Chase Stokes saved his Outer Banks costar Madison Bailey from drowning after jumping off a boat during an underwater scene in Barbados.
The incident occurred while filming a scene for the fifth and final season of the Netflix series, where character JJ, played by Rudy Pankow, is knocked unconscious off a boat and Kiara, played by Bailey, holds him up in the water.
Speaking in a joint interview with Bailey published on August 20 by Entertainment Weekly, Stokes, who plays John B. Routledge, said he realized he could no longer see Bailey's face above water.
Bailey explained that she and Pankow had already been treading water for about a minute before the director called action, which made communication difficult in the water.
Stokes said he jumped off the boat after realizing Bailey had been submerged for a while and was unable to breathe underwater or swim closer to the vessel.
People working on the set initially mistook the real life struggle for intense acting, believing the performers were simply committed to the scene.
"Everyone thought it was like, 'Oh, wow, they're in the scene. This is great,'" Stokes recalled, explaining that he shouted to the crew: "No, she's drowning... Hey, that's not acting!"
Bailey joked about the reaction, saying, "Everyone's like, 'Wow, she's really good!'"
The 27-year-old actress admitted that filming underwater sequences was the "hardest" part of the show for her, adding that Stokes behaved like a "fish."
"You actually make a bad day worse," Bailey quipped to her costar. "When I'm struggling to barely swim, Chase is like [fake swims]. I swear he's breathing under there just to make me look bad."
The reflection comes as fans prepare to say goodbye to the series after five seasons. Following the end of filming in December 2025, Stokes told People that the show concluded "on the right note."
"There's just so much gratitude," Stokes said. "I've checked so many boxes that I thought it would span the course of the next 40 years of my career."
Cast Living Arrangements in Charleston
During the filming of the first season of Outer Banks, the cast lived together in an apartment complex located in Charleston, South Carolina.
Stokes told Nylon in 2020 that he shared an apartment with Pankow, who plays Jackson "JJ" Maybank, while Jonathan Daviss, who plays Pope Heyward, and Austin North, who plays Topper Thornton, lived a couple of doors down.
Madelyn Cline, who stars as Sarah Cameron, lived on the floor below them, and Bailey, who plays Kiara "Kie" Carrera, lived five minutes away from the complex.
"On the weekends everybody would come over, play games, blast music, eat food," Stokes told the magazine. "It was kind of this natural organic thing for everybody."
Audition Story and Initial Hesitation
Although the role of John B kickstarted his acting career, Stokes revealed that he initially passed on the part because he thought the project was too similar to the movie The Goonies.
"I was like, 'That's The Goonies. That's for sure The Goonies. I don't want to destroy that,'" Stokes explained during a 2021 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. "So I passed on it. And I was like, 'Nope. Not doing that.'"
Stokes instead auditioned for the role of Topper, admitting that he "bombed" the tryout.
Two weeks later, sitting in his borderline-evicted apartment, Stokes re-read the script and realized his mistake. "I immediately was sitting in my borderline-evicted apartment and I was like, 'I made a giant mistake. It's not The Goonies. It's literally not The Goonies,'" he recalled, noting he had spent a month and a half convinced of the comparison.
Real-World Hurricane Evacuation
Real-life weather mirrored the dramatic storylines of Outer Banks during production of the first season in 2019, when cast and crew were forced to evacuate the Charleston set due to Hurricane Dorian.
"We dipped," Bailey told Elite Daily in 2020, explaining that the cast evacuated together to Asheville, North Carolina, an experience she credited with bringing the actors closer together.
Script Changes and Iconic Scenes
One of the show's memorable comedic moments in season two involved Cline's character telling John B that she "can't drive stick," despite Cline already knowing how to drive manual transmission.
Netflix revealed in a behind-the-scenes fact sheet, reported by Elite Daily, that Cline had learned the skill specifically for the production.
Another iconic moment, the season one ferry kiss in the rain between John B and Sarah, almost did not happen after the director considered wrapping production early because of the weather.
Cline recalled to Cosmopolitan in May 2020 that she and Stokes looked at each other and said, "Let's do it. We gotta do this. This is amazing, this is kismet right now, that is so romantic."
After getting approval from the camera crew, who described it as "full Notebook vibes," the actors dedicated the entire day to making sure they did the scene justice.
Behind-the-Scenes Off-Screen Relationships
Stokes and Cline brought their on-screen romance into real life when they began dating in June 2020, before announcing their separation in November 2021.
Despite the breakup, Stokes told Entertainment Weekly in February 2023 that the pair made a pact before dating that the work was always going to come first, regardless of how life took them in different directions.
Unexpected Challenges and Cast Farewells
Production on season three presented unusual challenges for Cline, who experienced a scary encounter when a live rat became tangled in her hair while she was submerged in water.
Speaking on The Tonight Show in October 2024, Cline recounted how co-creator Jonas Pate instructed a rat wrangler to "Drop it on her head!" while she was neck-deep in water, causing her to scream bloody murder as the animal climbed into her hair to save itself from drowning.
The third season also marked the exit of Charles "Chip" Esten, who played Ward Cameron.
Carlacia Grant, who plays Cleo, told Netflix's Tudum in 2023 that the cast was in tears on the long ride back to the hotel after filming Esten's final scene, recalling that Esten gave everyone advice on the sad journey.
Online Harassment and Feud Speculation
Pankow addressed online harassment directed at his girlfriend, Elaine Siemek, who worked on the Outer Banks crew, in an August 2021 Instagram post calling for an end to lies and accusations spreading beyond normal hate.
Pankow wrote that accusing someone of being abusive and manipulative without knowing the relationship personally was not okay, and the couple remained together through the release of the series finale in August 2026.
Fans later speculated about tension between Pankow and Bailey during season four, after the 2024 finale appeared to use body doubles for a campfire scene where Kiara rested her head on JJ's shoulder.
Bailey dismissed rumors of a rift by sharing a behind-the-scenes Instagram photo alongside her male costars, captioning it "P4L" to signal that the group remains Pogues for life.
