Move over, Anora: Summer of ’69 is the new stripper movie on the block, and it also happens to be an Oscar-worthy masterpiece. Instead of Russian oligarchs, the Jillian Bell-directed film follows an inexperienced teenage girl, Abby (Sam Morelos), who’s dead set on hooking up with her basic white boy crush, Max (Matt Cornett). Her genius strategy? Pay a stripper named Santa Monica (Chloe Fineman) a hefty sum for a crash course in all things sex.
In real life, Jillian, Chloe, and Sam have always been 100 percent cool around their crushes. When I chatted with them about the movie, I learned that Sam once spit cereal on a guy she liked, Jillian thought watching Star Wars with a potential love interest really set the right mood, and Chloe took a literal clown class with her crush. That’s romance, folks. Take notes. We also discussed their favorite memories from filming and some truly wild moments of improv that made it into the final cut.
Enjoy Chloe, Jillian, and Sam’s hilarious behind-the-scenes stories from Summer of ’69 – along with their iconic personal tales!
Summer of ’69 is now streaming on Hulu.
What are your favorite memories from filming?
Sam: After we wrapped the house party scene, we were never going to film in that house again. So the second that they said, “We’re done,” I took off my costume. I had a bathing suit underneath, I jumped in the pool. It’s like two in the morning, it’s freezing. I had to do it, but now the lights are turning off and everyone’s like, “We got to wrap the house. We got to go.” I was just floating in the pool. It was amazing.
Jillian: Mine is in the first fantasy sequence we have in the film, the wedding fantasy sequence. You’re fully dressed in your normal clothes, and then we rip that off and you’re in a wedding dress. And we go around, and we see you guys come together, and then the bright lights of the cars light up. The first time it worked, which was the second take, everyone around us grabbed each other. That one is special. You can feel it in the room.
Were any scenes improvised or different than they were in the script?
Chloe: So many. We just had so much improv. The… [dramatically touches her eyelid, referencing a scene in the movie]. That was a thing that really happened to me. It was this older girl, when I was in high school… Us just even saying penis in that scene were about to go penis, penis, penis. We were so comfortable with each other. And Jillian is the funniest bitch alive – BETCH alive. The scene when we’re talking about guys I dated, you shouted out, “Drowned in a pool.”
Jillian: Riffing on how… When you’re younger, you only know three facts about the guys that you have a crush on. Chloe had such funny riffs. I think I shouted out… I was like, everybody knows someone whose brother drowned-
Chloe: -It was like his mom drives a Jetta and his dick looks good in sweatpants. Then we just kept going from there.
In real life, did you ever do anything unhinged to impress a crush?
Chloe: Oh my God. All the time. Where it began.
Sam: I had weird tactics. I would play the I Hate You tactic to impress the guy I had a crush on. I remember I was in fourth grade and he was picking on my best friend. I was like, “You don’t talk to her like that. I flung cereal in his face.” Literally with my bowl and the spoon, I went like this all over his face. I had a huge crush on him. Huge crush. I was all like, I bet that’ll get me some points. It, in fact, didn’t work.
Chloe: The first guy I ever dated or whoever asked me out, his name’s Steve Girard, and he was really normal and cool. Then as we got older, he got weirder and artsy-er. Then we ended up at college together and I always had such a huge crush on him. Then by the time we were adults, he asked me to take a clown class with him. I had to go to Harlem in this weird room and we were running around playing with socks. It was a true clown class. I went to great extents for Steve Girard to like me.
Jillian: Clown class is the height of doing something to impress. My height is like, I watched Star Wars with a guy and I was like, I must really like you. This is just not my cup of tea. But yeah, nothing too crazy. Oh my God, clown school.
Chloe: Then we hooked up in his puppet studio. Yeah, he has an animation studio in Bushwick and we slept together in the puppet studio. Then I went a little more normal with the men I like. So take that Lena Dunham. There’s my episode of Girls. It tracks a weird, a puppet studio in Bushwick.
What was your favorite part about working with each other?
Jillian: I fell in love with both of them so deeply, and what they were doing, the choices they were making, and how committed they were… that it just becomes like you really do feel like such a family throughout it.
Chloe: I had never really felt so supported, just that female support thing. Just totally safe, totally accepted. It’s just a different dynamic. This felt like we all laughed at each other. We all loved each other and it rewired my whole body and mind to work with these guys.
Sam: My favorite part were the parts in between takes where I just get to give a little hug to Jillian at the monitor and just chat and be friends too. We loved it, so we all were invested in each other and the thing that we were doing that it just felt like you don’t get that a lot where you feel like you’re just creating art too that we’re all proud of.
