Jer, but he loves them enough that he’s going to support them.
Belly and Laurel have a lot of drama happening this season, but I wanted to ask your opinion as a mom. If you had a 21-year-old and they told you they were going to get married, even if it’s to someone they’ve known their whole lives, what would your reaction be?
My kids are still little. I don’t know what’s going to happen later, but I feel like I would feel the same way that Laurel does. Why can’t you just wait? Why can’t you finish college and then reassess then? What’s waiting another year or two? If it’s really the right move, then this relationship will still be there after you graduate.
So, you would support Laurel the way that she reacted?
Okay, listen. Laurel had a big reaction. However, I do feel for her in that the news was delivered to her in a way that surprised her and felt… I feel like it was just the wrong time for it to come out, at her best friend’s dedication luncheon. I think she maybe would’ve had a different reaction if they had come to her at home and had a conversation and also that she didn’t have Adam there kind of stirring things up.
I think Laurel is also projecting a lot. She talks about having a lot of regrets and kind of feeling like she lost herself when she got married and became a mom—that those things became all-consuming identities. I think that’s a really common feeling for women, and I wanted to know, how do you think that she’s handling that struggle in middle age?
I feel like this is a struggle for mothers, whether you become a mother at 20 or 30 or 40. It’s a constant juggle maintaining your identity and a sense of self, and then also being a parent. I understand where Laurel’s coming from. She is somebody who I feel like values her career, values her independence, and I believe she lost that getting married so young and having kids so young and obviously, that’s a big regret. She doesn’t want her daughter two decades later to feel the same way.
Speaking of her relationships, the reactions to Laurel and John getting back together have been very split. Did you have a conversation about Laurel’s love life with Jenny Han before filming? Did you know that Laurel and John were going to kind of have a moment in season 3?
She told me before we started shooting, but that decision was made when they were writing the scripts. It was a nice surprise because I love working with Colin, and he is like John. He’s really supportive and understanding and just a really wonderful person.
What do you think of them getting back together in terms of especially everything we just talked about with Laurel and her feelings of regret over that early period of her life?
I feel like Laurel’s in this place where she’s an empty nester and her kids are out of the house, and she’s alone for the first time in a long time, and she is reassessing everything and figuring out what she wants to do—maybe write a new book, maybe find a new relationship. And I think in this moment, John is, as she described him before, a warm, cozy campfire that is comfortable and easy. I feel like they fall back into those roles.
I think she’ll figure out later on if it’s the right fit for her at this point in her life, but I think in the moments that we’ve seen, it feels really nice. It feels really nice to have someone she can talk to and someone that she’s comfortable with.
Do they have a portmanteau yet? Are we calling them Jorel or something?
I would love to give them one, but Jorel sounds really bad. Laurohn?
We’ll work on it. Can you tease anything about what’s to come for them both? When we leave them, they’ve just hooked up, but they’re not on the same page.
There are more conversations…
I want to talk about Susannah and Laurel’s relationship. In season one, John brings up that he always felt like there were three people in the marriage. And some people have been saying that maybe now that Susannah is no longer there, that opens up a little bit of space for Laurel and John to really reconnect. What do you think about that theory? Your face is kind of saying it all right now…
I think Laurel was in a relationship with John, and then she had a deep friendship with Susannah, and I don’t think—because recently people have asked me, and I’ve seen this before, whether Laurel and Susannah had a romantic relationship, and I don’t think that they did. I think they just have a very deep friendship, and yeah, in some ways, maybe she did feel closer to Susanna. She was her cheerleader and the person she could really confide in and who understood her. But there are two different lanes.
John was just trying to find someone to blame.
Sounds like a man. There are a lot of those theories out there that Laurel and Susannah. Is that a conversation that you ever had with Jenny or with Rachel about how to portray that closeness without giving anybody something that they’re going to try to dissect?
We never talked about it before. It wasn’t until, I think after the first season where people started saying this. It never crossed our minds. When Rachel told me about it, I just started laughing, like, “Really?” That just never entered my brain. I think we just hit it off right away and just found this friendship between us on screen and off, and never considered any romantic feelings between them.
Do your kids watch the show?
No. They’re still too young—they’re five and 10. Someone came up to me when I was with [my 10-year-old], and they said, “Oh my God, your mom is on the show. Are you so proud of her?” And he said, “I don’t know. I’ve never seen it, so I don’t even know if she’s any good.”
So, I said, “All right, I’ll show you a scene.” I showed him a scene between Lola and me, I think when we’re moving her into college in the first episode of season three, and she’s making fun of me not having a life or friends, and he thought it was the funniest thing. He said, “Lola was so good in that scene.”
That’s so funny. Do your kids know Lola and the other actors?
I had my younger son with me season one. I mean, he was a baby baby when we were there, but I still see the cast. Lola and her family came over to our house last month, and we all hung out. My son was showing Lola video games, and she patiently listened to everything.
I also want to talk a little bit about Asian representation on screen—I’m half Japanese, and it’s still sometimes jarring to see a family that looks like mine because I’m not used to it. What was your experience growing up, and how does it feel to be part of this project?
When I was younger, there wasn’t a lot of representation in the media. I feel like we would watch Connie Chung. I thought it was so cool that we had the same last name and she was so intelligent and beautiful, and she was really someone I looked up to, but I didn’t see people on TV shows that looked like me.
It feels like maybe things are shifting, but it also feels really important that a face like mine is on the screen. I’ve had young Asian women come up to me and say how much it means to them. And I think that’s where I feel it the most, is having kids see themselves on the screen in a way that I didn’t, and hopefully make them feel seen and part of a larger conversation.
One of the things that I like about the show too is that it’s not about Belly being half Asian or “different.” She’s just a teenager who’s making mistakes the way we all did. Well, not exactly the way that we all did, but…
Yes, I feel like there are small references that are peppered in, and I don’t know about you, but I feel like that’s how it happens in my life. Sometimes, I’ll bring up a little thing. I’ll say a Korean word or have a conversation with other Asian friends, but I don’t go through my daily life going, “I’m Asian. Now, this thing affects me.” I am a woman, an actor, Asian, a mother. It’s everything in one.
I think that’s important too, because I don’t think people realize how long some Asian families have been here, that often the view of the Asian parent is of an immigrant. So it’s nice for me to play a parent that is like me, who was born and raised here.
Season 3 is the final season—do you have any closing thoughts on the series?
I’m going to miss working with this cast and crew. I’m going to miss being in Wilmington and going to the beach. My kids still talk about it. They want to go there all the time. Ultimately it’s the entire experience and being with everyone for four years and watching them grow up and mature and watching these characters grow up and mature that I’m going to miss. It’s been a real gift.
You mentioned a couple of scenes that were your standouts. Do you have one in particular that comes to mind?
Well, I have a few, but I was really looking forward to this Conrad scene in this last episode. I loved it when I read it in the books, and I was excited that it made it into the show, which I assumed that it would. It’s a pretty pivotal scene.
Lastly, do you have a skincare routine you can share?
I don’t even do anything special. Also, lighting and makeup make a big difference, but I was just telling someone the other day, I have purchased the LED mask. I have a gua sha tool. I have this little ceramic thing that you can put hot water into and loosen up the muscles. How many times have I used these tools? Maybe four. I have all these things, and I don’t use them. I think I’m just lazy. I’ll just go to bed instead.
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