Matt Cornett said he and co-star Sadie Soverall spent time getting comfortable with each other before filming Every Year After—starting with a Zoom chat and quickly turning that connection into dinners, pizza, and horror movie nights.
Before filming even began for Every Year After, Matt Cornett and Sadie Soverall were already trying to make the chemistry land the way it does on screen.
In a newly released interview ahead of the show’s release, the 27-year-old actor—who stars as Sam—described how the two of them connected off camera before they ever did a chemistry read.
“Before our chemistry read, they gave us ten minutes to sit and chat. It was over Zoom, and I instantly felt a connection with her. She was so easy to talk to and so fun,” Cornett told Boys by Girls. He said the connection only grew once they were in the same place: “The night we got to Vancouver. I texted and said. ‘Let’s get dinner.’ We loved hanging out and getting to know each other.”.
That real-life comfort, Cornett explained, wasn’t just about liking each other—it was also part of how they tried to translate the relationship at the center of the series.
In [the books], Cornett said, “Percy introduces Sam to horror. They have nights together eating pizza and watching a horror movie.” So Cornett and Soverall leaned into that same idea in their own bonding time. “So, Sadie and I were like, ‘You know what?. We’re going to eat pizza and watch horror.’ She made every scene so easy and so fun. and we were able to be goofy with each other. There was never a moment when it didn’t feel like Sam and Percy.”.
The horror movies came with a plan, too. Cornett said they started with Evil Dead—“because that’s the big one that Sam and Percy watch”—before moving on to the Halloween series. “I think we only got a couple of movies into the series, and then we got so busy with filming.”
Their bonding didn’t stop with just the two leads. Cornett also talked about getting closer with the rest of the cast, including golf outings with Michael Bradway and Joseph Chiu. “I’m a big golfer, so I took them out to the golf course and got them into the golf world,” he said.
Even when schedules made it hard to coordinate bigger group moments. he described a willingness to make time where they could. “There were nights when we’d all go to an arcade or get dinner. but it was so difficult because our filming schedules were scattered. It was hard to get everyone together at the same time. and when we could. it was usually in the evenings. Everyone was so lovely, and I had a great relationship with them.”.
Cornett added that those get-togethers helped them build the kind of familiarity that sticks. “I had such a great time with everyone; we developed inside jokes, and I could have fun hanging out with all of them individually.”
Every Year After debuts on Prime Video on Wednesday (June 10).
Matt Cornett Sadie Soverall Every Year After Prime Video Sam and Percy horror movies Evil Dead Halloween Michael Bradway Joseph Chiu
So they’re basically dating in real life? I knew it.
Ten minutes on Zoom and suddenly best friends? Hollywood must have better WiFi than the rest of us lol. Also “Every Year After” sounds like a whole horror/romance thing.
Wait reply to you but not even sure if I got it right—aren’t they supposed to be playing Sam and Percy? Like Percy introduces Sam to horror, so does that mean the actors copied the plot by eating pizza and watching Evil Dead before filming? Kinda wholesome I guess.
Evil Dead being the first one checks out. Horror movie nights always fix chemistry reads, right? I feel like these interviews always say the same thing though—zoom chat, then dinners, then suddenly “it felt like Sam and Percy.” Still gonna watch because pizza + horror is undefeated, even if the book stuff is confusing.