Jennifer Lawrence is known for being pop culture savvy (her takes on Bravo’s “Real Housewives” franchise often go viral on social media), but even she is aware her latest hot take is not going to sit right with the internet. While discussing “messy relationships” with Robert Pattinson as part of their “Die My Love” press tour, the Oscar winner sounded off on the love triangle at the center of Prime Video’s “The Summer I Turned Pretty.”
“I have been ordered by all of my friends to not reveal this, but I am team Jeremiah. I am,” Lawrence said. “I think that Conrad is toxic. He kind of liked [Belly] but then didn’t. He left her hanging. For him to confess his love for her the night before her wedding is sick. I am team Jeremiah. Rake me over the coals!”
“The Summer I Turned Pretty,” based on Jenny Han’s popular book series, centers on Lola Tung’s Belly as she’s caught between her love for two brothers, Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno). The majority of the fandom is overwhelmingly Team Conrad, which worked out for them as the series finale ended with Conrad and Belly romantically together months after the end of Belly’s engagement to Jeremiah.
Throughout the airing of the show’s final season, which ran from July through the Sept. 17 finale, Prime Video issued several statements advising fans against making toxic social media posts. Casalegno, in particular, became the target of online harassment due to fans wanting Belly to end up with Conrad over his character, Jeremiah. The series reminded fans after the release of the final season’s eighth episode that “the show isn’t real but the people playing the characters are” and posted a graphic that read: “The Summer We Started Acting Normal Online.”
“We’ve had similar situations in the past with adaptations, where there is a fanbase out there that I think can get rowdy, and it sometimes can blur the line between characters and actors or overstep,” Amazon TV chief Vernon Sanders told Variety about issuing fan warnings. “And so we really appreciate them and appreciate their passion, but we’re trying to be more proactive about setting expectations of what we want to encourage and maybe what we find not appropriate. And I think our creators and our cast really appreciate us taking the proactive stance there.”
“The Summer I Turned Pretty” franchise will return to Prime Video at a later date with a movie designed to wrap up the story. The film will be written by Jenny Han, who wrote the books on which the show was based and developed them for television, alongside Sarah Kucserka.
“Die My Love,” which earned Lawrence rave reviews at Cannes, centers on a married couple come undone after the birth of their child. The film is the latest from “We Need to Talk About Kevin” and “You Were Never Really Here” director Lynne Ramsay. “Die My Love” opens in theaters Nov. 14 from Mubi.
