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‘Every Year After’ Breakout Joseph Chiu on Jordie’s Love Triangle & Season 2 Hopes
What To Know
- Every Year After standout Joseph Chiu sat down with Swooon to chat about his character, Jordie.
- During Season 1, Jordie is caught between his crush on Delilah and new love interest, Chantal.
- Chiu revealed his hopes for a potential Season 2.
Joseph Chiu stepped off the University of Toronto campus straight into the heart of book lovers everywhere—literally. He graduated from college the day before he started filming Every Year After.
While Every Year After, based on Carley Fortune‘s debut novel, follows a love story between childhood best friends Percy (Sadie Soverall) and Sam (Matt Cornett), Chiu is the undeniable breakout star of the series, portraying Sam’s laid-back, lake-life aficionado bestie, Jordie. With an expanded role from the minor book character, fans are already eager to watch Jordie become a romantic lead in his own right. After all, it’s clear that a love triangle between Jordie, Chantal (Aurora Perrineau), and Delilah (Abigail Cowen) is on the horizon in a potential Season 2 and beyond.
After the Season 1 premiere, Joseph Chiu sat down with Swooon, revealing everything from how he was cast as Jordie (including the role he originally auditioned for), his incredibly deep analysis of the character (yes, this includes a psychoanalysis), and his hopes for Jordie (and his love life!) moving forward.
Welcome to the Bay Breeze Motel
From the moment Jordie graced any of our screens, it was clear that he was a frontrunner for the biggest yearner of the season (a highly coveted title here at Swooon). By now, everyone is talking about the way Jordie had chemistry with not only Chantal and Delilah, but literally every character who crossed his path.
While Chiu has become a fan-favorite with his performance, it turns out the Canadian actor didn’t originally audition for Jordie. Instead, he auditioned for Chantal’s fiancé Drew, a part that later went to Karl Walcott. He tells Swooon, “I did a great self-tape. The best self-tape I’ve ever made. I was the only one called back to the producer session.” However, once he arrived, he started “cracking up,” something he assured us had never happened in an audition before. “I knew the situation, as I looked at it, [was] cooked.”
Luckily, soon after he left the audition, he got a call from his agent letting him know that the casting team had another, bigger part in mind for him. “I had no idea who this guy was,” he confesses, recalling his introduction to Jordie. “I just knew he was Sam’s best friend, and he’s chill, he’s loyal, and he’s got a sports injury. So I was like, ‘Okay, maybe I could do this.'” That night, he landed the part. In the next two days, he graduated from college and headed to Vancouver to film on the Barry’s Bay set.
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The first time we see Jordie on screen, he checks Percy and Chantal into the Bay Breeze Motel, his family’s business, pretending not to know who Percy is. As Chiu puts it, “[Jordie’s] loyal to a fault and he loves his best friend… He doesn’t hate Percy, but when Percy arrives 10 years [after she ghosted Sam], it’s kind of like, ‘What are you doing here?'”
Chantal, on the other hand, is a welcome visitor. “Chantal is extremely beautiful the moment she walks in. Jordie’s kind of like, ‘Who’s this? I’m not going to acknowledge her. I’m gonna try to play it nonchalant.’ But he’s not great at hiding the truth. That’s the thing I love about Jordie.”
That said, a potential love interest doesn’t grace his doorstep every day. After unceremoniously leaving his basketball career, much like Chiu did in real life, Jordie returned to the motel knowing that wasn’t his dream. Based on his own friends’ career progressions after sports injuries, Chiu explains that he could see Jordie becoming a coach. “I don’t think the basketball program at Barry’s Bay is that great. I think he’d be a great teacher.”
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‘The First Cut Is the Deepest’
Of course, Chantal isn’t the first woman to waltz into Barry’s Bay at Percy’s side. Through flashbacks, we learn that Jordie has fostered a massive crush on Percy’s childhood best friend, Delilah, for years. While he may seem like he’s moved on, Chiu made it clear that Jordie will always hold a candle for Delilah. In fact, if he had to choose a song to summarize Jordie’s romantic journey, it would be Cat Stevens‘ “The First Cut Is the Deepest,” hands down.
Both then and now, while Jordie has been yearning for Delilah, she’s only had eyes for Charlie (Michael Bradway). Maybe that’s why Jordie instantly clocks the fact that Delilah and Charlie are hooking up in the present day. Chiu reveals, “There is a bit of jealousy when Charlie Florek is involved because Charlie is a guy that’s pantsed Jordie since he was in middle school, you know? He’s always winning.”
When it comes to Jordie and Delilah, their bond goes beyond his unrequited love. In a flashback completely original to the adaptation, Jordie finds Delilah crying outside Percy’s lake house, only to learn she has just found out she is pregnant with her ex-boyfriend’s baby. After comforting Delilah, he confronts Percy about not being there for her best friend. As he said, that’s one fiercely loyal guy.
