Key Points
Every Year After is an upcoming adaptation of Carley Fortune’s book Every Summer After.
Showrunner Amy B. Harris shares what it was like to bring Barry’s Bay to life.
“I sort of have become obsessed with coming of age,” Harris says. “I think it’s something you do hopefully at every age if you’re lucky.”
When Amazon approached Amy B. Harris about developing Carley Fortune’s bestselling novel Every Summer After for TV, she did the only logical thing: sat down to read the book. 24 hours later, she was in.
“I was up all night reading. I could not put the book down,” the showrunner for Every Year After (premiering June 10 on Prime video) tells Entertainment Weekly. “The characters just jump off the page, and Barry’s Bay is a beautiful character.”
Michael Bradway as Charlie on ‘Every Year After’
Credit: Cate Cameron/amazon prime
Barry’s Bay is the setting for Percy (Sadie Soverall) and Sam’s (Matt Cornett) love story. It’s home to the lake where they spent their summers growing up, watching horror movies, and eventually, falling in love. “I have always loved working on shows that are really character driven, but also where the place is so important,” Harris says.
The real-life place that stands in for Barry’s Bay in the show is a town called Bowen Island in Canada. “It literally had like a little ice cream counter,” Harris recalls. “There was nothing that I wanted that it didn’t have. It gave me goosebumps to be there every day.”
Abigail Cowen as Delilah on ‘Every Year After’
Credit: Justine Yeung/amazon prime
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Barry’s Bay isn’t just the place where Sam met Percy. It’s also the place that she ran from, and when we meet her in the series, she hasn’t returned to the lake town for years. She only goes back now after learning that Sam’s mom has died.” Percy is a complicated female character in the best way,” Harris says. “She’s flawed and thoughtful and really contemplative.”
Telling the story of Percy and Sam meant diving into two very distinct timelines: the pre-teen and teen summers spent together, and the reality of two adults who haven’t spoken in years.
“I sort of have become obsessed with coming of age,” Harris says. “I think it’s something you do hopefully at every age if you’re lucky. And I loved that we had the opportunity to explore both timelines of coming of age. She’s coming of age as a teenager, but we’re also meeting them in their late twenties, which is another very important time of life where you’re really trying to figure out who you are and what matters to you.”
However, Sam and Percy won’t be the only people navigating those questions. When Percy returns to Barry’s Bay, she’ll find Sam’s brother, Charlie (Michael Bradbury), Sam’s best friend, Jordie (Joseph Chiu), and her former friend, Delilah (Abigail Cowen). And by Percy’s side? Her current bestie, Chantal (Aurora Perrineau).
“We really decided to build out the other characters in a big way and not just focus on Sam, Percy, and Charlie,” Harris says. “So that was really fun to figure out who those characters were who had little snippets in the book.”
Joseph Chiu as Jordie and Aurora Perrineau as Chantal on ‘Every Year After’
Credit: Cate Cameron/amazon prime
Talking specifically about Percy and Delilah’s dynamic, the two aren’t on good terms when Percy first arrives back in town. But that’s not something Harris was interested in dragging out. “I don’t wanna write shows where women are mean to each other,” she says. “I’m interested in seeing those all play out, and that gives good drama, but at the end of the day, I just wanted to see these women support each other. But obviously there’s good drama in what the heck happened between Delilah and Percy that they’re no longer speaking.”
Same goes for Chantal, who’s visiting Barry’s Bay for the first time at a critical point in her life: She’s about to get married. “I really wanted to explore Chantal and what she was going through,” Harris says. “She’s the driven working girl who isn’t sure she has time for a lot of other things that maybe needs to open up.”
Michael Bradway as Charlie and Abigail Cowen as Delilah on ‘Every Year After’
Credit: Cate Cameron/amazon prime
In other words, it’s safe to say there will be friendship. There will be love. There will be drama. And it will all happen at the magical place that is the lake, which is a core part of Fortune’s book.
Because, as Harris puts it, “I wanted the book fans to have these beautiful little Easter eggs throughout. My whole goal was to just celebrate the book.”
Every Year After premieres June 10 on Prime Video.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
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