Jenny Han reveals she wrote a heartfelt letter to Taylor Swift to secure “The Way I Loved You” and land The Summer I Turned Pretty‘s perfect soundtrack.
The global success of Prime Video’s The Summer I Turned Pretty is due, in part, to its flawless emotional integration of Taylor Swift’s music. The songs don’t just set the scene; they narrate the profound emotional journey of Isabel “Belly” Conklin and the rest of the beloved cast.
In a recent press conference, creator, showrunner, and executive producer Jenny Han (who is also directing an upcoming spin-off movie) provided details on the show’s music, casting, and her efforts to maintain the original books’ intimate, singular voice.
Securing the Soundtrack: A Letter to Taylor Swift
As a massive Swiftie, there was no way I could let this press conference happen without sneaking in a Taylor Swift question. When asked about integrating Taylor Swift’s music so beautifully, Jenny Han revealed the specific, pivotal song she fought to secure for Season 1, along with the heartfelt letter she wrote to the pop icon to make it happen.
Jenny Han’s Non-Negotiable Song For The Summer I Turned Pretty
Jenny Han explained that the key to landing the expansive Taylor Swift catalog was nailing the moment for one specific song: “The Way I Loved You.” This track was integral to a The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 1 finale scene featuring Belly and Conrad, and Han knew the moment wouldn’t work without it.
“I really didn’t know if we were going to be able to get the song that I really wanted, which was The Way I Loved You. And that was really important to me to have that song because I had even pitched the show with that song. And I knew exactly how I wanted it to go, where he’s standing up and looking at her, and then it had that swell of the music. And so I really, really knew that we needed that song. And so, that’s when we approached her team. And I wrote a letter, a very heartfelt letter, just explaining to her how much her music meant to the fans of the show, who I knew would just be beyond thrilled to have… Well, the fans of the books, I should say, because the show wasn’t even out yet. And so we were really lucky that she said yes. And so then I was like, okay, well then, can we also have these songs? And they said yes.”
The Evolution Of The Love Triangle
Han was quick to address the fans’ who have waited around for the final season of The Summer I Turned Pretty, assuring viewers she was always going to deliver the emotional payoff they have been waiting for, particularly for Belly and Conrad. She also stressed that the original three-book structure was always the “North Star” for the series.
“Well, I think that I know that the fans were worried that they were going to get a five-second reunion between Belly, and Conrad, and they weren’t going to be able to see them together as a couple in the present time, because pretty much everything we see of them other than the end of the season one kiss is a flashback. It’s a memory. So, I think that’s one thing I know that I’m going to deliver to the fans for them to see them as they are as these two young adults in the present… To me it was always important to do the three. There’s three books, and having three seasons just felt like the beginning, the middle, and the end of the story. So, I think that having that structure felt right to me.”
The Summer I Turned Pretty’s Perfect Casting
Jenny Han spoke movingly about the casting process for The Summer I Turned Pretty, particularly for Lola Tung (Belly), who came to the role with virtually no professional experience and had to shoulder the massive responsibility of leading a global phenomenon.
Jenny Han’s Instinctive Draw To Lola Tung
Han knew immediately that Tung had the quality necessary for Belly: an essential brightness that would make the audience forgive the character’s flaws.
“There was just something about her that right away, I felt drawn to in almost like a maternal way of looking at her as this like really young person who had so much brightness and light to her and joy. And I just felt myself instinctively rooting for her, and wanting her to win. And I think that’s what I needed for Belly, a person that the audience could look at and think, ‘Yeah, you’re making some mistakes, but I really want you to come through this.’ And I knew that that was what the character was going to require because there’s a lot of messiness to her story and she does stumble and fall, but you still need to be on her side. So I think that Lola really achieved that goal.”
Witnessing Lola Tung’s Transformation On Set
Jenny Han described a meta-coming-of-age as she watched Tung grow into her role as a professional leader over the course of the first summer of filming The Summer I Turned Pretty.
“I remember bringing out the cakes and looking at her and thinking, ‘How magical is this moment that you’re so beloved by the people who are working with you, the crew, the cast. Everybody adores you and you’re in this beautiful dress and you’re really coming into your own. You are the number one on the call sheet. You are the leader and you started out.’… I felt like looking at her, like her eyes looked different to me at the end of that summer than they did at the beginning, where there was more of a knowingness there. There was some wisdom from everything that she had been through, which was, it’s not an easy feat to hold a whole production on your back when you’re so young.”
Jenny Han On Casting Chris Briney & Gavin Casalegno
“Chris, I knew right away that I thought he was Conrad. We’d been looking for a while, and then his tape came in and he just blew me away… he brings a real honesty and realness to the character. And I think his is not an easy character to embody because when you first meet him, he’s very different from who he is, who all the characters know him as. So, you’re masking a lot… And then for Gavin as Jeremiah, I think he ended up being the last person we cast. That was a really hard role to fill also because he needed to have a lot of natural sunniness to him and an optimism in the way that he looked at the world.”
A Story That Feels Like A Memory
Han concluded by explaining why The Summer I Turned Pretty resonates so deeply with multiple generations, from Gen Z to Millennial and Gen X women. The secret, she says, is writing with respect and the goal of tapping into shared, nostalgic emotional touchstones.
“All I think about is writing characters that feel real and sincere and genuine… I always approached it that way, just that on the same level as if I was writing for adults, with respect and really trying to write to people’s humanity and everyone’s individual human experience and not talking down to them… I wanted the show to feel like a memory in some ways, like a memory of a different time that you could think back to the first time that you fell in love, the first time that you cried over somebody… The first time you had a really big fight with your mom and you felt like the world was ending, that it would tap into those kind of emotional touchstones.”
All three seasons of The Summer I Turned Pretty are now streaming on Prime Video.
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Tessa Smith is a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-approved Film and TV Critic. On Camera personality and TV / Film Critic with 10+ years of experience in video editing, writing, editing, moderating, and hosting.