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[Warning: This story contains major spoilers for Prime Video’s Every Year After.]

Michael Bradway didn’t know he was auditioning for Every Year After.

Last February, the actor came in for a series titled Meet Cute, a decoy for Prime Video’s adaptation of Carley Fortune’s 2022 bestseller Every Summer After. “I didn’t know that this was based off of a book; I didn’t know that this was a Carly Fortune novel. They changed the [character] names as well. I don’t even remember what my character’s name was, but it wasn’t Charlie,” Bradway tells The Hollywood Reporter in a conversation ahead of the series’ June 10 premiere. 

A need for secrecy on the project is no surprise given the fanfare surrounding the source material and author. Fortune’s books have sold 4.7 million copies, with Every Summer After spending 16 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list, selling over 1 million copies to date, and finding a second life on BookTok.

Despite being unfamiliar with the book, Bradway says he was immediately drawn to the character for his “fun, sarcastic and charismatic” nature and bond with his younger brother. “I felt like I knew who this person was immediately. I knew that is exactly who I wanted to play,” he tells THR. 

Four months of silence followed his audition, but once Amazon called, it was full steam ahead. Bradway performed a chemistry read with Matt Cornett, who was already cast as the younger brother, Sam Florek. To test their dynamic, they were instructed to chat on Zoom for 15 minutes. “We instantly became best friends,” Bradway says.

Perhaps it was an art imitating life moment, with the two quickly realizing they were kindred spirits. During their conversation, they discovered they lived “10 minutes away from each other,” shared a mutual love for sports and easily conversed like they were hanging out “in the living room or at the bar,” Bradway recalls.

“We said to each other, ‘You know, no matter what happens, we’re going to be friends, and I’ll see you on the golf course in a couple weeks,'” Bradway says. 

Amazon noticed the rapport, and Bradway learned he booked the role while in a CVS parking lot. “I was on pins and needles. I really did not think I was going to get this,” he recalls.

Upon landing the part of Charlie Florek and learning the source material, Bradway finished Fortune’s Every Summer After novel in a single day, along the way noting physical similarities to Charlie, like his green eyes and love for the outdoors. “A great line that encapsulates Charlie is he loves to work hard but play harder. I really resonated with that,” he says. 

Shortly after casting, Bradway also became aware of the fandom fervor surrounding his character. Charlie’s fandom was so vocal at the time that Fortune eventually gave him his own love story in the follow-up novel, One Golden Summer, last May. Bradway recognizes the weight of responsibility that comes with stepping into such a beloved character’s shoes, especially given the fans’ deep dedication.

“I think it’s so cool to be able to portray this character that is so beloved and is in different rankings of a book boyfriend,” Florek says, noticing that his character tends to join the parasocial ranks of “people from Off Campus” and characters from “the Red Rising series.” 

“It’s an honor to be Charlie for people,” he says.

On the surface, Charlie is a “firecracker” ladies’ man, but Bradway always saw the deeper layers. “He’s walled up, and that wall is built on charisma and sarcasm,” the actor says. “That is how he deals with his emotions.”

There is also the pressure of being a guiding light for Sam after the loss of both their parents. In the series, they navigate life after the recent death of their mother, Sue (Elisha Cuthbert). Bradway says of the Florek matriarch, “They didn’t grow up with a lot of money. Sue was someone who was very frugal and definitely was like, ‘If something is maybe a little ripped or broken, you fix it. You don’t always take the easy way out.'”

“Charlie hated that,” Florek adds. But his different views of finding loopholes when compared to his younger brother’s aspirations of working in medicine caused an unspoken rift between Charlie and Sue. 

“His relationship with his mother is definitely different from the relationship with Sam,” Bradway says. “As I get older, I’m starting to understand what it means to be an older sibling, and there is a huge burden that is put on you. You’re automatically expected to take care of your younger siblings, and that is something that I couldn’t resonate with. I had to try to learn and understand his story and how important it is that he lived up to his mother’s expectations.”

In a departure from the novel, the noncommittal ladies’ man also develops a fling with Percy’s childhood friend — and married woman — Delilah (​Abigail Cowen). At one point, Charlie asks Delilah to try giving an actual relationship a go, which she declines. “I think he is being genuine. However, I also don’t really think Charlie really knows what he wants yet,” Bradway says of the surprise love affair. “He just knows that he wants to change, and Delilah is someone who is a great friend to him. He’s just a little confused at that moment.” 

