MichaelBradwayistheinternet’snewboyfriend

The rising actor on bringing one of BookTok’s favourite book boyfriends to life, navigating fan expectations and his real-life love story.

 

WORDS Flore Boitel

 

Interview taken from IMAGINE Magazine Issue Three Pre Order here

 

Romance seems to follow Michael Bradway wherever he goes. Whether he’s playing Charlie Florek, one of BookTok’s most talked-about book boyfriends in Every Year After, recently renewed for a second season, or planning his wedding to fellow actor Veronica St. Clair, love is rarely far from the conversation.

 

Bradway is well aware of the expectations that come with stepping into Charlie’s shoes. The role doesn’t just mean leading one of Prime Video’s latest romance dramas, but also embodying a character who divides readers almost as much as he charms them. For some fans, Charlie is charismatic and impossible not to root for but for others, he’s a figure they’ve long debated, with Carley Fortune’s One Golden Summer adding further depth to his story. Rather than avoid that tension, Bradway leaned into it.

 

Speaking over Zoom from his home in Los Angeles, he’s relaxed in a black T-shirt against soft pink walls. While London endures a 35-degree heatwave, Los Angeles offers a gentler version of summer. The mood carries into the conversation: easy, reflective and often punctuated by laughter. He comes across as grounded and warm, speaking openly about everything from his guerrilla filmmaking days at the New York Film Academy to his ambitions of working with Ryan Gosling or even playing Superman one day.

 

Ironically, Bradway didn’t initially know he was auditioning for Every Year After at all. The project was hidden behind a fake title, Meet Cute, and placeholder names, only revealing its true identity after he landed the role. Once cast, he immersed himself in Carley Fortune’s novels, fan edits and online discourse, determined not to reinvent Charlie but to understand him. “Charlie is Charlie,” he says. “I’m not trying to recreate him.”

 

Speaking with IMAGINE, Bradway reflects on bringing one of BookTok’s most beloved and divisive characters to life, balancing audience expectations with his own instincts and exploring the emotional complexity beneath Charlie’s charm. For him, the experience has reinforced a broader lesson: neither acting nor life moves on a fixed timeline, and neither needs to be rushed.

 

Flore Boitel: What originally drew you to acting, and did you always know this was the right career for you?

 

Michael Bradway: It’s a great question. I always thought I was going to work in sports. I love the movie Jerry Maguire, so I thought about becoming a sports agent. But then during my senior year of high school, I performed in a production of Fiddler on the Roof and it was after that I realised that I wanted to do this for the rest of my life.

 

FB: I know you used to model before getting into acting. Did this on-camera presence help your transition into acting?

 

MB: 100%. They’re very synonymous. I did a Donkey Kong commercial when I was 12. That was the first thing I ever booked. It’s still on YouTube actually, it’s kind of funny. Even though I was doing a lot of modelling and commercials back then, it never felt like something I was going to do for the rest of my life. It just felt like a hobby. But being in front of the camera all the time, and going through the audition process for modelling and commercials, definitely helped me as an actor.

 

FB: A lot of actors take very different paths into the industry, and not everyone chooses formal training. What made you decide to attend the New York Film Academy, and looking back, how important was that decision in shaping your career?

 

MB: It was so important. I met some amazing filmmakers and actors in that programme. It was a very guerrilla-style filmmaking process. Every weekend, we’d be at a different Airbnb in Miami filming something someone had made. We’d sleep overnight, work 16-hour days, barely get any sleep and it was just so much fun. In the acting programme, we learned on-camera acting as well as theatre-trained acting, but we also took screenwriting, producing and lighting classes. Even though we were in the acting programme, we learned so much about filmmaking as a whole. It really shaped who I am as an actor.

 

FB: Do you ever see yourself being on stage again?

 

MB: Yeah, definitely. I love theatre. I want to do a play again so bad. Even here in LA, my fiancée and I were taking an acting class, and it was very theatre-focused.

 

“Every weekend, we’d be at a different Airbnb in Miami filming something someone had made. We’d sleep overnight, work 16-hour days, barely get any sleep and it was just so much fun.”

 

FB: When you first read a script now, what’s the thing that immediately makes you feel connected to a character or a project?

 

MB: That’s a great question. I think it’s the challenge of it. For instance, with Charlie, I felt like I was so different from him, and that was what really excited me about playing the role. It wasn’t just getting out of bed and being a different version of Michael Bradway. I was able to play a character who was completely different from myself. I think that’s what excites me most as an actor.

 

FB: I read Every Summer After a few years ago and absolutely loved it, and I recently read Charlie’s book, One Golden Summer, which was also incredible. Before auditioning, were you already familiar with the Every Year After world or Carley Fortune’s books?

