Yahoo News ‘Cruel Summer’ EP Jessica Biel on Reliving Y2K Nostalgia in Season 2: “We Didn’t Realize How Cool It Was”
Jessica Biel rose to stardom in the early 2000s-era of movies, starring in films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Stealth, Blade: Trinity, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, not to mention her time on hit series 7th Heaven. Now, the actress returns to that Y2K nostalgia as an executive producer of Freeform’s Cruel Summer, now in its second season.
“It just brought me back to my youth,” Biel told The Hollywood Reporter at the show’s season two Los Angeles premiere on Wednesday night. “It brought me back to being a young woman in Hollywood and a young woman trying to work through this business and the world at this time when technology was changing so much — fashion and music and everything. I think at the time, we didn’t realize how cool it was. But looking back now, I miss it so much.”
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Cruel Summer’s second season, set in the early 2000s in a beachfront Pacific Northwest town, follows the friendship between Megan (Sadie Stanley), Luke (Griffin Gluck) and mysterious new girl in town Isabella (Lexi Underwood), and the twists and turns that ensue when a blossoming love triangle ends in a tragic accident.
“I am Jessica Biel’s number one fan,” said Stanley, who stars in the show as straight-A computer coder Megan. “I think she’s one of the coolest women in the world. Not only a Y2K icon, obviously, but also just an incredible person.”
Stanley continued, “I’m really inspired by the way that she takes charge of her own destiny and her own career. She said, ‘If I’m not getting cast in things that I want to be cast in, I’m just going to create them myself.’ I think that’s really, really awesome. And not only that, she’s paving the way for other young women to play really complex, interesting, flawed characters and do really cool projects. I’m so grateful for her making the space for me and Lexi to do that, and many more women after me.”
Underwood echoed the same sentiment. “Being able to work with incredible, strong women — I’m very big on that,” the Little Fires Everywhere actress said. “It’s just really wonderful to see women in that position that are also so giving and kind towards the younger generation of artists.”
Released two years ago amid the pandemic, the first season — starring Olivia Holt and Chiara Aurelia — went viral for its a juicy teen drama told over three summers in the ‘90s as the mystery of a missing girl unfolds. Led by showrunner Elle Triedman, the second season follows a similar format, alternating across three different timelines in each episode. Triedman wasn’t in attendance at the premiere due to the ongoing WGA strike.
“We wanted to maintain the structure and the skeleton of the show, which is the reason it’s so unique because of the timeline and the dual perspective,” said Biel about the anthology show’s multi-timeline structure. “But we wanted to change the themes this year. We’re talking even more deeply about friendship, betrayal, obsession, loyalty. How far would you go to protect somebody you love? What will you risk? Those are real world problems that adults deal with all the time, and so do young adults.”
Gluck notes the challenge in balancing all three timelines. “I learned a lot from the show as an actor,” he said. “It was very roll with the punches, run and gun. You get the scripts when you get them and you better be prepared. We all had to learn how to rely on each other in a lot of ways. You know, just take it one day at a time and get to set and work.”
Cruel Summer season two premieres on Freeform June 5.
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