Freeform’s Cruel Summer is officially an anthology series, with Season 2 set in the Pacific North West in 1999 and 2000. It’s a story of friendship and betrayal, with new episodes airing Monday nights and streaming on Hulu the next day. At this season’s ATX TV Festival, I had the chance to chat with this season’s three lead actors – Sadie Stanley, Lexie Underwood, and Griffin Gluck. We talk about playing three timelines, how they got into character, and the mischief they got up to while filming in Vancouver.
(ATX/Waytao Shing)
Alex: Were you fans of Cruel Summer before the audition process for Season 2? Or did you go back and watch it once you had the part?
Griffin Gluck: I hopped on the bandwagon late. I got on the bandwagon when I got the audition and then definitely got hooked once I booked the role. That's when I started watching a lot. But I'm good friends with Chiara Aurelia, who played Jeannette in Season 1. I told her, I was like, "I'm a bad friend. I'm sorry it took me so long to watch it," because she did phenomenally.
Lexie Underwood: I was a fan of Season 1. Honestly, I was really excited to hear that they were doing a Season 2. And as an actor, I was really intrigued by the challenge of having to play the character throughout three different timelines in the span of one year. And I was just excited because I felt as though when I first watched it was something that I hadn't necessarily seen on TV before. Done and told in that way with the three different timelines.
Alex: Speaking of the three timelines, the characters go through physical changes in addition to emotional ones. Their clothing style and even hairstyles change in major ways. Was that difficult? Did you ever get confused about which timeframe you were in?
Sadie Stanley: Physically, it was very challenging. We were filming all three timelines in the same day, most days. It was a lot of back and forth. I'm taking off black eyeliner and my fake eyebrow piercing and unslicking my hair and putting it in a ponytail, and putting a fresh face on. It was a lot of back and forth, but it was also emotional whiplash. It was a lot of going back and forth and trying to keep things straight, making sure I knew where my character was at, and starting the day giggling and laughing and yet crying and screaming. It really stretched me as an actor, and I'm grateful for it.
Lexie Underwood: There were days where we would film all three timelines in one day, which definitely is a little bit emotionally and mentally challenging, having to jump back and forth, especially if we're talking about the last timeline, which is very heavy for both versions of Megan and Isabella. But I'm just so grateful that we had a great team that helped us stay on track… The fact that we were all able to collaborate together and make sure that we all stayed on track together and did a beautiful story. It was definitely necessary and helpful.
Griffin Gluck: Their changes are so drastic. You can really tell by the way they dress and the way they look, that you're jumping. Timelines for Luke were a little bit tougher. I had an inch of hair, so there wasn't much we could do with that. Sometimes it was messy, and other times it was a little spiky thing, which is not that big of a difference. But no, it was pretty obvious once you got in there what era you're in because of what kind of scenes you're doing. Summer's a lot more bright and fun and just kind of loose energy. Winter gets a lot more serious. Normally it's like if it's a serious scene, we know we're in winter.
(Freeform/Justine Yeung)
Alex: I feel old saying this, but none of you were alive in ‘99 and ‘00. How did you prepare for that time period?
Sadie Stanley: I was born in 2001, so I'm a little bit off. There was, I guess, some preparation in terms of that. But thankfully, I feel like all the Y2K trends and culture were coming back a little bit. I was already loving the throwback music. I was already diving into the low-rise jeans. All of that was already starting to come back. Then as far as prepping the character, what was new for me was the three different timelines. I had never done something like that before, and I'd never really seen something like this done in this way, with the timelines, with them being so close together. That was really interesting. In the process of auditioning, I was working with the casting director and the showrunners, and everybody about making those three timelines feel really different and making her feel almost a completely different person. That was a lot of my prep, too, was like, "Okay, how did she get to this point? What made her this way from the start?"
Lexie Underwood: Music was a big tool for me. I created a playlist for summer ‘99, winter ‘99, and in summer 2000. And with that, I included all the top 10, top 50 songs during that time. I guess you'd call it the mix tapes you would make in summer ‘99 to start off her day and end her day. Things like that really helped me get into character as well as wardrobe, hair, and makeup. It's kind of hard when you are in the whole look to not feel as though you're immersed into that world.
Griffin Gluck: To mentally prepare for it, this sounds stupid, but it helped me a lot. The main thing I did was I left my phone in my apartment, and I would go out for long walks or go hang out with people without my phone. Because that's the main difference, really, between the 23 years, because kids didn't have that back then.
Alex: There’s a lot of secrecy surrounding a show like this, which keeps audiences trying to guess what happened. How much did you know about how the story would end?
Sadie Stanley: Lexi and I, whenever we got the chance, we were pestering [Executive Producers] Bill [Purple], Elle [Triedman], Michelle [Purple], and Jessica [Biel] for any information at all. But they didn't want to tell us because things were constantly changing, so they didn't want to give us too much. But we knew what we needed to know. We probably knew more than some of the other cast members, but also a lot of it was a guessing game. We didn't know either, and we were getting those scripts with our jaws on the floor, too.
Alex: To wrap up, I know you filmed in Vancouver and that this project overlapped with the filming of Disney’s Prom Pact. Do you have a lot of fun memories from this shoot?
Lexie Underwood: Milo [Manheim] and Griffin and are like best friends, so we all hung out a lot. I love Blake [Draper], I love Peyton [Elizabeth Lee]. And it's always just fun. I feel like Vancouver in itself is, it feels like summer camp. We were joking. Cause everybody stays at the same hotel. Everybody runs into each other. The sets are just across the street from each other. So it's nice being able to bond with other people that understand and get it, that are also away from home.
Griffin Gluck: We took a cast weekend trip to Whistler. Lexi had planned it out extensively, and she kept saying, "You guys coming, are you guys coming?" We were like, "Yeah, for sure. We totally are." Then we didn't really plan it, though. The night before we left, we found this Airbnb that was cheap with one bed and four of us, myself, Sadie, Lisa, and our castmate Ollie. Us four split this one bed, and we're like head-to-toe sardines in a can for two nights, and we just did all these Whistler activities. That was definitely a bonding experience, for sure.
The first two episodes of Season 2 of Cruel Summer are now streaming on Hulu. New episodes air Monday nights at 10/9c on Freeform.