A near-drowning on set

As the final season of Outer Banks hits Netflix, its stars are sharing stories from behind the scenes — including a moment that nearly turned tragic. Chase Stokes and Madison Bailey, who play John B and Kiara, revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, as reported by Page Six, that Bailey nearly drowned while filming a water scene in Barbados.

Bailey was shooting a sequence in which her character holds up Stokes’ character after he’s been knocked unconscious from a boat. After treading water before the scene began, Bailey found she "couldn't swim closer to the boat." Stokes noticed she had "been under there for a while" and jumped off the boat. "I realized that she was not able to breathe underwater," he said.

Some crew members initially mistook the struggle for acting. "I was like, 'No, she's drowning,'" Stokes recalled. "I was like, 'Hey that's not acting.'"

Bailey later joked about the confusion. "I was drowning. Everyone's like, 'Wow, she's really good,'" she said.

Stokes called the underwater work the "most challenging" task he’s performed across five seasons of the show. Bailey acknowledged the difficulty, noting Stokes's superior swimming abilities. "When I'm struggling to barely swim, Chase is like (fake swims)," Bailey said. "I swear he's breathing under there just to make me look bad."

The first part of the fifth and final season premiered on Netflix on Thurs. Stokes reflected on the production’s conclusion during an appearance on the official Outer Banks podcast. "It just all came to a close," he said, as the series follows a group of teenagers in the Outer Banks community of North Carolina and also stars Madelyn Cline, Jonathan Daviss, Drew Starkey, Carlacia Grant and Austin North.

Break-up and friendship

Madelyn Cline has opened up about her real-life relationship with Chase Stokes, who she played love interest to on the show before and after their split. Cline and Stokes separated in November 2021 but continued playing romantic partners on Outer Banks—Cline as Sarah Cameron and Stokes as John B Routledge.

Cline told The Hollywood Reporter that there were difficult moments. "Once the dust kind of settled, we were able to just revert to the friendship that we always had," she said. She recalled a turning point: "At some point, you look at each other and you're like, 'Are you ready just ready to stop being miserable? Because I'm ready to stop being miserable.'"

Cline and Stokes first met while auditioning for the Netflix series in 2019 and soon began dating, publicly confirming their relationship in June 2020. They separated after playing romantic partners until the fifth and final season, which dropped on Netflix on 20 August 2026.

Stokes told Entertainment Weekly in 2023: "Mads and I have been working together now for 30 episodes, and we made a promise to each other before we even started dating that the work was always going to come first." He added that no matter what happens in their personal lives, "we're always going to honor the work. That helped 100 percent this season." Cline added that they’ve "always shown up for each other when it comes to work and this show."

In the final season, Sarah and John are expecting a baby. Following JJ's death, John realizes his dangerous lifestyle affects others, and Kiara, Pope, and Cleo seek justice and hunt down Chandler Groff, played by J. Anthony Crane.

A Top Gun audition that got away

In another anecdote, Chase Stokes shared his Top Gun: Maverick audition story with co-star Madison Bailey during a game of Truth or of Lie with Entertainment Weekly. Bailey correctly guessed that the story was true, and Stokes revealed that he went in for Maverick when he was in his early twenties, but didn't read all the specifics of what he was reading for and left the audition in disappointment.

The anecdote came up them as Stokes did press for the final season, and he decided to get the story off his chest.

While on the topic of the Maverick audition, the CinemaBlend report recounted that Glen Powell originally tried out for the role of Rooster and lost out to Miles Teller. Tom Cruise insisted Powell be in the movie in another role, and he ended up playing Hangman instead. Austin Butler was invited to audition for Maverick but passed in order to be in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Looking ahead

Stokes will next appear in AMC's Thunder Road, which is expected to premiere in 2027. As the Outer Banks era closes, both Stokes and Bailey have continued to reflect on their friendship and the challenges of filming the show, including the near-drowning that brought them even closer.

While the article presented a single narrative on the near-drowning, the accounts from Stokes and Bailey in the interview, as reported by Page Six, have been consistent in describing the incident as a dangerous situation that was initially mistaken for acting.