The murder mystery is halfway through its chapters on Cruel Summer Season 2, and we’re getting deep into the many suspects at play.
Jeff Pope, the movie-obsessed filmmaker with a burning crush on Megan, is one of those individuals. Jeff seemed like a nice guy in love during the summer of 1999, but his future animosity against Megan and Isabella left us with plenty of questions. We can’t rule him or his blackmail scene out yet.
Nile Bullock, who plays Jeff, is setting the record straight about the love and suspicions of his character,
Below, we chatted with Bullock about his time filming Cruel Summer, why Jeff changed drastically between the months, and his connection to the murder mystery. Plus, he teased a bit about what’s to come for Jeff.
Check out the interview below!
How does it feel playing Jeff Pope on Cruel Summer Season 2?
Oh my gosh, it feels like a range of different emotions. It’s truly a blessing to be able to play Jeff Pope. I’m still just trying to process everything, you know, as I’m watching the show.
Something that I’ve said in past interviews when people have asked me about the role of Jeff is that it feels refreshing to play this role specifically.
The role also feels true to who I am, especially with Jeff’s personality being this closed and quiet person, the one who’s behind the scenes a lot and just observing. I feel like I confront a lot of relatability in that character, so it’s wild and some of the best shows ever.
Being a part of Cruel Summer Season 2 makes it even better. I’m truly blessed to be playing Jeff.
You mentioned similar qualities; Jeff is a big movie buff and loves playing with a camera. Do you have that in common with him?
Definitely, to a certain degree. I can’t say I’ve branched in, at least in my personal life, into filmmaking, the arts, and the technique behind it.
But I’m a huge movie geek. If not movies, it’s like TV shows. I’m a sucker for action films. All types of films, especially action! Comedy.
I am trying to watch classic movies, kind of like the ones Jeff was into. More around the 2000s and 1990s time.
There’s definitely a love for being able to make films. That’s something I want to go onto later in my life, and I love to record videos of me doing whatever.
I used to do a whole bunch of skits when I was younger too. I was super active on the [social] media.
We have that drive in common. Just being creative all the time and observing the world through that lens.
Yeah, we have that in common.
Cruel Summer went into its second season with a new mystery. Were you familiar with the show before you got the role?
I wasn’t familiar with Cruel Summer when I got the role. It had popped up on my timeline a couple of times; I saw trailers going across my IG page and on TV randomly a couple of times.
I never took a chance to sit down and see what it was about.
One thing about me is I don’t binge a whole bunch of TV these days because sometimes I’m really busy or have extracurriculars. So when I got the opportunity to read for Cruel Summer Season 2 and booked the role, I dove right into Cruel Summer Season 1.
Right away, I need to know what this show is about and what the hype is about.
I remember how the first season was kind of like me not knowing a whole bunch about Freeform at the time. I remember hearing that the show was like this A & B level and not super known, but it was a smash hit on Freeform. It was a top show.
That already had me intrigued. Cruel Summer Season 1, I have to say, blew me away, and I was on the edge of my seat.
I finished that season so quickly. [Laughs]
I was just so in it.
It’s been so hype to be a part of Cruel Summer Season 2 alone because the first was so freaking good! Yeah, that’s been my introduction to the Cruel Summer universe.
Now that you’ve been in it, read the scripts and filmed the scenes. How did it feel to be in a deep murder mystery?
Oh man, it was great! It was great! [Laughs]
It’s absolutely amazing. It makes you so anxious because you want to know how the tables are going to turn as the show goes on and who’s the culprit. Who’s this? Who’s that?
And one thing about this production is that they did a really good job of not telling us shit. [Laughs]
We did not know. Episodes were being written while we were shooting the scenes.
Stuff was going back and being rewritten, so we were in the dark, except for a couple of the showrunners and the cast.
We didn’t know what was going on until the episode was coming. So, it felt wild, especially with how the show is shot, jumping in between the different time periods and seeing such dramatic and quick transitions.
That was very much like while we were shooting.
We’d be doing one scene where we would all be chilling and hanging out at the cabin or the beach. And then, in the next scene, it would be straight chaos. [Laughs]
Or a completely different mood switch.
It made it that much more fun and kind of like a challenge working with that team of the show. That was my first time doing a murder mystery-type vibe.
I loved it! It was great; so much fun.
I got to chat with your co-star, Lisa Yamada, about this and asked her this question. Cruel Summer has all the different periods, and you have to shift around. How did it feel to prep and move through the times an episode at a time?
Oh, man! Yeah, like I was saying at the end of that last question, it was a challenge at times. Especially as you got the scripts, and all of a sudden, there was this dramatic change, or some cliffhanger, or a new character popping up in the next episode.
It was like, “Holy shit! [Spoiler] was moving super quick?!”
Since a lot of stuff was shot out of context at times, it was a lot. It built this challenge and pushed us to really tap into certain parts of ourselves.
I felt emotion-wise, physically, and mentally during those days because it would be such quick turnarounds to start the scene of what we were shooting. But everybody in the cast made that super easy.
We have such a passionate cast and crew, and you know, directors.
Everybody was really on top of getting it done in the right way and making sure that everybody was on their A-game. So, even though some of the days were challenging and it wasn’t very clear knowing all the places that we were going to jump to in a day.
I feel like the environment really filtered us, and the atmosphere kept us grounded.
We were able to get through it so well.
