{"id":26074,"date":"2021-06-09T14:05:57","date_gmt":"2021-06-09T14:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=26074"},"modified":"2021-06-09T14:05:57","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T14:05:57","slug":"harley-quinn-smith-summer-of-love","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/harley-quinn-smith-summer-of-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Harley Quinn Smith: Summer Of Love"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Harley
Photographer, Kelsey Hale, Stylist Veronica Graye, Harley Quinn Smith.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This spring, Harley Quinn Smith has been unable to escape speculation and fan theories about\u00a0Cruel Summer<\/i>,\u00a0Freeform\u2019s\u00a0juicy new teen drama. \u201cIt\u2019s been pretty insane to see people react to the show the way that they have been,\u201d she tells\u00a0GRAZIA<\/i>. \u201cI\u2019ve never been a part of something that has so many opinions surrounding it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u00a090s, Jeanette suddenly blossoms, seemingly taking the missing girl\u2019s place in the lives of her friends. The story unfolds over three summers: in 1993 just before Kate\u2019s disappearance; in 1994 just after she is rescued; and in 1995 as both girls struggle with the ramifications of Kate\u2019s ordeal\u2014and Jeanette\u2019s possible involvement.<\/p>\n

Smith plays Mallory, an outsider Janis Ian-type\u2014the\u00a0Mean Girls\u00a0<\/i>character, not the singer-songwriter\u2014who begins the show as Jeanette\u2019s bubbly bestie in the\u00a0\u201893\u00a0timeline but\u00a0evolves into Kate\u2019s more anti-social ride-or-die by the time we get to\u00a0\u201895. \u201cI\u00a0kinda\u00a0fell in love right away,\u201d Smith, 21, says of the character. \u201cI love how straightforward she is. I love her attitude. I love how she\u00a0really just\u00a0says it how it is. I\u2019ve always wanted to play a character like that, and she was kind of the perfect match I was looking for, for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every character on the show has secrets, but Smith says it genuinely upsets her when fans question Mallory\u2019s motives. \u201cI read all sorts of things about her, thinking that she\u2019s so sketchy. And, I mean, I understand. She can come off a little aggressive. But I\u2019m like,\u00a0No!<\/i>\u00a0I love her!<\/i>\u00a0I want people to think she\u2019s a good person,\u00a0\u2018cause\u00a0I love her myself.\u201d She laughs: \u201cI just want others to see her how I see her, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Harley
Photographer, Kelsey Hale, Stylist Veronica Graye, Harley Quinn Smith.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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 \u201cBaby Silent Bob,\u201d a young version of her father\u2019s character in 2001\u2019s\u00a0Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back<\/i>, and later had small roles in\u00a0Jersey Girl<\/i>\u00a0(2004) and\u00a0Clerks II\u00a0<\/i>(2006).\u00a0<\/i>But, Smith insists, her dad\u2019s goal was never to rear a child star. \u201cThose moments were just meant to be something to look back on\u2014like a more expensive scrapbook,\u201d she says. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to act when I was younger. I wanted to play bass in a band\u2014which I do. But that\u2019s all I wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until she appeared in her father\u2019s 2014 film\u00a0Tusk<\/i>\u00a0that she really got the acting bug. \u201cIt was a super specific moment,\u201d she recalls. \u201cI just fell in love with it that day. I thought it was so much fun. I just wanted to keep doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, Smith has been in more of her father\u2019s projects, including\u00a0Yoga Hosers<\/i>\u00a0alongside Lily-Rose Depp. She also landed a small part in Quentin Tarantino\u2019s\u00a0Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,\u00a0<\/i>as a member of the Manson family, and appeared in an episode of The CW\u2019s\u00a0Supergirl<\/i>. But\u00a0Cruel Summer\u00a0<\/i>represents Smith\u2019s most high-profile role to date.<\/p>\n

Like the rest of the show\u2019s cast, Smith\u00a0plays three different versions of her character, at the ages of 15, 16,\u00a0and 17. \u201cThe three years that the show takes place in are three very developmental years of a teenager\u2019s life,\u201d 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. \u201cI went through many phases when I was younger, and to see these characters change as much as they do, that\u2019s something at least\u00a0I\u00a0<\/i>identify with. Like, one year I had black hair and I was very emo. Then the next year I was, like, the\u00a0basic\u00a0<\/i>California girl. I don\u2019t know, I feel like I was constantly changing when I was younger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those changes are reflected in each character\u2019s 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\u2019re watching. But as Smith explains, Mallory\u2019s evolving look\u2014from mismatched tween to bleached blond goth\u2014is a manifestation of her state of mind. \u201cI think Mallory just is so confident with herself,\u201d Smith says. \u201cThat\u2019s just how she expresses herself:\u00a0I feel good in this and that\u2019s all that matters.<\/i>\u00a0I 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\u2019s a quality that I would like to share.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she\u2019s 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<\/a> on GRAZIA’s<\/em> Spotify.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29097,"featured_media":26075,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[16],"yoast_head":"\nHarley Quinn Smith: Summer Of Love - Grazia USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With a breakout performance in this spring\u2019s most addictive new teen drama, \u2018Cruel Summer\u2019 star, Harley Quinn Smith has found the role she\u2019s been looking for.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/harley-quinn-smith-summer-of-love\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Harley Quinn Smith: Summer Of Love\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With a breakout performance in this spring\u2019s most addictive new teen drama, \u2018Cruel Summer\u2019 star, Harley Quinn Smith has found the role she\u2019s been looking for.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/harley-quinn-smith-summer-of-love\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Grazia USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/06\/HarleyQuinn_featured.jpg?fit=1280%2C720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/harley-quinn-smith-summer-of-love\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/harley-quinn-smith-summer-of-love\/\",\"name\":\"Harley Quinn Smith: Summer Of Love - 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