‘Every Year After’ Star Michael Bradway On Charlie’s Betrayal & More

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for the entirety of Every Year After.

A character like Michael Bradway’s Charlie might seem all charm and charisma, but as the story of Ever Year After — based on Carley Fortune’s debut novel Every Summer After — unfolds, there is more to the elder Florek brother than meets the eye.

The Prime Video show’s first season traces the friends to lovers arc between Persephone ‘Percy’ Fraser (Sadie Soverall) and Sam Florek (Matt Cornett), Charlie’s younger brother. Percy meets the Florek boys by the lake in Barry’s Bay where her parents buy a cottage, which happens to be next door to Sue Florek (Elisha Cuthbert), a single mother raising her two sons after her husband died from an unexpected heart attack.

“Charlie is a lot smarter than he leads on, and I think he’s a lot smarter than people give him credit for, but he’s also not looking for that credit So I think it’s really easy for him to play the like macho alpha male that also is really funny and just has this levity to him,” Bradway told Deadline. “I feel like it all started when their dad passed away, and obviously their mother, Sue, took it really hard, and so Charlie had to step up and be this older brother slash co-parent, and so I feel like that really changed his life.”

The show builds to a big betrayal by Charlie and Percy toward Sam when the older brother and main character sleep together after Sam breaks her heart over the last summer before she and Sam go to college and Charlie enters the working world. In Fortune’s book, Sam had learned of this in the ten-year gap that he and Percy were not speaking, but the show changed that wrinkle. Sam never knew until Percy had to tell him when he professed his undying love for her after she returns to Barry’s Bay for Sue’s funeral. And it’s Charlie who calls Percy to let her know that Sue has died in the first place.

“Charlie says to Percy in one of the last episodes that she’s always been the coolest girl that he’s ever known, and I think he is very envious and very jealous of the relationship that [Sam] and Percy have, and I do think Charlie does love her. I think he cares about her a lot,” Bradway said. “I think he does like her as more than just a sister or a friend. I think he does develop genuine feelings for her, or he wouldn’t have gone through with this in the first place. Obviously, he betrays his brother, but I think if there wasn’t a genuine connection that they had, that they both wouldn’t have done it, and that genuine connection builds that summer when they’re fixing the boat.”

Bradway also revealed that the fact that Charlie paid for Sam’s medical school education was originally factored into his chemistry read with Matt Cornett. Sam does not find out this season that Charlie bankrolled his education to become a doctor.

“There’s that one scene, Charlie shows up to Delilah’s (Abigail Cowen) house drunk and confesses all of his feelings to Delilah, and he’s really upset at what she said to him in that same episode. He doesn’t really care anymore, he’s gonna let out the secret, and obviously Percy’s there to stop him, thankfully. That was something that was revealed in that scene where Charlie did pay for his school,” the Chicago Fire alum said. “That was one of the scenes that they used for my audition for my chemistry read with [Matt], and in the chemistry read is actually when Charlie tells that to Sam, but they changed it in the show. Charlie actually tells that to Delilah, which I think it’s better, the way that they changed it in the show.”

Charlie goes off to live a life of wealth, which he earns through his hard work in finance. It’s at the office in the finale that a devastating health problem befalls him, signaling what could happen if the show gets a season two to incorporate Fortune’s novel about Charlie’s love story, One Golden Summer.

“Charlie just feels all this regret, and throughout the show, you’ll see that Charlie doesn’t really love the way that they grew up. They grew up kind of lower middle class, and he says that his mom was always mending his jeans, fixing the same car, fixing the same toaster, and Charlie’s like, “It’s okay to buy new things,” but his mom figured that it’s actually a character builder to be able to mend things and patch things, and Charlie hates that,” Bradway said. “So now Charlie worked his whole young adult life to make all this money, and now he finally has it, and so he’s just gonna throw money at all of his problems, and one of his problems is the thing that he did when he was young, and he feels like he can make it right by throwing money at his problem of what he did to Sam.”

In the below interview, Bradway talks more about that cliffhanger ending, the “badge” that is the Banana Boat for Charlie, developing bonds with his two main costars and more.

DEADLINE: Obviously, Sam and Charlie are super different, but did you have any conversations with Matt [Cornett] about differentiating them?

MICHAEL BRADWAY: In terms of the conversation I had with Matt, I think it was less about, “Okay, this is who Charlie is, and this is who Sam is, and this is how we’re gonna separate them.” I think it was more about us just being really comfortable with each other and becoming best friends off screen, which came natural to us. It really just helped us be able to play brothers on screen, and obviously Matt does his thing with Sam.

