‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’: What does that Conrad and Laurel scene mean for Belly?
Star Jackie Chung explains.
Season 3 of The Summer I Turned Pretty continued its streak of bringing key book moments to life this week, this time with a heart-wrenching Laurel and Conrad scene. Now, TSITP star Jackie Chung is breaking down the iconic moment and hinting at what that Conrad and Laurel scene could mean for Belly’s future.
“I was looking forward to this one,” Jackie said in an interview with People. “I look for those book moments [in the script], and I remember reading this Conrad scene in the book and just thinking, ‘Ooh, I love this one.’”
In the scene, Conrad convinces Laurel to support Belly and Jeremiah’s wedding, even though he’s obviously still in love with Belly, because he wants her to be happy, prompting Laurel to ask Conrad when he gets to be happy. (Insert broody Conrad here.)
Jackie, who has played Laurel for three seasons, explained Laurel’s motivations in the scene, saying, “I do think she recognizes that he has feelings for Belly.” She continued, “And I think she’s pushing him a little to open up and let them out, so that he can be happy and not just harbor these feelings and bury them.”
But make no mistake—just because Laurel is encouraging Conrad doesn’t mean she wants him marrying her daughter, either. “I really feel firmly about this, that Laurel is Team Belly,” Jackie said. “She does not want her to get married at this point in her life—to anyone. She wants her to grow and mature first.”
Still, Jackie admits that Laurel and Conrad’s conversation could lead to Conrad actually fighting for Belly in future episodes. “I see how her being like, ‘Hey, find your happiness, Conrad,’ could lead to him mucking things up for Jeremiah and Belly.”
Oh, and while chatting with People, she also talked about *those* Laurel and Susannah romance rumors. When asked whether she thought her character might be more than platonic soulmates with Susannah, Jackie admitted, “It never crossed my mind.”
According to her, it’s “rare to see this kind of love on screen where these women just wholly support each other and care about each other and have a decades-long friendship,” so she can see why fans might get it twisted.
As she explained, “I can understand how people could interpret it that way, I guess. But yeah, no, I just always saw it as a really, really deep friendship.”
Credit: Cosmopolitan