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See the Outer Banks’ Cast’s Quotes on Filming Those Steamy Sex and Kissing Scenes
Pogues and Kooks unite! Outer Banks features some enviable onscreen romance, especially between Chase Stokes and Madelyn Cline’s characters, John B. and Sarah, respectively. With love comes PDA, and the actors have had to film quite a few steamy moments together, from sex to kissing scenes. But what is it like for them — particularly the former offscreen couple — to shoot the hot and heavy scenes?
Keep reading to see everything the Outer Banks cast has said about filming intimate scenes.
What Has the ‘Outer Banks’ Cast Said About Kissing Scenes?
Madelyn has been the most outspoken person from the cast when it comes to creating the most romantic moments with her costars. Her character, Sarah, has been linked to Topper (Austin North) and John B.
In May 2020, Madelyn explained to Cosmopolitan how she had to prepare for her steamy makeout sessions with Chase.
“Kissing onscreen is very awkward because you have to worry about angles, and you have to worry about where the camera is, and you have to remember where your head was in this moment,” she explained. “It’s very … it’s a little nerve-racking, and at the same time, you have to make sure you’re not eating each other’s faces. It still has to look good. It definitely wasn’t a one and done.”
In one particular kiss with Chase, Madelyn recalled how the scene was intended for a sunny day, but rainfall soon impacted production. Nevertheless, the crew decided to go with the flow and pay homage to the rainy kiss from The Notebook.
“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,’” the Netflix star told the outlet. “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.”
The former real-life couple later went on to win the 2021 MTV Movie & TV Award for Best Kiss.
What Has the ‘Outer Banks’ Cast Said About Sarah’s Season 1 Sex Scenes?
Although making out with a costar is one thing, shooting a sex scene is another, and Madelyn has gotten candid on how it feels to portray a passionate moment.
As for Sarah and John B.’s first time together, fans recall that the two started getting it on, but the scene was brief. During her May 2020 Cosmopolitan interview, she revealed there was a reason for its brevity.
“That was a choice that Valerie Weiss — our director for 7 and 8 — Chase and myself made,” the Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery actress said. “We wanted there to be a differentiation between the scene with Topper and the scene with John B. It was dictated in the script that Topper and Sarah are getting pretty hot and heavy, and there’s a little bit of partial nudity going on.”
She then described the moment between Sarah and Topper when they were an item, in which Sarah appeared to change her mind about having sex and Topper reacting angrily.
“In episode 3, I believe, you see Topper really, really driving that whole interaction with her,” Madelyn continued. “You see him really pushing for this. It’s obvious that he’s asked if she wants to go to third base, and it’s obvious that she’s said ‘no’ in the past, and he’s kind of pushing the pen a bit. She says ‘yes,’ and then all of a sudden, you see her have this moment panicking, and she’s like, ‘No, no, no, this is too much.’ With the scene in the bell tower, we could have taken [the scene with Chase] further — and Valerie obviously asked, she asked if I wanted to. But I told her I really wanted it to be really sweet. I wanted Sarah to be the one driving it so that we see that difference.”
How Did the ‘Outer Banks’ Cast Make Sex Scenes More Comfortable?
“In episode 3, I believe, you see Topper really, really driving that whole interaction with her,” Madelyn continued. “You see him really pushing for this. It’s obvious that he’s asked if she wants to go to third base, and it’s obvious that she’s said ‘no’ in the past, and he’s kind of pushing the pen a bit. She says ‘yes,’ and then all of a sudden, you see her have this moment panicking, and she’s like, ‘No, no, no, this is too much.’ “With the scene in the bell tower, we could have taken [the scene with Chase] further — and Valerie obviously asked, she asked if I wanted to. But I told her I really wanted it to be really sweet. I wanted Sarah to be the one driving it so that we see that difference.”
When it came to filming that season 1 sex scene with Austin, Madelyn revealed to Vogue how she managed to eliminate their discomfort in the funniest way possible.
“The first one I’d had was with Austin, and we didn’t really know each other that well at that point, and we hadn’t really spent too much time hanging out yet,” the South Carolina native told the publication in May 2020. “To break the ice, we were sitting in the green room, Austin and I, twiddling our thumbs and trying to make conversation, and I could tell that he was nervous, and I knew he could tell I was nervous, so I just farted in front of him. He started laughing, and I started laughing and he went to another corner, and then from then on, I don’t know what it was, but he thought it [was] so funny, and it broke the ice.”
What Did Madelyn Cline and Chase Stokes Say About Working Together Post-Split?
Even though Madelyn and Chase’s on-off romance eventually fizzled out by the end of 2022, the series leaders remained dedicated to their characters’ chemistry.
“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 Maryland native 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.”
