Behind the Scenes of The Summer I Turned Pretty Film: Cast Struggles and Compensation Secrets
By Published Apr 1, 2026, 2:32 PM EDT Based in Los Angeles, Mona began her entertainment career in 2015, building experience across digital media and journalism. She has worked with major entertainment brands including iHeartMedia, E! News, Entertainment Tonight, and TMZ/TooFab, contributing to interviews, source development, and editorial production. Her writing even helped her team earn an Emmy Award at Entertainment Tonight. She has been an Entertainment & People News Reporter at ScreenRant since 2026. follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap
The stars of helped turn the Prime Video series into one of the biggest Young Adult hits in streaming history, gaining a follow-up film in the process.
But behind the scenes, getting the cast to sign back on has been a bit of a challenge. According to a new report from , a salary dispute threatened to delay filming as the cast gears up to reprise their roles for the film, which will conclude TSITP saga. Based on the best-selling novels by Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty started as a sleepy series before gaining a cult-like following in season 2. Backed with a soundtrack that featured the likes of Taylor Swift, the show saw its audience grow significantly, and by the time the third and final season premiered, the series had become a full-blown cultural phenomenon, with the intense fan debate over Belly's romantic future with brothers Conrad and Jeremiah all anyone could talk about.
That to wrap up the story, in a move that came as a surprise to fans who initially believed the series . And while it appears the cast was excited to get going on the film, Deadline's report points to a more complicated reality, with negotiations surrounding cast salaries and their involvement in the project ramping up after the movie was announced last year.
The series' core trio: Lola Tung, Christopher Briney, and Gavin Casalegno, reportedly earned between $35,000 and $40,000 per episode in season 1, which isn't uncommon for unknown actors leading a YA series. But, as the show's success grew, so did expectations for salary increases. Heading into the later seasons, the cast reportedly renegotiated, but those talks became muddied by the push for production to secure their participation in the planned movie, which is set to start filming on April 27.
According to sources cited by Deadline, some actors were and were even told that any salary bumps for the show's final season would be contingent on whether they signed on for the movie. Ultimately, the main cast, including Sean Kaufman and Rain Spencer, agreed to the updated deals, which reportedly included higher pay for season 3, with estimates cited in Deadline's report placing their salaries around $100,000 per episode.
However, some talent-side sources claim that at least a portion of the cast felt pressured into accepting those conditions, describing the agreements as being made "under duress." Studio sources maintain, however, per Deadline, that the actors were on board with the plan.
The report also indicates that compensation for the film may not reflect . Under the renegotiated contracts, the main cast members — including Kaufman, who plays Belly's brother Steven, and Spencer, who plays her best friend Taylor — are said to be earning the equivalent of roughly three episodic fees for the movie, or about $300,000. Deadline also notes that efforts to revisit those terms following season 3's massive reach were reportedly unsuccessful.
Season 3 ended up being the show's biggest, within its first 70 days, with the show remaining in Prime Video's Top 10 for months. But as production on The Summer I Turned Pretty movie gears up, and the cast makes their return to Cousins Beach for one final chapter, Deadline's report begs a conversation around whether the cast's pay reflects the part they played in driving the franchise's success.
Cast
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Lola Tung Isabel 'Belly' Conklin -
Christopher Briney Conrad Fisher
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