The second installment of Freeform’s “Cruel Summer” centers on an unfolding mystery tied to a “ride or die” bond shared between two best friends — themes star Sadie Stanley was more than ready to tackle in the next phase of her acting career.
“I wanted to venture into something a little bit more mature, a little bit darker [with] a little bit more grit to it — something for me to have some fun with,” Stanley, who got her start playing Kim Possible in several live action adaptations of the Disney series, told TheWrap. “‘Somewhere in Queens’ was like that for me, too,” Stanley added, referring to Ray Romano’s recently released drama. “It was exactly what I was looking for.”
In the anthology series — which quickly garnered a cult following in its first season, led by Chiara Aurelia and Olivia Holt — Stanley plays the role of Megan, whose innocence at the onset of the series is rapidly corrupted less than a year later as an unsolved crime wreaks havoc on a small town in the Pacific Northwest.
Centering on a layered friendship between Megan and exchange student Isabella (Lexi Underwood), audiences are left to put the puzzle pieces of the sinister act together between three timelines leading up to and following Y2K.
Meeting Megan in the summer of ’99, her naivety fades away by the winter of ’99 thanks to Isabella, who trades her lavish international lifestyle to stay with Megan’s family for a year in the hopes of getting a normal American high school experience. By the summer of 2000, however, Megan is almost unrecognizable as the darkness surrounding the friends’ unraveling secrets threatens her future.
“I resonated with Megan a lot,” Stanley recalled, adding that she immediately related to Megan’s first timeline, admitting that she was also a straight-A student and “goody two shoes” who certainly did not fall into the “crazy teenager trope.” “I resonated with her personality and the way that she’s had to grow up fast.”
Enter Isabella: a fun-loving and well-traveled outsider whose free spirited vibe prompts some resistance for Megan, who struggles to find a point of connection with her new houseguest.
“For Megan, Isabella is everything Megan does not like and everything that Megan is afraid of,” Stanley said. “Megan is bit of a tomboy, and she’s a little bit reserved… and doesn’t like to break any rules. And Isabella comes in… [with] this magnetic energy that everybody is attracted to, and I think Megan feels a little intimidated — a little jealous, in a sense — and she’s just not sure what to do with Isabella. She just feels like they can’t relate on anything because they have such have different lives.”
Fast forward to winter ’99, when Megan grew into her newfound confidence and worked through her initial hesitation of getting closer with Isabella, as the duo adopts the “ride or die” motto to encapsulate their sister-like bond.
“It’s fun to watch her in the second timeline come into her own and let loose a little bit,” Stanley said. “I kind of had that experience too — I feel like a lot of people can relate to that.”
Between winter ’99 and summer 2000, however, Megan and Isabella’s lives — and friendship — take a steep turn when authorities discover the deceased body of Luke (Griffin Gluck), whose shifting romance with Megan and Isabella leave the teens vulnerable to speculation over his death.
“We hit every type of friendship,” Stanley said. “In the beginning, Megan’s not really feeling Isabella and Isabella is trying to butter Megan up and try to get her to be friends with her and Megan’s not having it; and then you see the second timeline, they’re best friends and [in] the third timeline, they’ve fought like sisters, they’ve been through so much together, and it’s just kind of torn them apart a little bit.”
While the complex female friendship is at the heart of Megan and Isabella’s storylines, their intertwined relationship with Luke complicates matters when Isabella asks permission from Megan to pursue Luke, her childhood best friend. Megan gives her blessing, despite some ruminating feelings that don’t come to the surface just yet.
“At first she is fine with it,” Stanley said of Isabella’s fling with Luke. “She didn’t realize her feelings for Luke — she doesn’t think about boys like that … and she never thought Luke would think of her like that … Through the process of her opening up, she realized that maybe it is a possibility, and maybe she does have that side of her that she wants to see what that’s about.”
By winter ’99, it’s evident the girls have settled their issues surrounding Luke — Megan and Luke are now the perfect friends-turned-couple — and their friendship is closer than ever, until another intrusion threatens to tear down what the trio has built.
While at a holiday party hosted by Luke’s dad, Megan, Luke and Isabella are shocked when a projection of a sex tape featuring Luke is played in front of the guests. While it is later revealed that the tape was of Megan and Luke, the audience immediately assumes Luke cheated on Megan with Isabella after the hookup took place in the air stream where Isabella was staying — a conclusion that leaves Megan “horrified.”
“She has all these big plans for her future, for this to happen so publicly could put her in a position to lose her scholarship, or some of the other opportunities that she’s created for herself,” Stanley said, adding that Megan has a reputation to uphold. “There’s another layer to it when when she realizes that the people around her think it’s Isabella because what’s worse? Do you admit that this is you? Or do you allow people to think that your boyfriend was cheating on you? Both of those are equally horrible.”
As the repercussions the tape could have on Megan’s future send her spiraling, Isabella offers to take the hit for it, assuring Megan that her reputation in the town is temporary and that she’s comfortable with letting people talk.
“Megan’s really hesitant about it — She’s terrified that that might come between us which in the end, it does,” Stanley said. “But Megan, I think she’s just so terrified to ruin her future that she’s like, alright, let’s do it’ … it all comes down to loyalty.”
“Cruel Summer” airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on Freeform and new episodes are available the next day on Hulu.
