The Summer I Turned Pretty star Gavin Casalegno has broken his silence on the widespread hate directed at his character, Jeremiah Fisher
“They tend to dislike him, yes. I don’t check Instagram anymore, so I really haven’t seen that much hate,” Casalegno, 25, told The New York Times in an interview published on Thursday, August 21. “The only thing that I see is my sister sending me the memes that are really funny. I think it’s important to also understand and realize that this is a fictional story — and it’s also not me.”
He added, “I don’t think there’s a single human being in the world who can carry the emotional negativity to the degree that stuff like this happens.”
Casalegno has starred as Jeremiah, one of the love interests of teen protagonist Belly Conklin, in all three seasons of Prime Video’s The Summer I Turned Pretty, which was adapted from Jenny Han’s bestselling Young Adult novels of the same name. In both the book and TV series, Belly (Lola Tung) finds herself in a love triangle with brothers Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah. (Han, 44, is also the showrunner on the Prime Video iteration.)
Weeks before season 3 premiered last month, Prime Video shared a heartfelt plea for fans to avoid criticizing the actors, personally, over any onscreen antics.
“I think that’s why Amazon did a good job of stepping in and being like, ‘Hey, no bullying.’ Though, [it’s] not really going so well,” Casalegno told The Times, noting many fans have told him to his face how much they dislike Jeremiah. “It’s pretty comical.”
While the Team Conrad vs. Team Jeremiah debate has run rampant throughout the series’ tenure, the discussion reached a fever pitch after Jeremiah cheats on Belly with a fellow college student named Lacie Barone in season 3. When Belly finds out the truth, Jeremiah proposes marriage and she accepts. Fans have also been upset with Jeremiah for allowing Belly to postpone her dreams to study in Paris to stay geographically closer to him, arguing that Conrad would have never done the same.
Despite the online backlash, Casalegno has tried to stay above the fray.
“I honestly haven’t even really watched any of the show,” he told the outlet. “Because, you know, when you’re in it, you know what’s happening. And so it’s, like, ‘Why?’ At the end of the day, it’s work — it’s an amazing job, a dream job — but it is still work.”
Casalegno further stressed that he’s not Jeremiah.
“We’re both very social and try to be the life of the party and please everybody — we’re very similar in that aspect,” he explained. “But, obviously, as far as the immature side of things and the partying, I was never a partyer. I don’t even like going to work parties. It’s not who I am at all.”
To get into character, Casalegno previously told Us Weekly that he tried to “keep it as real as possible.”
“I know where he ends up going and what ends up happening, but I don’t emphasize on that,” Casalegno exclusively told Us in 2023. “I think Jenny writes it so well that I’m able to kind of get there naturally without having to force it a certain direction. … I try to play it day by day because that’s all we can do. [We can] just live in the moment and make the most of our time.”
The Summer I Turned Pretty drops new episodes Wednesdays on Prime Video.
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