This spring, Harley Quinn Smith has been unable to escape speculation and fan theories about Cruel Summer, Freeform’s juicy new teen drama. “It’s been pretty insane to see people react to the show the way that they have been,” she tells GRAZIA. “I’ve never been a part of something that has so many opinions surrounding it.”
The show, which debuted at the end of April, has had fans scratching their heads and connecting the dots for months. Its central mystery involves two teenage girls: queen bee Kate (Olivia Holt) and wannabe Jeanette (Chiara Aurelia). When Kate is kidnapped in the early 90s, Jeanette suddenly blossoms, seemingly taking the missing girl’s place in the lives of her friends. The story unfolds over three summers: in 1993 just before Kate’s disappearance; in 1994 just after she is rescued; and in 1995 as both girls struggle with the ramifications of Kate’s ordeal—and Jeanette’s possible involvement.
Smith plays Mallory, an outsider Janis Ian-type—the Mean Girls character, not the singer-songwriter—who begins the show as Jeanette’s bubbly bestie in the ‘93 timeline but evolves into Kate’s more anti-social ride-or-die by the time we get to ‘95. “I kinda fell in love right away,” Smith, 21, says of the character. “I love how straightforward she is. I love her attitude. I love how she really just says it how it is. I’ve always wanted to play a character like that, and she was kind of the perfect match I was looking for, for myself.”
Every character on the show has secrets, but Smith says it genuinely upsets her when fans question Mallory’s motives. “I read all sorts of things about her, thinking that she’s so sketchy. And, I mean, I understand. She can come off a little aggressive. But I’m like, No! I love her! I want people to think she’s a good person, ‘cause I love her myself.” She laughs: “I just want others to see her how I see her, I guess.”
Smith grew up on film sets. Her father, the director Kevin Smith, started putting her in small parts in his movies when she was still a baby. (And, yes, she is named after the Batman villain.) She appeared as “Baby Silent Bob,” a young version of her father’s character in 2001’s Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and later had small roles in Jersey Girl (2004) and Clerks II (2006). But, Smith insists, her dad’s goal was never to rear a child star. “Those moments were just meant to be something to look back on—like a more expensive scrapbook,” she says. “I didn’t want to act when I was younger. I wanted to play bass in a band—which I do. But that’s all I wanted to do.”
It wasn’t until she appeared in her father’s 2014 film Tusk that she really got the acting bug. “It was a super specific moment,” she recalls. “I just fell in love with it that day. I thought it was so much fun. I just wanted to keep doing it.”
Since then, Smith has been in more of her father’s projects, including Yoga Hosers alongside Lily-Rose Depp. She also landed a small part in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, as a member of the Manson family, and appeared in an episode of The CW’s Supergirl. But Cruel Summer represents Smith’s most high-profile role to date.
Like the rest of the show’s cast, Smith plays three different versions of her character, at the ages of 15, 16, and 17. “The three years that the show takes place in are three very developmental years of a teenager’s life,” she says. Despite the intense circumstances and gothic drama, Smith maintains that the series is grounded in the tectonic shifts in identity that young people go through in high school. “I went through many phases when I was younger, and to see these characters change as much as they do, that’s something at least I identify with. Like, one year I had black hair and I was very emo. Then the next year I was, like, the basic California girl. I don’t know, I feel like I was constantly changing when I was younger.”
Those changes are reflected in each character’s dramatic transformation in appearance from one year to the next. Of course, part of that is to help clue the audience in to which timeline we’re watching. But as Smith explains, Mallory’s evolving look—from mismatched tween to bleached blond goth—is a manifestation of her state of mind. “I think Mallory just is so confident with herself,” Smith says. “That’s just how she expresses herself: I feel good in this and that’s all that matters. I just love how confident and comfortable she is in looking how she wants to look and not being concerned about what other people are going to think of her. That’s a quality that I would like to share.”
When she’s not gracing the screen, Harley Quinn Smith owns the stage as frontwoman and bassist for bubblegum punk band, the tenth. Check out these recommended tracks on GRAZIA’s Spotify.