David Iacono wasn’t sure where his “The Summer I Turned Pretty” character Cam’s story was going in Season 2 of the Prime Video series, because the character doesn’t return in author Jenny Han’s second book of her trilogy.
His beloved Cam Cameron, who dates Belly (Lola Tung) for a bit in the first season, first appeared in Season 2, Episode 4, mediating the great boardwalk showdown. He continues to hold space in the fifth episode, revealing that his sister died when he was young.
“When I initially read that part of the script, I was pretty shocked that they were allowing [Cam] to have such a meaningful backstory to bring to the table during that conversation at the golf course,” Iacono told TheWrap in an interview that took place before the SAG-AFTRA strike began. “When he brings that up, Conrad and Jeremiah are sitting right there — and Cam, Conrad and Jeremiah didn’t have the most fruitful relationship in the first season because Cam was with Belly and that was a bit of a controversial thing.”
Cam reveals this part of his life story as the group wraps up their shenanigans at the country club and decides to make camp on the golf course for the night since Aunt Julia (Kyra Sedgwick) cleared out Susannah’s beach house while the kids were distracted at the boardwalk.
“To be able to have [Jeremiah and Conrad] look to him in that moment for any type of words of wisdom or guidance, and it’s the first time where grief in any way other than them dealing with it about their mother is even brought up in this world,” he added. “Seeing them latch onto him in that moment, very briefly being like, ‘Did it get better? Like how was it?’ I think that’s a very, very touching, beautiful, heartfelt moment.”
The first five episodes of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” are now streaming on Prime Video.
