Outer Banks Actively Avoided Casting New York 'Theater Kids'
"Outer Banks" weaves a tale of pure fantasy from a small region in North Carolina. The area is transformed into the magical realm of Pogues and Kooks, the perfect setting for an epic adventure ripped straight from story books. Is it realistic that our hero's father is lost at sea and his ragtag group of teenage friends have embarked on a perilous journey for buried treasure? Maybe not, but the show is grounded in a different sort of realism — its casting.
Given the show's namesake, it was important to the series creatives that "Outer Banks" felt authentic to its setting. "We wanted to capture coastal Carolina living," co-creator Josh Pate told Garden and Gun. "Netflix didn't want us to shoot in North Carolina for various reasons, even though that was our first choice." The show is actually shot in Charleston, South Carolina. "We're not trying to be that specific with the setting," Pate conceded, adding, "we use geography pretty liberally."
Since the show is so location-specific, it was crucial to the series creators that the cast be comprised of "outdoor kids."
"That was the big thing that I wanted," Pate explained. "I didn't want a bunch of theater kids from New York City who have never been cold or never camped or never cut their foot on an oyster bed." This casting angle was also important to encourage younger viewers to be more active. "[O]ne thing that was important to us was to really glamorize teenagers doing stuff outside," Pate said. "We want to remind people that, like [...] you don't have to be on your screens all the time, and the ocean's cooler than a computer."
The cast had to be outdoorsy — and Southern
But the cast of "Outer Banks" isn't just outdoorsy, they're also Southern — for the most part. "They're all Southern except Rudy Pankow, who plays JJ," the Netflix series co-creator admitted, "but he grew up in the wilds of Alaska. He's definitely an outdoor guy."
Chase Stokes, who plays protagonist John B., spent most of his childhood in Atlanta, per a 2020 interview with JADE. His love interest Sarah Cameron is played by Madelyn Cline, who is actually native to the shooting location of Charleston. Shooting on her home turf helped Cline connect more with the project — and with her own roots.
"I think personally, I fell back in love with where I'm from, Charleston," the actress told V Magazine. "Shooting a show and a love story in that whole ecosystem with the most amazing people, our cast and our crew, I fell back in love with that area because I was so in love with the project."
The series is also highly personal and nostalgic for its creators, who grew up in the Carolinas as well. "It was based on childhood memories," said Josh Pate (via Garden and Gun). "[Co-creator] Jonas [Pate] and I grew up out on Kiawah and Johns Island [South Carolina] and around Wrightsville Beach [North Carolina]. The class divide felt real in these places, which is where the Pogues and the Kooks come in."
For all of its far-fetched adventure, "Outer Banks" has a lot of heart. The bonds between the characters feel real, and there's a reason — the cast is also incredibly close in real life. "They actually are really good friends, and I guess that was just luck," Pate said.
The co-stars' common ground helped them bond IRL
There was one experience early on in the production of "Outer Banks" that helped accelerate the budding friendships in the cast.
"Jonas did do one thing in order to kind of bond them early on: he took them out to "the Chateau" [the character John B.'s waterfront shack], the actual location that we use in the show, and locked them in there for the night with a keg of beer," Pate recalled. "He was like, you guys get to know each other. And they just bonded. It was just immediate and totally sincere."
Stokes remembers feeling a kinship with his costars right away, at their very first table read. "We all kind of looked at each other and were like, 'OK, so here we go on this journey,'" the actor recounted to Popsugar. The next day, the cast was given boating lessons, which Stokes says "was kind of the perfect recipe for an awesome start to a friendship that's now family."
The cast of "Outer Banks" is close, but they're also able to keep it professional, which is what makes them such good co-stars as well as friends. "I'm very fortunate that not just me, but we all take the craft very serious and we all are very respectful of each other's personal space when it comes to getting into character and taking those moments," Stokes explained. The friendships in the "Outer Banks" cast aren't just heartwarming, they make the show even more fun to watch. Pate was right — a cast of buttoned-up city kids just wouldnt be the same!
"Outer Banks" season 3 will premiere on February 23, 2023.