Charlie likes to bury his emotions, and Sam likes to wear his heart on his sleeve, and just with the passing of his dad, the way that his single mother raised them, I think that all is who Charlie becomes based off of the relationships that he has, burying his emotions, leading with sarcasm and trying to be the life of the party.

DEADLINE: There are so many scenes where Sam will say something and poor Charlie is so hurt. Are there any that stood out to you? I’m thinking of in the finale Sam says “We’re orphans, but I don’t even have you anymore.”

BRADWAY: That’s exactly what I was thinking.

It’s gut-wrenching. I mean, obviously Charlie made a mistake when he was younger, and he did try to keep it from Sam, but the truth came out, and so I feel like Charlie is doing everything he can to right that wrong. He really feels like he’s making progress, and they’re at their mother’s memorial, and it’s this really sweet moment, and they’re standing next to each other, and Sam is so thankful to Charlie for saving him up there on the podium, and Charlie feels like he’s really making things right, and then obviously, Sam doesn’t feel the same way. That was really sad.

DEADLINE: For your cliffhanger scene in the finale, I’m very hopeful it will lead to a season two. I’m assuming it’s a heart attack, but I feel like you could have played it as a panic attack?

BRADWAY: No, yeah, it was a heart attack. We’re gonna let Percy have the panic attacks. Charlie gets the heart attack. Obviously, [the boys’] father died from a sudden heart attack, which is a big reason why Sam wanted to be a cardiologist and to help people, because of what happened to his father. And then it just so happens that Charlie also has heart problems, and unexpectedly, he’s looking at the famous photo and he’s reminiscing, and unfortunately it hurts too much, and he has a heart attack.

DEADLINE: How soon did you know that scene was coming? Were you ready for it?

BRADWAY: Yeah, I read One Golden Summer, and so I knew that was coming. I didn’t know exactly when they were gonna put it into the first season, but there’s a couple things that I did in the first episode that you can see, and sprinkled in throughout the season, that is a little teaser to the audience that we knew that this was coming.

DEADLINE: The boat is a big tie to Charlie and how he’s working on it the whole summer. I was also like looking for Alice, but I’m just curious, how you the boat embodies him and sets him apart and what we could look forward to in a season for Charlie?

BRADWAY: You’re talking about the Banana Boat?

DEADLINE: Yes.

BRADWAY: It is their family boat, but I feel like it is Charlie’s badge. He’s the one that fixes that up, He’s the one that drives it. Sam’s not allowed to drive that boat. It’s a cool way to be able to — especially in the first season, like Sam has Percy, and it’s almost like, and Charlie gets the boat.

DEADLINE: I did want to ask about Delilah as well, because it’s either before or after the scene you’re talking about, where he goes to her and he says, do you want to try [a relationship] with me? That feels like one of his most vulnerable moments, but I felt like it was still at odds with his fear of commitment. How did you want to play that scene, and how do we see him maybe progressing in that moment?

BRADWAY: Throughout the whole season, in the back of my mind, I’m aware that Alice exists, and that obviously Charlie hasn’t met his person yet. Charlie doesn’t know about her yet, and it’s interesting because he does develop this genuine bond with Delilah. It’s mainly physical, however, she’s obviously going through a tough relationship at home, which is great for Charlie, because he doesn’t have to fully commit, so it feels safe. And now all of that is unraveling, and her relationship with Whit is ending, I feel like Charlie, in his vulnerability, [thinks] “Maybe this will work with Delilah,” but I also think he knows that this isn’t really what he wants. It just maybe sounds good right now.

DEADLNE: You mentioned your chemistry read with Matt. How was it establishing Charlie and Percy’s dynamic?

BRADWAY: With Sadie, she’s just such a cool person, and she’s so easy going, and she’s easy to get along with. The first three people that showed up to Vancouver were Sadie, Matt, and I, and we did develop this awesome friendship. We’re doing water training together, we’re completing tasks together, we’re going through things difficult together. The water was pretty cold, and so just naturally you just build this bond both off screen and on screen.

DEADLINE What was water training like? Can you describe that in more detail?

BRADWAY: It was kind of like a water boot camp when you first get there, for like the first week or two, and we went to different bays around the area, some that we were going to actually film in and others that we weren’t going to, and the water was freezing. It was like 11 degrees Celsius. I don’t know what that isn’t Fahrenheit, I should, but when you’re in Vancouver, everything’s Celsius. We were swimming a lot, we were getting acclimated to the water, we were doing camera tests for the Amazon team, and it’s really cold.

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Thankfully we can all swim, but there was this one time we were doing swimming training at the pool, and we had an instructor, and everything. It was a nice, beautiful day. It was a regular pool, the water was pretty warm, and he asked me and Matt, he was like, “Can you guys do a backflip?” And I’d never done a back flip before, but it’s like, “yes,” you know, it’s like when they say, “Can you ride a horse?” in an audition, and you just say yes, even though you haven’t.

So I was like, “Yeah, of course, I can do a backflip.” And so I’m on the edge of this pool, getting ready to do a back flip, and I just remember thinking, you just have to commit. I’ve seen videos before, I’ve never actually tried it myself, but I was just gonna commit, and so I did. I just kind of threw my hands back, lifted my head back, and I did it. I did the back flip into the water, and I didn’t hear them, but they all screamed, because I guess my head was this close to the edge. Thankfully, I’m intact, but, yeah, it was fun.

DEADLINE: That sounds like a very Charlie thing to do. The whole series in general has a really good soundtrack, but I’m thinking of the end when you get the Mumford & Sons song. Did you have any say in that? Did you suggest any songs for the series?

BRADWAY: It’s funny, I’ve been a huge fan of that song for such a long time, and it’s actually in my Charlie playlist. It was actually in my Charlie playlist for a while, and so when I heard that that song was being played for that, it was this crazy kismet moment.

DEADLINE: Wow, so they didn’t know? I guess maybe they had looked at your playlist, but they didn’t know?

BRADWAY: I don’t think they looked at my playlist. I think it’s just sometimes you just click with the people that you’re working with, and this was one of those moments that it just clicked.

DEADLINE: His funeral speech, I feel like is another thing — again, they’re brothers, but they go about life in super different ways. What you think that moment shows us about Charlie that maybe we haven’t seen yet in the show?

BRADWAY: Sam obviously has this written speech down, and he’s fully prepared to do this big moment, and then this wrench kind of gets thrown into his plans, and so he has to pivot, and it’s really upsetting for him. He learns things about his mom that he didn’t know. It seems like, for Sam, this entire trip was him finding out new information, and a lot of it was a giant bomb, and so you know he’s really upset, and so it’s a really great moment for the brothers, where Charlie gets to kind of swoop in and help him, and I feel like it seems really genuine, where it doesn’t seem like Charlie’s just trying to be the hero, but he’s really just trying to help and protect his brother, and as you can see, the first thing Charlie says [in his speech] is “The thing I remember most is the fight, is the fighting, is the yelling, you know, those two really knew how to fight,” and he just is constantly bringing this levity. I feel like he can read a room really well, and it just shows like he really loves his parents, and unfortunately, now it’s just him and his brother, and I think it was really the moment that you know both him and Sam really needed.

DEADLINE: I am thinking of how he’s the one to call Percy and tell her that things happen. That changes a lot of how I look at how Charlie invited Percy, because people are going to come in not knowing that this happened between them, but I’m curious what that says about him to you, and how you held that in the back of your head playing him?

BRADWAY: I first gotta say, like Amy Harris, our showrunner, did an amazing job of adapting the book. Obviously, Carley wrote this such beloved book, and when you’re adapting it to a visual medium, there’s just different things that you have to do for the audience that are going to look at it visually.

I really loved that change of Sam not knowing because it raised the stakes for us as actors, but, in terms of Charlie [call]ing Percy, I thought that was really cool, especially because Percy hasn’t heard from these boys, especially Sam, in 10 years. This is the love of her life. This was the person she was supposed to be with forever, and things changed, obviously. And Percy made a horrible mistake, which forced her to leave town. And so now, when she gets this call from that area code with no name, just the number, of course, she’s gonna think it’s Sam. She’s gonna think that Sam is back and wants to be with her, but it’s Charlie.

So that obviously is a whirlwind for Percy. And then on top of that, this mother that raised her is now dead, and this is how she finds out. And so I think Charlie being able to be the one to deliver that news was really fun as an actor, because constantly, it’s really fun when you get to have secrets, and you get to kind of hide secrets from certain people, but then also reveal them too. And so that was a lot of fun to be able to play them.

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