The Summer I Turned Pretty’s Gavin Casalegno reacts to being the internet’s “most hated boyfriend”

It’s not easy embodying the villain of a widely beloved TV show, but The Summer I Turned Pretty star Gavin Casalegno is taking it all in stride. He also wants to remind fans that this is just a character.

As season three of Amazon Prime’s immensely popular young adult drama continues on, fans have chosen sides in the messy love triangle that’s at the centre of the series. Based on Jenny Han’s book trilogy of the same name, the story centres around the Fisher brothers—Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah (Casalegno)—who are both in love with Isabel “Belly” Conklin (Lola Tung). Belly is currently engaged to Jeremiah, despite their young age, mutual family disapproval and the story portraying Jeremiah as an immature frat boy.

Because of this, a large portion of the internet has loudly declared themselves as “Team Conrad,” with Jeremiah becoming the butt of every joke and meme. In one episode, Jere goes on about an expensive mirror-glazed wedding cake he insists they buy, which has now become a viral TikTok sound.

And while Jeremiah is a fictional character, Gavin Casalegno is very much real. In a recent interview with The New York Times, the actor opened up about playing the internet’s “most hated boyfriend” and how he copes.

“They tend to dislike him, yes,” Casalegno said of the fan base. “I don’t check Instagram anymore, so I really haven’t seen that much hate.”

Instead, Casalegno said he only sees “the memes that are really funny,” courtesy of his sister sending them to him.

“I think it’s important to also understand and realise that this is a fictional story—and it’s also not me,” he continued. “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. And I think that’s why Amazon did a good job of stepping in and being like, ‘Hey, no bullying.’ Though, not really going so well.”

He’s referring to Amazon sharing a statement on The Summer I Turned Pretty’s official social media accounts, reminding fans to “keep the conversation kind this summer.” The account added that they have a zero-tolerance policy for bullying and hate speech. And while most of the comments under his personal Instagram accounts have been in good fun, there are the occasional ones that sneak in. Still, Casalegno thinks the internet divide is “pretty comical.”