To Lola Tung and Jenny Han, Belly’s haircut in The Summer I Turned Pretty wasn’t only about getting rid of dead ends.
Tung, 22, and Han, 45, opened up about Belly’s bob after the show’s season 3 finale, which aired on Wednesday, September 17, on Amazon Prime Video.
“I was excited when I learned that Belly was getting a bob,” Tung, who plays Belly, told Vogue. “It’s nice to see her make that decision for herself, almost as a physical representation of the growth and change she’s experienced.
Tung added that the chop was symbolic for Belly because her ex-fiancée on the show, Jeremiah Fisher (Gavin Casalegno), told her to “never” cut her hair earlier in the season. “I think her making this decision feels freeing, like a fresh start,” Tung said.
Belly got her haircut while living in Paris after calling off her wedding to Jeremiah. Moments after her salon appointment, she reunited with Conrad Fisher (Chris Brinley), Jeremiah’s brother and her first love.
Han, the author and producer of TSITP, explained, “Her making the decision to cut her hair is coming at a moment when an old love from her past is returning. It feels very poetic to me that she’s looking to something new and wanting something new for the summer, and something old is coming back her way.”
She added, “I think women often cut their hair after a breakup or when they want to let go of old baggage and signal to people that they’re ready for change. The idea is that if you look different, then you can feel different.”
To create Belly’s bob, Han used herself as a guinea pig to ensure the look would be perfect on Tung.
“I covertly went in and got my hair cut, [in Paris],” Han recalled. “I have very thick hair, so if [the hairstylist] can do my hair, then he can do [Lola’s] hair.”
Tung opted not to get her actual hair chopped for the show, so she clipped her front piece and wore a U-line wig on the back of her head with her long tresses tucked underneath.
Han admitted that she was “super nervous” about how the finished look would turn out. “Obviously, when you cut it, you are not going to know for sure how it’s going to look until you see it,” she noted.
Following the season 3 finale, in which — spoiler alert — Belly and Conrad got back together, Prime Video announced that a film is in the works that will follow the characters in the next chapter of their lives.
“There is another big milestone left in Belly’s journey, and I thought only a movie could give it its proper due,” Han explained in a statement.
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