Jackie Chung Breaks Down Laurel-Conrad Scene (Exclusive) ArticlePure

Warning: This post contains spoilers from episode 6 of The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3.

Jackie Chung is relieved that all that wedding stress is over — sorta.

In the latest episode of The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3, which premiered on Aug. 13 on Prime Video, Laurel (Chung) finally smoothed things over with Belly (Lola Tung) after weeks of tension between the mother-daughter duo over her upcoming wedding to Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno).

It was Conrad (Christopher Briney) who was the one pulling all the strings behind the scenes to make the reconciliation happen, though, as he arranged to meet Laurel and convince her to support Belly after seeing how sad her mom’s absence was making her.

The emotional heart-to-heart between Conrad and Laurel was yet another perfectly executed book-to-screen moment thanks to Jenny Han, the author of the trilogy of books and series showrunner, and Chung, 46, breaks down how she approached the major moment, which she tells PEOPLE she was “hoping” would make it onscreen, and how her reconciliation with Belly will continue to play out.

PEOPLE: Talk to me about this episode. Was this one that you were looking forward to?

Jackie Chung: I was looking forward to this one. I look for those book moments, and I remember reading this Conrad scene in the book and just thinking, ‘Oooh, I love this one.’ And not all the scenes from the books make it into the show, and I was hoping that that one would — and it did.

And then when we were shooting it, I don’t often feel – because the show is different than the books – I don’t feel a responsibility where it has to be exactly like the books, except with this scene. I felt like it really had to live in the right tone and space.

PEOPLE: Do you feel like the pressure’s on with book moments? When you know a scene is being pulled directly from the book?

Chung: A tiny bit. With this one, a tiny bit. Like, we just have to get this “right” — whatever that means — because I know that they’re looking out for it. But when Jenny’s eye is on it, I know that I can trust that she will make sure it is where it needs to be.

PEOPLE: Was there a specific scene from the book — and maybe it was this Laurel-Conrad scene — that you were most excited to see come to life on screen?

Chung: Yeah, I think it was this one. It was just the setting and the lighting and I just wanted to see it all together.

PEOPLE: What was it like filming this scene with Chris? What is it like when you two have your scenes together? Because that is a very special relationship.

Chung: It’s a very special relationship. And I love the scenes with Chris. He’s such a wonderful actor, I can just look in his face, and see everything that’s happening. He doesn’t even need to speak — you can just feel it. I just love our scenes together, and to be able to show that relationship and that connection that you don’t see with that many other characters, because [Laurel and Conrad] are so similar.

PEOPLE: As I was watching it, I was thinking, ‘Is it going through Laurel’s mind that Conrad’s still in love with Belly in this moment?’ Is she thinking that he’s being this selfless brother? Because when she says that line — “What about you? When do you get to be happy?” — I was like, “Exactly!”

Chung: There’s so much happening in this scene, which is also why I like it. Because it’s so quiet, but there is so much in there. There’s so much feeling and emotion and so many feelings that are buried so deep.

I do think she recognizes that he has feelings for Belly. And, I really feel firmly about this, that Laurel is Team Belly. She does not want her to get married at this point in her life — to anyone — she wants her to grow and mature first.

But I do think she recognizes that Conrad has these feelings, and I think she’s pushing him a little to open up and let them out, so that he can be happy and not just harbor these feelings and bury them.

PEOPLE: I do feel like Laurel is a key piece of Team Conrad, whether she wants to be or not. These moments that Laurel has with Conrad and then has with Belly lead so directly into some of the major Belly-Conrad moments we’ve had so far. It does feel like there’s this innate connection between Laurel’s actions and Belly getting closer with Conrad again.

Chung: Yeah, I mean, I see it. I see how her being like, “Hey, find your happiness, Conrad,” could lead to him mucking things up for Jeremiah and Belly.

It’s really that she wants each of them to find their happiness, not just one or two of them. She wants them each to find it on their own and then to find the people that are right for them.

PEOPLE: We see Belly and Laurel start to mend fences this episode. What was it like to have those healing scenes with Lola?

Chung: I love that scene, too, where Laurel shows up at the bridal shower. There was so much emotion. And Lola too, I just look at her and there’s so much in her face and just bursting out of her heart that, for a long time, we just looked at each other.

I feel like, in that moment, that’s true, that Laurel has so much she probably wants to say, but it’s not the right setting and it’s just too much. And she just wants to hold her daughter and move past it and celebrate her.

PEOPLE: When you think about Laurel’s arc over this whole season, what is the story that we see in this last chapter?

Chung: Her story is just — her becoming her own person. I mean, she and Susannah were kind of co-dependent, as close as they were, but I think she looks to John sometimes, she got advice from Conrad this time, but she’s having to find it in herself, how to be the parent that she wants to be and be the person that she wants to be and to build the life and relationships that she wants. I feel like she grows over the season.

PEOPLE: What is your take on Steven and Taylor?

Chung: I think Laurel’s just preoccupied with the Belly situation. I think she also knows Steven to be someone who has had his s— together. He got all those scholarships, he’s career oriented. I think she can relax in the sense that he’s not going to get swept away, swept up in something that he can’t handle or that will set him off track of his goals.

Belly goes all in, head-first, making these choices that Laurel doesn’t agree with, that she feels will be detrimental. And Steven’s not doing that.

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New episodes of The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3 drop Wednesdays at 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT on Prime Video.