Here's Where You Know The Cruel Summer Cast From

April 2024 ยท 2 minute read

Blake Lee plays "Cruel Summer"'s predator and Skylin High's vice principal Martin Harris. He begins grooming Kate (Olivia Holt) in 1993 and eventually kidnaps her and locks her in his basement. Martin is killed when Kate is found in 1994, and "Cruel Summer" makes it clear we are allowed to be happy about that.

Just because his character is the worst, that doesn't mean there are not plenty of reasons to love Lee. He's had an impressive career in Hollywood for over a decade. One of his first recurring roles was on the beloved comedy "Parks and Recreation" where he played Derek on seven episodes. Lee has also had starring roles on short-lived shows like "Mixology" and "Wisdom of the Crowd." Before "Cruel Summer," Lee starred in Lifetime's first queer Christmas movie, "The Christmas Setup," with his husband Ben Lewis (via IMDb).

Lee told E! that watching the Netflix documentary "The Ted Bundy Tapes" helped him develop the character of Martin. "The thing I think I took from watching that documentary was seeing this guy, who repeatedly did the worst things and kept getting away with it for so long, and would kind of talk his way out of it. People would be like, 'Oh wait, it can't be that guy. He's the nicest, he's handsome.'" Lee has a lot of powerful scenes with Holt on "Cruel Summer" that deal with difficult topics. "It was exhausting at times," Lee admitted, calling Holt "an amazing scene partner."

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