 

MB: I wasn’t familiar with it. I probably passed the book a thousand times at the airport and didn’t realise it. When we were auditioning, though, they gave the project a fake title, Meet Cute, and fake character names. I think Sam’s was Luke, and I forget what Charlie’s was.

 

So I didn’t even know we were auditioning for Every Summer After, which then became Every Year After, until I booked the job. That’s when they told us, “It’s actually based on a really popular book, you should read it.” So I immediately went out, got the book and read it really quickly.

 

It’s really exciting to play a character from a book with such a passionate fanbase. It’s surreal.

 

FB: Even though you were unfamiliar with the books at first and the existing fanbase especially on BookTok before you were cast, once you got the role did that inform how you portrayed Charlie?

 

MB: For Charlie, I definitely brought some of my own past experiences and the life I’ve lived into creating the character. I’d say that’s about 50% of it. The other half is obviously what Carley wrote, and the reactions from the fans. They know these books better than anyone, and they’ve known them a lot longer than I have. There were actually a couple of really cool Charlie fan edits that gave me inspiration and helped colour in that other 50%.

 

I think with any book adaptation, if the people making it are smart, they’ll listen to what the fans are saying. You have to come into it with your own vision, whether you’re an actor or a showrunner, but you also have to stay true to the book. I tried to do both of those things.

 

FB: What were some of the challenges and some of the rewards that came with carrying a series with such a built-in and passionate fanbase?

 

MB: The challenge is hoping people like it. Yes, you’re doing it for yourself, but you’re also doing it for the audience. The reward was that everyone was so excited from the jump.

 

For me, the audition process is much more nerve-racking than actually filming. Once you book the role, it gives you so much confidence because you think, “Okay, all these people believe in me. I know I can do this.” Then we released the fan-cast announcement and everyone was so excited about the cast.

 

All of that really helped me. I was already so excited, and having that support just gave me the confidence to play Charlie.

 

FB: When you first started developing Charlie as a character, where did you begin emotionally? What felt most important to understand about him?

 

MB: What I feel is really important to understand about Charlie is that he comes across as someone who’s trying really hard to bury his emotions and feelings. I feel like all of us speak differently to our mom than we do to our friends, and that was important for me in understanding who these different people are in Charlie’s life.

 

How does he feel about them? What is he hiding from them? That’s something I really tried to bring into Charlie. Yes, he’s the life of the party, but he also lost his father at an early age, which really shaped him.

FB: When I first read Every Summer After, I’ll be honest, I didn’t love Charlie at times, especially in how he sits in the middle of Percy and Sam’s relationship and the choices he makes. But after reading One Golden Summer, I really started to understand where he was coming from and how much of his behaviour is rooted in vulnerability and this constant need to protect his brother. Did you ever worry about that initial perception of Charlie, and did you approach him knowing there was a deeper emotional layer audiences would only fully see later on?

 

MB: No, I wasn’t worried about it. I was definitely aware of it too. I think it’s really fun to play such a polarising character. I don’t want to be an actor just to play a character that everyone likes. It’s fun when there’s another side, when a group of people actually hate your character, because it gives you somewhere to go and an arc to play.

 

But I feel like in our first season, it’s episode seven where you start to see another side of him, and you start to understand him and have empathy for him. He becomes a very redeeming character in that episode.

 

FB: How much of Charlie’s humour and personality came from you versus what was already on the page? How different or similar are you to him?

 

MB: We’re both very silly. I understand Charlie’s humour, I understand the sarcasm. I can also be like that in my own personal life. However, our differences are that Charlie is a lot more confident than I am. He’s the life of the party. I’m more of a homebody – I want to be at home with my fiancée, watch TV, eat good food and all of that.

 

I feel like Charlie is always looking for the next adventure. He wants to be at the party, to be the centre of attention, to have a nice one-liner to throw in there. He really knows his place in the world.

 

“Charlie is a lot more confident than I am. He’s the life of the party. I’m more of a homebody – I want to be at home with my fiancée, watch TV, eat good food and all of that.”

 

FB: Fans are very attached to Charlie as a “book boyfriend”, did that ever feel intimidating stepping into the role?

 

MB: I think it was just really exciting. I’ve never played a character with such a strong fanbase, especially for Charlie. You see people talking about their favourites, and Charlie Florek is always on that list. So that was very exciting for me. I felt like I knew who this person was from the moment I read him, whether it was the scripts Amy [B. Harris] gave us, or the book by Carley. It wasn’t intimidating, it was just really exciting.

 

It’s hard to explain, but there are some characters you read and you instantly understand who they are and how you’re going to play them. That was Charlie for me. From the moment I read him, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Not in a cocky way, but in a really confident way, I felt like people were going to see book Charlie come to life on screen.