Even asking to explore something further romantically marked an enlightening moment for the guarded Florek who “doesn’t open up because he doesn’t really truly feel safe. He understands what it feels like to lose someone at such a young age, and so to open up to other people like that, just for them to slip away, or to never see them again, is really vulnerable.” 

Though Charlie is committed to watching over his younger brother as they navigate being alone, a central conflict remains: Charlie slept with Sam’s girlfriend, Persephone “Percy” Fraser (Sadie Soverall), when the couple broke up 10 years ago. Unlike the novel, where Charlie confesses that truth to Sam, the series’ Charlie holds the secret until Percy reveals it to Sam. Bradway welcomed this change, believing it heightened the audience’s experience to witness Sam’s reaction. He also says Charlie’s confrontation with Percy over the secret’s reveal is deeply driven by fear. “He was most afraid of losing Sam. He lost his father, his mother and Sam is the last family.” 

During a later conversation with Percy, Charlie confesses that he has been unable to pinpoint the reasoning for their tryst, surmising that there was an aspect of jealousy over the deep love his brother had found. With Charlie also having grown up with Percy, Bradway believes his “feelings were genuine” for her but the emotions could’ve been warped.   

“I don’t think Percy is his person, but especially that summer when Sam was away during college, they really connected, and in a real way. I think it really was organic. Percy is someone who he has said to her all the time, ‘You’re such a cool girl.’ He tells Sam, ‘Don’t fuck this up’ or ‘She’s one of a kind.’ I think just the fact that they were alone together for a whole summer working on this project, fixing the boat, it really got them close, and I think his feelings were genuine.” 

Could Charlie’s silence on the betrayal change the audience’s perception and empathy they had for his character’s accountability in the novel? Bradway disagrees and thinks it “only helps his journey” going forward, given the series ends with an emotional reckoning in store for the abandoned Florek left reeling from Sam severing ties. 

That reckoning is heavily teased at the end of the season. In the last moments of episode eight, Charlie is seen speaking with his boss only to notice a photograph hanging on the office wall. The photograph, which his boss says was purchased at a gallery by his wife, shows a younger Charlie, Percy and Sam on the lake in their yellow “banana” boat. 

Stunned by the image, Charlie is overwhelmed by memories and guilt, and begins clutching his chest in an apparent heart attack. 

“I was thinking about how I wish I could go back and change that summer. I was thinking that if I could do it differently, I would not have made that mistake with Percy. I was thinking how much fun me and my brother had on the lake every single summer, and that I wish I could go back to that moment, but I can’t,” Bradway says of Charlie’s thought process while staring at their summer moment.

Despite the grim cliffhanger, hope remains, Bradway reiterates. “Obviously Charlie hasn’t found his person yet, but we all know who that is,” he says, referring to Charlie’s eventual One Golden Summer love interest Alice, who took the photograph of him, Sam and Percy. 

Going forward, Bradway sees a guilt-stricken Charlie ready to right his wrongs. “I think when you have this near-death experience it puts everything into perspective,” he says. 

But whether Bradway will get to see that evolution for Charlie is largely up in the air as Prime Video has yet to renew the recently debuted series for a season two. Still, the actor confirms continuing the story was always part of the creative team’s original vision. The actor recalls during pre-production joining Cornett and Soverall in showrunner Amy B. Harris’ office as she offered a blueprint for her adaptation while expressing a desire to continue the story through One Golden Summer, should the show get a second season. 

The actor quipped to remember the date because as of his THR interview, he hadn’t heard any confirmation that a second season was actually happening. Until then, Bradway is holding lessons from Charlie close to the vest and just hopeful the audience can “root for everyone in the show” while acknowledging the messiness of life.

“Charlie really taught me to just always enjoy life. Charlie knows what he wants, and he wants to have fun. He wants to have a good life with his family on the lake.” 

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Every Year After is currently streaming on Prime Video. Read THR’s interview with showrunner Amy B. Harris and author Carley Fortune on the series’ take on the best-seller’s divisive secret.