SEATTLE — Four years after blowing up during the pandemic, the Netflix series "Outer Banks" is more popular than ever, making the ride from unknowns to super famous as mind-blowing as a perfect wave for co-stars Rudy Pankow and Chase Stokes.
"Everything changes," Stokes said. "Everything! Whether it's a relationship with family members, friends prior to it. Everybody seems to look at you a little different so you have this safe house which is the show."
The friendships among the so-called "Pogues" has become a real one. The actors grew up with each other away from home, surrounded by familiar crewmembers, in coastal Carolina cities like Charleston and Wilmington.
"It's been an absolute honor to shoot in these beautiful places," Pankow said. "And I think the scenery really does play a third character in it."
"Yeah, we're time restricted," added Stokes. "We like to shoot during beautiful sunrises and sunsets so you know that's a very short window to get a lot of things done and the pressure is on to get it right."
Sometimes the pressure brings out the giggles among cast members.
We had a question from Isabelle Kaperick of Washington State University:
What scene in Season 4 so far was the hardest to do without laughing?
"That's a great question!" said Stokes. "When we go see Wes Genrette, there's just something about when you get in a room like that and there's fake smoke pumped into it to give the ambience that it needs and you look over and everybody's like what's going on?"
That scene sends the Pogues on a wild hunt for Blackbeard's treasure which leads into all kinds of harrowing danger as the second half of Season 4 begins.
"I think this is a show about resilience and it's about finding your way," Stokes said. "And something about the show our writers have said since the beginning is 'The crank only goes one way and that's forward.'"
"So, I think it's another season of raising the stakes higher," added Pankow. "And you can expect that in Part 2."
The final five episodes of Outer Banks, Season 4, start streaming at midnight tonight on Netflix.
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