Chasing Summer: Iliza Shlesinger’s Indie Comedy Celebrates Texas Roots and Personal Growth

They say you can’t go home again. But what if, at least in the movies, you can? That’s the premise of Chasing Summer, an indie comedy about rediscovering yourself by revisiting the place you left behind. While the theme is familiar—think Reese Witherspoon’s filmography—the story is deeply personal for comedian, writer, and star Iliza Shlesinger.

“I wrote Chasing Summer at a time in my life when I was sort of transitioning. I was either engaged or about to get married—it was 2018—and I went back, and I looked at a little note that I sent myself, and I was realizing that, you know, you get married to someone, you’re a full adult.”

Shlesinger plays Jamie, a 40-something disaster relief worker whose life unravels when her long-term boyfriend dumps her. With no other options, she returns to her parents’ home in a small Texas town—one she hasn’t visited in 20 years. Chaos quickly follows.

Jamie’s past is messy. Her ex, Chase (Tom Welling), a former football star, cheated on her, and the breakup was surrounded by painful rumors. To move forward, she must confront these ghosts. Shlesinger reflects on the nostalgia that inspired the film:

“I’m from Dallas, and those summers at home, the years right after high school, where you’re a full person but you don’t have a ton to do, and you don’t have the responsibility and the weight of everything—I wanted to cast that in amber. That being at home, being frustrated, and still having fun. Your relationships don’t matter as much, your summer job doesn’t matter. There’s no more of that once you become someone’s wife and a mother and you have a career.”

Shlesinger emphasizes the film’s personal significance: “I just wanted to make something personal.” She was thrilled when Tom Welling, known for Smallville and Lucifer, joined the cast. “I saw him on Lucifer. It was in the pandemic, and I consumed like 500 episodes of it, and I was like, ‘Who’s this beefy man?’ And I had him in mind for this,” she recalls. “I was like, ‘We should get Tom Welling.’ And our fingers were crossed the whole time, just like, ‘Can you just make his reps make him say yes?’”

Welling, for his part, felt an immediate connection to the project. Though the article does not include his direct quote, his involvement adds star power to the indie comedy.