Exclusive Interview

Carley Fortune Reveals Which ‘Every Year After’ Audition Made Her Cry

Back in 2022, Carley Fortune read an excerpt from Every Summer After at a book event for the first time, and the audience gasped when Sam Florek told Percy Fraser, “You came home.” Fortune explained, “When I got to the end, to the line, ‘You came home,’ the room gasped, and it was kind of my first realization of how big of an emotional chord this story was hitting people.”

Now, four years later, Every Summer After has been brought to life as Every Year After on Prime Video. Ahead of the series premiere on June 10, Fortune, who is also an executive producer, sat down with Swooon, revealing that Sam and Percy’s reunion, the same scene that struck a chord with readers years ago, was the scene she was the most excited—and nervous—to see come to life. As she put it, “It really came home in the end.”

Every Year After follows the second chance love story between childhood best friends Percy (Sadie Soverall) and Sam (Matt Cornett), who spent their summers together in Barry’s Bay, just like Fortune did in real life. For Fortune, watching her characters come to life was “surreal.” She told Swooon, “I had seen all the auditions, but I met the cast in July of last year when I visited set for the first time. It was incredible.”

The first thing that took her breath away was Barry’s Bay itself, the honorary seventh main character of the series. “I was walking onto this, like the town of Barry’s Bay that had been constructed out in Vancouver,” Fortune explained. “I grew up in Barry’s Bay, so that was incredible. Before meeting anybody, I watched some of the scenes be filmed, and hearing the actors in the scene call each other by these names that I created felt very strange. There was a lot of people around me, or else I think I would have been in tears.”

Of course, Soverall and Cornett have an incredible ensemble around them. They are joined by Michael Bradway, who plays Sam’s brother, Charlie, Abigail Cowen and Aurora Perrineau, who play Percy’s friends Delilah and Chantal, and Joseph Chiu, who plays Sam’s friend, Jordie. Rounding out the cast, Elisha Cuthbert plays Sam and Charlie’s mother, Sue.

“Everyone is so wonderful,” Fortune gushed. “They’re incredibly talented, but they’re also very sweet, kind, thoughtful humans. I’ve just loved being able to get to know them a little bit, and I’m really excited for them. I think everybody’s gonna fall in love with them.”

Prime Video

Ahead of the series premiere, Fortune gave us a glimpse of the casting process for Percy and the Florek brothers. Fortune revealed that Soverall was the first person cast in the series. To find the right Sam, Soverall participated in chemistry reads over Zoom.

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“I saw [Matt’s] tape,” Fortune revealed. “He did a really sad scene. He read a eulogy, and I cried.” Seeing how emotional Every Summer After is, getting the waterworks flowing is a must for any actor hoping to portray Sam. “And then I saw his chemistry read with Sadie, which was done virtually, so they’re in different cities on the computer via Zoom, and you could just feel the heat through the screen.”

After Cornett was cast, he went into another set of chemistry reads to find the perfect Charlie. “It was really important that Sam and Charlie have great chemistry, too. So, there’s also a chemistry read with Matt and Michael.” Cornett and Bradway previously told Swooon a little bit about their instant connection here. “You will see in the show what I saw on that tape, which is [that] they really truly seem like brothers. There’s this loving dynamic, but there’s also teasing and a bit of side-eyed, you could just see that they would be a great, great duo.”

The premiere of Every Year After is only a few days away, but we’re counting down the minutes until we can come home to Barry’s Bay.

Every Year After, Season 1, June 10, Prime Video