 

FB: The flashbacks in the series play a big role in Charlie’s story, especially with what unfolds between him and Percy. How did you approach navigating those shifts in time so that each version of him felt distinct, while still keeping a clear emotional through-line for the audience?

 

MB: It’s a great question. I created a corkboard for every single episode, one through eight. I would take different index cards that were colour-coded – pink, blue, yellow and white – because I was playing four different ages, three younger versions and one older. I’d write the general idea of each scene for Charlie that I was in and put them in chronological order. All of them would have a different colour, so I’d know, okay, the first scene in episode one is adult Charlie, so that’s going to be white. Then I’d just fill in those scenes as I go. So if I’m halfway through an episode and I’m like, okay, I’m playing 19-year-old Charlie, what was the last thing the audience and I saw of him? Where is he coming from? Those corkboards really helped me.

 

FB: Charlie and Sam’s relationship is such a big emotional anchor in the story. What did you and Matt Cornett (as Sam Florek) do to build that dynamic so quickly?

 

MB: It was instant. Best friends. Matt had already booked Sam and I was auditioning for Charlie, so their idea was to do a little get-to-know-each-other session on Zoom. The showrunner and the producers turned off their cameras, and let me and Matt get acquainted for about 15 minutes. We instantly became friends. We didn’t talk about Meet Cute or Every Summer After, we just talked about how we’re both football fans, we play golf and we live 10 minutes away from each other. I remember saying, “No matter what happens, I’ll see you on the golf course,” whether I booked Charlie or not. And thankfully, I booked it. So I was able to have a set best friend every single day. We just hung out all the time. It instantly clicked. It wasn’t something we had to force. He’d come over to the house, and he and I and my fiancée would hang out. He instantly just became part of the family.

 

FB: Delilah’s character has a more important role in the show than in the books, having an affair with Charlie in the show, how did you explore that change? And are you team Delilah or Alice?

 

MB: I’m going to start with that. I’m team Alice. That is Charlie’s person. But I understand why Amy expanded Delilah, I think it makes a lot of sense. I love Delilah as a character. She’s super fun, she can be a little unpredictable, she’s really strong and it’s just a fun character to read and watch. I really love that they developed her. Abby Cowan is such an amazing actress. Besides working with Matt, Abby was definitely the next person I worked with a lot. So I feel like for Charlie, it made a lot of sense for him at the time to want to be in that relationship because it was very safe. He didn’t really have to extend much emotionality to Delilah, it was all very surface and physical. And even when he asked her to try this for real, I think he was actually very glad that Delilah said no. I think Charlie was just in a very confusing time. He hasn’t met his person yet, which is Alice. And I’m really excited for Alice to become part of the fold in our show.

 

FB: What was the dynamic like on set between you, Matt Cornett and Sadie Soverall (as Persephone “Percy” Fraser) when things got more emotionally heavy? How did you prep for those scenes?

 

MB: I mean, it was nothing that we really had to do off set. When you’re doing those emotional scenes, especially the physical ones, you have an intimacy coordinator on set. You talk through it a bunch of times before you even film anything. Everyone is on the same page. If there’s anything that anyone wants to change, everyone has a super open mind about it. At the end of the day, we just want everyone to be safe and to make good television. So really, it was just our directors, our showrunner, our intimacy coordinator, and obviously Matt and Sadie, all of us on set just came together and collaborated.

FB: The finale leaves Charlie in a really intense emotional place. When you read that ending, what stayed with you most? I felt so bad for him being alone, but also the moment where he stares at the photo of him, Percy, and Sam as kids really stood out. Why do you think that scene was important, and what did it represent for him?

 

MB: I think what stayed with me the most is just how Charlie felt about seeing Alice’s photograph in that office. It was really a reflective moment for Charlie. He’s looking at himself and his two best friends, Sam and Percy, and how so many things went wrong. At that moment, he doesn’t really speak to Percy anymore. He definitely doesn’t speak to Sam. It actually breaks his heart. And so that to me was something that was very interesting to put at the very end of the last episode. And I thought it was a great cliffhanger for season two.a

 

FB: Has playing Charlie changed the way you think about regret, forgiveness, or growing up?

 

MB: Yeah, definitely. And I feel like our story really is a story of relationships. Being a kid is really hard. When you’re a kid, you feel so big and you feel so old. You feel like you have to have life figured out. And I feel like Charlie definitely goes through that when he’s a teenager. I think something I hope really came through, and what I learned from playing Charlie and being in that world, is that life is very long. You don’t have to have it all figured out as a kid. You’re going to make mistakes. And those mistakes don’t have to define you for the rest of your life.

