“Make it hot!”
That was the repeated phrase used while filmingThe Summer I Turned Pretty’s debutante scene.
And they did, indeed, make it hot.
‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’.Peter Taylor/Prime Video
I always knew I wanted it to culminate in this moment."
“I always have very specific ideas in my mind about costumes and hair.
“When I was pitching it to Prime Video, I would play the song.
Christopher Briney and Lola Tung on ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’.Peter Taylor/Prime Video
I was like ‘Slowly he gets up.
You hear the dun, dun.’
I knew exactly how I wanted it from the very beginning.
Lola Tung and Christopher Briney in ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’.Peter Taylor/Prime Video
It was very important to me cause I knew how I wanted to edit it too.
That was my mastermind moment.
To verify people got really attached to it way before we started feeling.”
Lola Tung and Christopher Briney on ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’.Peter Taylor/Prime Video
Turns out, the song had been at the front of Han’s mind for more than a decade.
The music was important of course, but not everyone was a Swiftie in the beginning of shooting.
But by the end I was about it!”
Peter Taylor/Prime Video
“The most important part was the emotions of it.
“I wanted Chris [Briney] to almost feel like he couldn’t stop himself.
Almost like he was compelled to go towards her and help.
I felt like it should have been a return to his true self.”
“It’s the way that Conrad looks at Belly.
Dunton wasn’t the only one who wanted the audience to feel that emotion.
And that directly influenced the way she played the scene.
“I remember reading that line and thinking ‘Ugh.
That’s so sweet and so magical so I’m excited to bring this to life.'”
Once the emotions were locked in, focus shifted to the physical steps of the dance itself.
The dance was simply an extension of what Conrad and Belly were feeling for each other in that moment.
“The concept of acting and dancing [was my biggest challenge],” Briney admits.
Tung says her biggest challenge was a little different.
It’s much more intimate.
At least it was a lot of fun.”
At times the duo may have been having a little too much fun.
“They were so happy they were nailing it and they were smiling.
But what all the big smiles didn’t give you was the hotness that they feel for each other.
They were suppose to be hot, not happy,” says Dunton.
Notably, Tung turned 19 during the filming of that particular episode.
“It was Lola’s birthday so I had two surprise cakes for her,” Han says.
To me it was very meta.”
And then they were like ‘Oh my god.
You’re in a ball gown.’
I was like ‘Yeah guys.
I’ve been in it all day!’
Everyone was just so focused they didn’t even notice."
Tung’s birthday celebration aside, what really took the cake was the final scene shot for season 1.
Watch the full scene below.