“I think when you’re young—I remember myself, tough emotions usually come out. Especially if you grew up in a sports-heavy background, it usually comes out in anger,” Chiu tells Swooon. “Jordie’s not going to be smashing things, but the fact that Percy was there and she’s supposed to be Delilah’s best friend, similar to how Jordie is to Sam. I think he’s projecting those responsibilities onto Percy… He might have come off as aggressive, but he comes from a good place.”
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In the present day, Delilah confesses to Jordie that she and her husband, Whit, are getting divorced. While he may have tried to suppress his feelings for Delilah, this brings them back tenfold. “I think being in such a small town like Barry’s Bay, where you literally see each other every single day… It’s a constant reminder, like, ‘Oh my god, this is the girl that I loved,'” Chiu points out.
Can Chantal coming into his life really change that? “I think… The first cut is the deepest. It doesn’t necessarily mean that Chantal is the replacement, but Jordie will always think fondly of Delilah. Whether or not Delilah sees him, that is out of his control and out of his mind in a way now that he’s so in love with Chantal,” Chiu says.
Lawyers Have Layers
In the decade between the flashbacks and the present, Chiu hypothesizes that Jordie went to a lot of therapy. “I’d say, if we want to get specific, I think Jordie does DBT, dialectical behavioral therapy,” he explains. Further, the actor believes that “the reason that Jordie naps is because he wants to get through the day faster. It’s not actually because he’s chill like that.” Meeting Chantal, a lawyer whom he describes as incredibly layered, “like an onion with mint chip ice cream inside” à la Shrek, unlocks something in him and “puts a fire under his ass in the best way possible.”
Unfortunately, Chantal is already involved with someone, as well. According to Chiu, Jordie first realizes he’s caught legit feelings for Chantal when he brings her ice cream, causing him to misspeak, telling her, “I’ll text you—You text me!” Turns out, Chiu improvised that line. “That was just him slipping because he’s been thinking, ‘If I get ice cream for Chantal, is this weird because Drew’s here?’ That’s when Jordie’s starting to overthink,” Chiu divulges.
While Jordie has been ever so unlucky in love, his innocent flirtation with Chantal makes her finally admit that she does not want to go through with her wedding. While Chantal has to consistently care for Drew, her relationship with Jordie is more of a “push and pull.”
The first time sparks truly fly in both directions is when Jordie and Chantal have an impromptu fishing competition. Looking back at filming the scene, Chiu reveals, “Aurora and I tried to figure out how we’re gonna hold [the rod] to best stage the scene, and then obviously they get close, and there’s an intimate moment, and that was actually really fun to play. Fun fact: Jordie sniffed her hair.”
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Three’s Company
For the first time, in Barry’s Bay at least, Jordie’s love is clearly requited. That’s what makes it so shocking when Chantal asks Delilah to join her and Jordie to swim in the lake. Chiu recalls, “When Chantal first asked Delilah to come to the lake with them, he’s kind of like, ‘What are we doing? I thought you wanted to hang out one-on-one, and we can actually have that conversation.'” Now both of Jordie’s love interests are on either side of him, and viewers are wondering who will take the plunge first.
“It was so fun to play as an actor because here I am standing between two people, and it’s like a physical tableau of like a love triangle, right? [Jordie’s] slightly in front. He’s trying to be as nonchalant as possible in that moment. He’s trying to keep it chill, but you see it in his microexpressions,” Chiu tells Swooon. If you ask us, this is some incredible foreshadowing for a potential Season 2 love triangle.
In Chiu’s eyes, Delilah “unlocks the boyish nature of Jordie.” Growing up, the two both had divorced parents, allowing them to connect on a deeper level. He laughs, “I’m imagining them like Snapchatting each other, like, ‘Hey, Dad and Mom are fighting again. Do you want to play Snake.io?'”
On the other hand, Chantal “inspires” Jordie. “He’s been disappointed by life enough to start saying that s**t happens. And he’s happy to say that. But then Chantal’s someone who says, ‘Get s**t done.’ The fact that they can fight on it is actually a great yin and yang balance for a relationship.”
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When Jordie asks Chantal to be his girlfriend at the end of the season, what he doesn’t see is Delilah hitting him with one of his own signature yearning glances from across the room. Now, as fans eagerly await a Season 2 renewal, we couldn’t help but ask Chiu whether he hopes to see Jordie caught in a fully fledged love triangle next season.
His answer? Of course. “I want to see Delilah and Chantal fight over Jordie, selfishly. I think it’d be a huge moment, and then Jordie can be the hero, you know? Break up the fight.” In all seriousness, he adds, “I think Jordie is so in love with Chantal at the moment, and it’s time for Delilah to maybe pursue him a little bit.”
If you ask us, Jordie, Chantal, and Delilah’s swimming scene says it all: Chantal’s willing to step out of her comfort zone, taking the plunge with Jordie right now, but Delilah’s wading in right after them. Sure, it could bring up some past scars, but soon, it could be time for the tides to turn.
Every Year After, Season 1, Streaming Now, Prime Video
