Over 400 years ago, Pope Gregory XIII adopted the Gregorian calendar, establishing a 365-day year, with January at the beginning—a heartening benchmark to signify another successful trip around the sun.

Humans have since burdened January with corresponding duties (i.e. New Year’s resolutions) as The First Month. Yet presently, as days melt from breezy to balmy, an optimism and possibility brews under the surface, unique only to the summer months. Summer, delicately suspended between seasons of responsibility, enchants us to believe anything can happen. Such is the idyllic framework for book-turned-series The Summer I Turned Pretty. Isabel “Belly” Conklin is on the verge of another blissful summer vacation in Cousins Beach (a picturesque combination between Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard). She ponders, Who can I become? How can I open myself to possibility?

Four years ago, Rain Spencer was pondering the same questions. She was on the cusp of her own figurative (and literal) summer: playing Taylor Jewel, the ever-confident best friend to Lola Tung’s Belly. A quintessential Queen Bee, Taylor presented Spencer with the unfamiliar: Taylor, unlike Spencer in nearly every aspect, is outspoken, self-assured, and regularly bikini-clad. Though the space between Spencer and Taylor felt vast, the now-25-year-old actor felt it was an “amazing challenge” to stretch across the gap. 

Three seasons in, Spencer has continuously stretched, reaching out and embracing both a nuanced, matured depiction of Taylor, and with it a more confident version of herself. In its final season, The Summer I Turned Pretty lets viewers dwell in their anticipation—season three dropped in July of this year, with each remaining episode releasing every Wednesday on Amazon Prime Video. In between episodes? Fans eagerly scrape together scenes to craft meticulous edits and well-nurtured analyses, with Taylor making a regular appearance. 

Having spent her early 20s with the character, Spencer acknowledges their inextricable entwinement. “Growing up with her, I definitely took some things from her in a healthy, healing, positive way,” she shares. “How can I show up in the world? Or, how can I be less shy? How can I communicate effectively, in a nice way? Or feel confident?” 

Amidst the final season of the explosive teen drama, Spencer is, naturally, swamped with press appearances, where she is often sat alongside Sean Kaufman, who plays her on-and-off love interest Steven (“He’s already such a giving actor and beautiful person, and it just makes it easy no matter what.”). Today, however, Spencer is back home in Los Angeles, enjoying somewhat of a break after a busy press run in New York. 

Despite any perceived chaos of Spencer’s life, this is exactly where she imagined herself. At 5-years-old, after performing in her third or fourth play, she informed her mother that acting was The Goal. “I came back to her and I was like, ‘I want an agent.’ And she was like, ‘How do you know what an agent is?’” she recalls. “So [an actor] is what I’ve been and [acting] is just everything I’ve wanted forever. There was no question about what I wanted to do.”

Unlike those of us who prematurely declared we were going to be an astronaut or a princess or president, Spencer never wavered, even over the 10-year period of auditions during which she only booked small commercials. she wasn’t discouraged; she embraced her availability as a chance to develop as a student, untouched by potential side effects of childhood stardom. 

“I got to be a teenager, and just have a normal upbringing, [which] for me was important because I am constantly pulling from my experiences,” Spencer shares. “I wasn’t really upset. I was just like, ‘Ah, okay, what do I need to do?’ I was just in classes. I was just being a student.”

Hence, when Spencer landed her first professional film role, the titular character in Sarah Elizabeth Mintz’s film Good Girl Jane, she was ready. Embodying Jane, a lonely teen that becomes addicted to methamphetamine, trained Spencer not only how to authentically feel a character in her own body, but how to do so in a healthy way. 

“If I’m going into a darker place for a character, I try to have the mindset that it’s coming from or will manifest in a healing and healthy way,” Spencer explains. “So, I will heal things about myself. I will see some aspects of truth. It’s not just going into the darkness for fun.”

Viewers who witnessed Spencer’s haunting performance in Good Girl Jane (which won her Best Performance in a US Narrative Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival), likely found her unrecognizable when she re-emerged as Taylor the same year. Spencer’s seemingly effortless transition between the two characters reveals both the technical mastery she’s acquired from over a decade of training as well as Spencer’s natural curiosity—she has an impulse towards nuance, towards understanding the limitations of human character. Thus, when asked about the kind of character she’d like to pursue next, she lights up at the possibilities—from a stunt-heavy action role that would require months of training, to a Girl Interrupted-esque psychopath. 

Her most recent exploration? Freya, a still-elusive character in Paloma Schneideman’s upcoming film Big Girls Don’t Cry. “I have even more tools that I learned from that character as well. She’s a little bit more laid back than Taylor. I don’t know. I mean, does it sound crazy to say that?” Spencer laughs. (While details on the film remain under wraps, Spencer shares they spent this year shooting in New Zealand—between filming, she taught herself how to drive on the opposite side of the road.)

Though Spencer speaks of her process, and projects, with assurance, she maintains candid about her personal struggles in the entertainment business. A self-identified introvert, Spencer has developed her own systems to remain grounded in an industry that rewards the outgoing. That, and she’s well-versed  in performing transcendent confidence. 

“As a human, I am growing and learning how to do press and how to be at these parties and how to have conversations with people that would have scared me before, truthfully…I have to actively practice going out; actively practice just being okay in my body, feeling safe and getting control over my anxiety,” she explains. 

But perhaps this friction between profession and self makes the joy even sweeter. Spencer takes laughter seriously, speaking with an affability that convinces me joy likely follows her, both on and off set. She considers daily laughter a necessity, finding both Tim Robinson and her own friends as reliable sources of hilarity. 

“Life feels so heavy sometimes. I have a friend that I’ll tell the gnarliest story, and she’ll start laughing at me. And I’m like, ‘Yo, first of all, you’re supposed to feel really bad for me.’ And she’s like, ‘Yeah, but you’re telling it hilariously.’ All of a sudden, it becomes a lighter story. It’s about changing your perspective, you know?”

As autumn creeps in, life feels as if it resumes its routine heaviness. Summer’s beguiling haze fades before you have the chance to realize, leaving self-exploration as a pursuit better to leave for next year. Yet, Spencer refuses to stop exploring, unveiling new layers of herself as an individual and performer—most importantly, doing so in a healthy way. 

 “I feel so new,” she says with a smile. Yes, summer may be ending, but the possibilities are endless. 

Photographed by Yu Tsai

Styled by Malcolm Smith

Written by Julia King

Hair: Bridget Brager at The Wall Group

Makeup: Yasuko Shapiro 

Flaunt Film: Oren Buchler

Production Assistant: Hailey Akau