That got scary fast — Madison Bailey nearly drowned filming Outer Banks, Chase Stokes stepped in
An Outer Banks Season 5 shoot nearly went badly wrong for Madison Bailey — and a castmate has revealed how he stepped in when she began to struggle.
Filming high-stakes action for Outer Banks isn’t just a case of splashing about—sometimes it gets properly dicey. Madison Bailey has revealed she nearly drowned while shooting one of the show’s big underwater scenes, and Chase Stokes had to jump into the rescue. Not a scripted moment either—this got a bit too real behind the scenes in Barbados.
When Fiction Gets a Bit Too Real
The chaos kicked off with a particularly demanding moment that had Bailey’s Kiara holding an unconscious JJ (that’s Rudy Pankow’s character) afloat in deep water. Trying to play hero, whilst filming, and keeping your head above water—not an easy job, apparently. The shot dragged on far longer than anyone intended, with Bailey underwater longer than was safe.
Chase Stokes, who plays John B.—and evidently doubles as unofficial lifeguard—explained what went wrong during an Entertainment Weekly “Lie v. Lie” interview. Here’s how he described the moment he realised Bailey was in genuine trouble:
We were in Barbados, and there’s a scene when JJ gets knocked off of a boat, and he’s unconscious in the water and Kiara’s holding him up. I realized that I couldn’t see Bails’ face anymore.
According to Stokes, the communication underwater was basically nonexistent. He clocked that Bailey had been submerged for far too long, so he leapt overboard, only to realise she absolutely was not acting—she was quietly panicking, unable to swim herself to safety.
Good Acting? Or Something More Dangerous?
Madison Bailey herself confirmed things got hairy. The crew initially thought she was just giving it her all—turns out, no, she was frantically trying to get the crew’s attention. Bailey admitted she couldn’t get herself closer to the boat, and people on set were impressed, thinking the performance was top notch, not an actual distress signal. ‘I’m drowning. Everyone’s like, “Wow, she’s really good!”’ Bailey recalled. Stokes, always up for a bit of dark humour, threw in that the crew were equally baffled watching him, saying, ‘They are like, “Wow, Chase is really committed to this. He just left the boat in the middle of the open ocean.”’
- Chase Stokes: plays John B. Routledge, de facto Pogue leader, gets hitched to Sarah Cameron by series end—happy families at last.
- Madison Bailey: is Kiara “Kie” Carrera, longtime mate of John B., still reeling from losing JJ (Rudy Pankow) as Season 5 picks up, and eventually heading off for a career in marine biology post-adventure.
Every episode of Outer Banks: Season 5 is now up on Netflix; all 10 are available to stream.