Sadie Stanley on the Y2K Setting and the Joys of Filming ‘Cruel Summer’ [Interview]

Sadie Stanley spoke with reporters at ATX Television Festival about Cruel Summer Season 2. Stanley plays Megan Landry, a computer coder who has big dreams of getting out of her small town of Chatham.

When asked if the anthology aspect of the series appealed to her, Stanley said, “Absolutely, a hundred percent. I’m way more of a movie girl than a TV girl. I love having a satisfying ending. I love projects that I can put away and like feel satisfied that they’re finished and tied up.”

One of the trademark aspects of Cruel Summer is that the show follows a story told across three different moments in time. In each episode in Season 2, we alternate between events occurring on a day in Summer 1999, Winter 1999, and Summer 2000.

Stanley was excited about the challenge of portraying a character that’s shown across multiple moments in time, all within one episode.

“There’s so much joy in it. It’s so much fun for me. I came out of this experience a way better actor. You know, doing all three timelines in one day, not even just the physical changes but the emotional whiplash of tapping into these different parts of her was honestly just so much fun.”

“There are certain timelines that are more fun to film like those first two timelines are a little bit more joyful. I get to have fun with my cast mates and go to party scenes and like giggle and laugh and jump around. But that last timeline is so fun for me too, and even the end of the second timeline, because that’s the stuff I love. I love that dramatic stuff. I love it when it’s a little dark, a little gritty, a little raw.”

It was definitely a challenge, as Stanley explained there wasn’t any kind of schedule as to how long or what days she would portray Megan in one time period.

“There was zero consistency. We did it episode by episode, but even then we were going back and reshooting some things from earlier episodes. It was all over the place. It was confusing, so confusing. But we had a great showrunner and great team that was helping us keep track of everything too. But no, I’m doing all three timelines in one day, every day.”

“First half of the day, I’ve got black eyeliner and a piercing on, and I have to take all that off at lunch, re-put on my face, dry my hair, put it in a nice, cute ponytail and be happy Megan again,”  Stanley said.

As mentioned, Cruel Summer Season 2 is set during Y2K, and Stanley shared what it was like to step back into that time. 

“Tapping into Y2K in general was like super fun. There were a lot of fun aspects like the music and the fashion was just so much fun for all of us. We were constantly playing throwback tunes on set. I have three different playlists for Megan of what songs she would be listening to in the three different timelines. The fashion was great. I was already into like, you know, low-rise jeans and the baggy cargo pants and like all that was coming back.”

One of the darker aspects of Y2K is the panic around what would happen when the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve 1999. Stanley said that Megan and her friends weren’t all that afraid of what would happen, but there is one character on the show who is scared of what the new millennia will bring.

“I think what’s interesting is we see Ned and his fear of that, and he’s trying to instill that into Megan like ‘No, this is a bad thing. This is scary.’ And he represents the fear of the Y2K,” Stanley shared.

Ned is not the type of person that you’d think Megan would be hanging out with, and Stanley had her reservations about their relationship when first reading the scripts.

“As we were reading and getting the episodes, I was like ‘Oh my gosh, this is another Kate Wallis situation where we have this older man and this younger girl, and there’s like some sort of relationship happening there.’ But no, it doesn’t end up being any sort, like it’s not romantic. It’s not anything inappropriate. It’s just Megan is looking for somebody that understands her, and so is Ned.”

“He’s like a town outcast, and nobody wants to talk to him. And nobody understands him. Megan has all these dreams and ambitions that nobody else can seem to understand about her. Luke doesn’t relate to her on that. Nobody can understand this about her. And so I think they naturally find each other and give each other what they are looking for, and Megan finds a mentor in him. He helps her a lot throughout the season,” Stanley elaborated.

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Check out all of our coverage of the ATX Television Festival right here. There is a lot more to come, including more with the Cruel Summer Season 2 cast.

Cruel Summer Season 2 premieres on Monday, June 5 at 10/9c on Freeform.

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