Did you know that so many popular movies and TV shows were based on books — and there were some plot changes!
The Summer I Turned Pretty, for example, is a beloved book series by Jenny Han which has since been turned into a fan-favorite TV series starring Lola Tung (Belly), Christopher Briney (Conrad) and Gavin Casalegno (Jeremiah). When the first season premiered via Prime Video in June 2022, the show’s stars gushed to J-14 exclusively about the biggest changes from the book to the screen.
“I think it was really cool to sort of have his blueprint, I guess, while we were filming. But then, also recognizing that with the script and everything, it updated a little bit — it was changed a little bit,” Lola shared at the time. “Jenny was saying this before, but she always says to her readers — I guess I’ll just take her little line here — that you already have this version of your characters in your mind and that’s yours forever. It, for me, was obviously, I wanna make the readers happy and the viewers happy but I think it’s really important to not try to exactly replicate whatever there is in the book, you know what I mean? Or try to be whatever … I tried to bring myself to the character and make it my own.”
When it came to bringing Conrad to life, Christopher wanted to combine “these images and these ideas” from fans and put his own spin on it. “You sort of, you know, slam the two together,” the actor shared.
One major change from the book to the show was Belly’s debutante ball, which was not present in the novels.
“I think it’s so special,” Lola shared. “I talked to Jenny a little bit because I said to her, ‘What was the idea behind having this debutante ball plot?’ And she was like, ‘I think it’s such an actual representation of growing up because this is when, you know, girls are presented to society’ or whatever.”
Scroll through our gallery to uncover the biggest changes from these book to movie adaptations.
For more, pick up the latest issue of J-14, on newsstands and online now.
Love J-14? Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for fun, exclusive videos with your favorite stars.