When Abigail Quinn was auditioning for the role of Delilah Mason in the screen adaptation of Carly Fortune’s best-selling novel, Every summer aftershe didn’t actually know what she was going to be tested on. “They had the show under a code name, and I didn’t find out until we went to a final read-through with all the producers and executives,” Quinn told The Observer of landing the part in the recently released series, Every year after. The Florida-born actress picked up the book immediately after the final audition, and would continue to return to Fortune’s first novel during the next four months of filming in Vancouver. This institution helped Quinn capture Delilah, whose role as protagonist Percy Fraser’s childhood best friend is expanded greatly in the series, both in small flashbacks and in her present life in Barry’s Bay.
“You can think about your character all day long, but once you put the costume on and step onto the set, it kind of comes together,” says Quinn, who also spent time talking about ideas with the show’s director, Amy B. Harris. “I wanted to know how to make Delilah multi-layered because we go deeper into her story in the series, and also go back to when she was little and see what made her who she is now,” she adds. Quinn, who plays Delilah on screen from her late teens until she is 28 in the series’ first season Every year afteris set to reprise her role in the recently announced second season of the series, based on the book Fortune one golden summer, also. “I feel like it’s not very often that you get to delve into who a character is when they’re young, and that really helped discover new things about them.”
Having previously worked on book-to-screen adaptations across film and television (including the 2018 comic book series, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), Quinn is no stranger to the pressure of living up to fans’ expectations. But apart from some extra stress before filming and again before the premiere, it’s a challenge she thoroughly enjoys. “There’s a responsibility to this really built-in fanbase, and you want to do justice to everyone,” Quinn says, admitting that she’s always nervous about what fans will think. “But at the end of the day, everyone’s version of the character in the book is different,” she explains. “You envision the person differently, you envision the story differently, so the great thing is that there’s still creative freedom as an actor; it’s through your eyes now, too.”
After a whirlwind week of pushing for Every year afterThe official Amazon Prime release (and before she heads off to start filming for her next project, The evidence), Observer caught up with Abigail Quinn to chat about her current essentials — from a moisturizer that doesn’t irritate her sensitive skin to ordering her own dinner while filming the show in Vancouver.