 

FB: Your twenties can be such a strange, transitional time. What’s one thing you feel you’ve learned about yourself during this chapter of your life?

 

MB: One thing that I learned about myself in my 20s? I’m 27 now and I’m definitely looking at 30 as something that feels very close. I’m no longer in my mid-20s or early 20s anymore. And so I feel like one thing I’ve definitely learned is just not to put so much pressure on myself. You know, I think there are a lot of people who are very successful in their early 20s and kind of blow up. And I feel like, especially in the entertainment industry, if that doesn’t happen for you, it almost feels like it’s never going to happen, and that you’ve wasted your time and your opportunity. But one thing I’ve learned is that’s just not the case. Again, life is very long. And you can have a big, long, full career. And a career does not mean 19 to 29, a career is over a lifetime. And that is something I’m learning.

 

“…from the moment I met Veronica, my fiancée, I knew instantly that she was the person I wanted to be with for the rest of my life. I love romance. And if that makes me a hopeless romantic, then yes.”

 

FB: What would you say is Charlie’s love language and what is yours?

 

MB: So I’ve taken the test, and my top two love languages are physical touch and quality time. For Charlie, I’d say it’s definitely physical touch. I’m trying to think if it’s also acts of service. In One Golden Summer, he builds a treehouse for Percy and Sam’s child, so I’d say Charlie’s top two are physical touch and acts of service.

 

FB: What’s something you admire about Charlie, even when he makes messy decisions?

 

MB: I think what I admire about Charlie is he’s always going 100%. He’s not half-assing anything. He really knows what he wants and he gets after it.

 

FB: Do you usually watch the projects you have been in? Or is it something you avoid?

 

MB: It’s funny you said that. There’s this company called MasterClass. I remember watching Samuel L. Jackson’s during the pandemic in 2020. He talked about how some actors act like they can’t watch themselves, and he feels that’s nonsense. The only way to get better is to be able to watch yourself. It’s just like in sports, you have to watch yourself play to know what you did wrong, what you did right, and how to improve. After watching that and hearing Samuel L. Jackson, one of the best actors of all time, talk about how he loves watching himself and the movies he’s in, it really gave me more confidence. Like you know what, I’m really proud of my work. I want to see what I’m doing, and I want to watch it like it’s film.

 

FB: I don’t know if you have seen all of the edits on TikTok but is there a song you want to see Charlie edited to haha?

 

MB: I’ve seen some of them and the song for me that summer, at least while I was creating Charlie, was Sailor Song by Gigi Perez. It was something I just had on repeat. It’s a sadder song but I feel like I’d love to see that song be part of a Charlie edit, if I had to pick one.

 

FB: What are some of your favourite films and performances that made you want to start acting?

 

MB: That’s a great question. I’m a huge fan of Ryan Gosling. I think he just has the total package, he can do every genre. Jake Gyllenhaal as well. Those are two actors I’ve always looked up to. I love a lot of the films Jake Gyllenhaal has been in, like Demolition, and Ryan Gosling in Crazy, Stupid, Love. Those are two actors and two films that I’d love to explore more of, and just be in that kind of genre world and continue to learn from them. If I could act with them, if I could be in a scene with Ryan Gosling and Jake Gyllenhaal, I’d jump at the opportunity. I don’t care what it is.

 

FB: Looking ahead, what kind of stories or characters are you most excited to explore next? Or any other genres?

 

MB: Growing up my whole life, I’ve been compared to Tom Welling. That’s who I get the most. I remember I was on the street in Burbank with my fiancée and someone randomly just pointed at me and called me Superman. I get that a lot. So I think I would love to play Superman one day. That to me is a character I feel like I could do really well. Obviously, David Corenswet is Superman right now, and he’s doing an amazing job. I’m not trying to take anyone’s job but I just think in the future, when it’s all said and done and he’s done however many films, I’d love to be the next Superman.

 

FB: How do you define success today?

 

MB: I feel like, for me, the reason I feel so successful is because of my best friend, my fiancée. Being able to always have a best friend with you, someone you want to learn from, someone you want to spend every single day with, and someone you’re constantly learning new things about. She says something really beautiful all the time: that the reason it’s so important to have a husband and a best friend is because you get to share life together. And you get to document each other’s lives as you go along. Because if you don’t have that, then what’s the point of life?

 

FB: Would you say you’re a hopeless romantic?

 

MB: I think for me, it’s a cliché, but when you know, you know. And from the moment I met Veronica, my fiancée, I knew instantly that she was the person I wanted to be with for the rest of my life. I love romance. And if that makes me a hopeless romantic, then yes.