Madison Shamoun has a long list of childhood summer favorites. “It was always changing. I used to enjoy visiting my family in Vermont. We’d go to the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream factory and pick berries. When I was a preteen, Soak City used to be my go-to. Then it changed to seeing touring Broadway shows and going to theme parks.” Some adventures were more secretive than others. “There was this boy that I was seeing in high school, but he was located in a former town I had lived in. So I would drive late at night to go visit him. It was a couple hour drive, and my parents had no idea.” The actress plays the lead character Billie in Amazon’s new series, The Lake. “The Lake is really the perfect summer comedy. It has something for everyone. Billie is just the coolest girl. Very sure of herself. She was parentified at a young age. If I had even 25% of some Billie in me at 16/17, wow. I could’ve taken the world by storm.”

Billie is unenthusiastic about reconnecting with her birth father Justin, (Jordan Gavaris). “I can’t give too much away, but she is spending the summer with her birth father Justin very reluctantly.” While Billie might have an awkward relationship with Justin, Madison and Jordan became fast friends off-screen. “It’s crazy because from our very first chem read over Zoom, the chemistry was just there. We feel so lucky to have clicked from the very beginning. And I’m absolutely obsessed with the man.” Justin’s life is further complicated by a rivalry for the ages with his stepsister Maisy-May (Julia Stiles). Madison thoroughly enjoyed watching every showdown between the two. “It was like watching a chess game. Each one would have little wins here and there, and the show takes place over the course of the summer, so it is quite the long game they are playing. It’s a lot of fun just to watch!”

She was surprised to be able to have the opportunity to sing for the series as well! “It was wild because I had no idea I was actually going to be singing! I remember they asked me to sing 8 bars of something in the audition, but I attributed that to the creative team throwing things at you for auditioning sake. The scripts I read never said Billie sang. So it was crazy! We recorded multiple songs as backup plans because getting rights/licensing can be tricky. And we did that in the studio about a week before we actually shot the scene itself. It was a whirlwind!” You will be able to hear her perform a cover of Des’ree’s “You Gotta Be,” soon to be available on Spotify. As for her plans for this summer, she remains tightlipped. “I have something on the books for summer 2022. It’ll shoot for the majority of summer, and I wish I could tell you more, but I can’t talk about it just yet.” For her sake, let’s hope epic family drama isn’t part of the equation.

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Madison Shamoun Plots Family Debauchery in New Series, “The Lake.” Photo Credit: Ben Cope.