Most of your scenes so far have been filmed with Sadie Stanley, who plays Megan. And you’ve had some interactions with the rest of the core cast of teens. How was the experience filming with them and building out your story together?
It was absolutely a blessing. For real, this whole cast was super super super dope people from all different places of the world!
Everyone was such a powerhouse. We had so many powerhouse actors and actresses too.
Shoutout to everybody on the cast! Shoutout to Sadie [Stanley], shoutout to Lexi [Underwood], shoutout to Lisa [Yamada].
You know, Brady and Griffin. Everybody ate on Cruel Summer Season 2; they really went crazy. I made a lot of friends that I can consider lifelong friends working on this set.
It was super cool to watch how each character plays into what we see in this show. We bonded over time as everything got extended, and we went out to try different things with each other.
I met a lot of actors based in Vancouver. I want to shout out my friend Tedra Rogers because they were one of my really good friends on that set. Everybody was so freaking great!
We just had such a diverse cast, and it was so cool to get to know everybody — bond with each other in each episode.
It was a super amazing experience.
I want to shift gears a little bit and talk about Jeff. We saw a big change in him between Summer 1999 and Winter 1999. Why do you think he’s so resentful of Megan so much in the jump forward?
It’s safe to say if you all watched Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 4, we know now that he had a relationship with Megan that hasn’t been fully brought into the light yet. That is something we’ll see explained more on Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 5.
A little bit of what I can speak on with that is, for one, Jeff had a huge crush on Megan. He had loved Megan since his elementary school years!
Jeff has been crushing on this girl, and you know, I feel like him being able to open up to her, we got to see him breaking out of his shell entirely.
He’s been the quiet one and super observant. He isn’t super open like that with everybody; he’s trying to be involved with everything. Like, it’s his life with Megan.
We also see Megan can be herself around Jeff. I feel like Jeff can say the same about Megan, most definitely.
What we don’t see is how deep Megan and Jeff’s little relationship was. I think we’re going to see Jeff, especially on Cruel Summer Season 2 Episode 5, rubbed the wrong because Megan is struggling with her feelings for Luke. So, that plays into this thing that’s falling apart.
We’ll definitely see that, and we’ll see Jeff get used as a crutch. Luke’s relationship plays in Jeff being blown off, which puts him into his bad-boy era.
And Jeff has seemed to become a bigger part of this murder mystery. He’s friends with Luke, but he has his reasons to hurt him. Do you think fans are suspicious of Jeff? Have you been reading any of the online guesses?
I have been! People are coming for Jeff’s life right now. [Laughs]
It’s super funny to me. I like it a lot to be reading it.
Yeah, Jeff is a suspicious kid. I have to say it’s funny. As I watch these episodes with everybody else and the rest of the world, there are a lot of things I don’t remember in these episodes going forward.
It’s like I’m in the dark.
I didn’t get to watch the full season before the show came out. Even after shooting, there are a lot of things that I don’t remember.
I’m kind of in the dark about how to piece it together.
So, Jeff is a huge suspect. I like how the show brings to light how a lot of different people can be suspects here.
Jeff with his camera, it’s definitely like, you know, he has that thing on at all times. It can be creepy.
I’m like, “Damn!” Even watching it myself, I’m like, “Okay, Jeff.”
What do you hope fans will take away with Jeff when all is said and done by the end of Cruel Summer Season 2?
That’s a really good question. I hope that people will be able to find some relativity in Jeff.
I feel like, again, one thing with me, and this being one of the biggest roles I’ve had so far in my career, is that one thing to take away was that I connected with Jeff.
He has an introverted and extroverted side, which I definitely see in myself when I step into certain settings. Sometimes I’m just the quiet and observant one. I want to sit and listen to things. So, I hope people find them.
I feel like Jeff gets a bad rep throughout Cruel Summer too.
I hope throughout the next episodes that, we’ll clear some light on why he is the way he is going throughout the rest of the season.
And I also hope some people that have been in Jeff’s situation, like trying to be the nice kid and falling for the girl who might be a little bit troubled, that they find some clarity in that and know they’re not alone.
I feel like at certain parts, Jeff becomes the moaning one as we see him battle his own emotions against Megan and watch her fall for Luke. So, I hope there are a lot of things they take away.
I feel like there’s a lot for the audience to sit and think about it. With the overall theme of the show and each character that we see, there are a lot of themes, like the concept of “ride-or-die.”
That’s another conversation I hope people take away.
You know, how will they argue? How deep are you willing to go through for a friend? Through thick and thin, where do you draw the line?
There are a lot of things I hope audiences take away theme-wise as they watch the rest of Cruel Summer Season 2.
I hope there are a lot more questions. Yeah, most definitely.
We’re now halfway through the season. Is there anything you can tease for Jeff coming up?
Well! Well! I don’t really know. That’s a really good question.
All I want to say is that we’re going to see and find out soon why Jeff has a little bit of dirt on his hands.
That’s one thing I know the audience wants to see too. Especially regarding the blackmailing situation!
Megan and Isabella freakin’ blackmailed the kid! Why the egg? What’s his dirty secret, and what is he trying to hide?
And how deep does it go?
That’s something coming soon, which I’m interested for the audience to see. It paints a lot of light on the situation and doesn’t make him look like as much of a creep as he does right now. But I don’t know; that could change going forward.
So, stay tuned to that!
Cruel Summer Season 2 airs Mondays at 10/9c on Freeform. You can watch Cruel Summer online to catch up on all the past drama.
Justin Carreiro is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.