Madison Bailey had a pretty scary moment while filming Outer Banks. Chase Stokes recalled realizing his costar was actually drowning during a scene in Barbados and jumping in to help.
The actors looked back on the incident during a game of “Live vs. Lie” with Entertainment Weekly.
Stokes, who returns as John B for the show’s final season, tried to throw off Bailey with a question. Instead, the two ended up reminiscing about the terrifying experience on set.
Underwater struggle
The pair started by joking about filming underwater. Stokes called “the underwater work” the “most challenging” part of the show for him, but Bailey disagreed.
“No,” she replied, holding up her “Lie” paddle. “You’re a fish.”
Bailey explained that underwater filming had actually been one of the “hardest” parts of the series for her.
“That’s true for me, lie for you,” she continued. “You actually make a bad day worse. When I’m struggling to barely swim, Chase is like [fake swims]. I swear he’s breathing under there just to make me look bad.”
The incident
As they kept talking about their underwater scenes, Stokes revealed that Bailey “almost drowned multiple times.”
“We were in Barbados and there’s a scene when [Rudy Pankow’s] JJ gets knocked off of a boat and he’s unconscious in the water and Kiara’s holding him up,” he recalled. “I realized that I couldn’t see Bails’ face anymore.”
‘Treading water’ for some time
Bailey explained that the cast had already been “treading water” for some time before the cameras began rolling.
“It was really hard to communicate,” Stokes chimed in. “I was like, ‘Oh no, Bails has been under there for a while.’ So I jumped off the boat and I realized that she was not able to breathe underwater.”
Bailey said “it was a whole struggle” because she was having trouble swimming toward the boat.
The crew thought Madison Bailey was just acting
Some of the crew initially thought Bailey was improvising, but Stokes could tell she was “not acting” and jumped in to help.
“Everyone thought it was like, ‘Oh, wow, they’re in the scene. This is crazy,’” Stokes said. “I was like, ‘No, she’s drowning.’”
Bailey confirmed that’s what happened. “I was drowning. … Everyone’s like, ‘Wow, she’s really good,’” she recalled.
The experience ended up being one of the more unforgettable things they went through while filming Season 5, which debuted on August 20.
