Selling the romance. From John B (Chase Stokes) and Sarah’s (Madelyn Cline) first time to JJ (Rudy Pankow) and Kiara’s (Madison Bailey) sweet reunion, Outer Banks cast members have candidly discussed bringing audiences favorite steamy moments to life.
The hit Netflix series, which debuted in 2021, introduced a treasure hunt that brought a group of teenagers together. Along the way, the characters paired off into different couples while trying to track down the lost gold.
At the center of the first season was the love story between John B and Sarah. According to Cline, the show pulled out all the stops to make the duo’s first kiss a moment fans would remember.
“I remember Chase, [creator] Jonas [Pate] and I kinda looked at each other, and we were all like, ‘Let’s do it. We gotta do this. This is amazing, this is kismet right now, that is so romantic,’” she told Cosmopolitan in May 2020 about using rainy weather to their advantage. “We made sure with our camera department and everybody that it was OK because you’re asking a lot of people to stand out in the rain. [The crew] was like, ‘Hell yes, we’re doing this, full Notebook vibes.’ And, yeah, so, we just dedicated the entire day to making sure we did that scene justice.”
Off screen, Cline and Stokes raised eyebrows as viewers questioned their relationship status. The Maryland native later recalled how he and his costar attempted to not act on their feelings while working on season 1.
“At that point in time, we were so anxious about the show and so nervous about constantly screwing up. I think we were all under this sort of strange umbrella of, like, ‘Dear God, we got an opportunity. Let’s not screw it up!’ So, it was just always work-oriented — really until the day we wrapped,” he exclusively told Us Weekly in February 2021. “It wasn’t until after that, until we started to kind of get into the [coronavirus] lockdown where we were like, ‘Is there something here or am I crazy?’ That’s sort of where it bloomed from there. I think we were just so invested in the work.”
Us confirmed in November 2021 that the pair had called it quits after more than one year of dating. After the twosome returned to film season 3, Stokes and Cline discussed their approach to working together.
“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,” the actor told Entertainment Weekly in February 2023. “And that no matter what happens in our personal lives, and the ways that life sometimes takes you in different directions, that we’re always going to honor the work. That stayed 100 percent truthful this season.”
Cline, for her part, praised the way she and Stokes remained professional on set.
“We always said that the job remains untouched. Nothing else, personal or negative, will touch the job,” she said to Cosmopolitan that same month. “And while that’s not always easy, our job is to leave the show better than we found it, to leave the season better than we found it. And I’m really appreciative of that.”
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Scroll down for everything the Outer Banks cast has said about filming kissing and sex scenes: