‘Outer Banks’ Chase Stokes Breaks Down His Wild Alligator Fight and the Dirty Secrets of the Show

There’s a heightening that naturally happens with a new season of a TV show. Then there’s Outer Banks Season 2. The latest installment of Netflix’s teen drama is bigger, faster, and more extreme than ever before. Almost every episode features a major action set piece and a new, giant twist. And no one knows how wild this ride is better than Outer Banks‘ star and the man behind John B, Chase Stokes.

“This season is a lot different than Season 1 in a lot of different ways. It goes in, obviously, a very obnoxiously large, chaotic sort of arc. But I’m excited for people to see it. We put a lot of a lot of heart and a lot of soul into it. And to film it during a pandemic was brutal. But we made it work,” Stokes told Decider. “It’s like if you took adrenaline and just stabbed it in your thigh. That’s Season 2.”

Every detail of Outer Banks involves a tremendous amount of work, right down to how its stars look. Any fan knows that Outer Banks has a certain aesthetic. Instead of the perfectly manicured look of most teen dramas, the Netflix original is grittier. John B and his friends spend most of their days running around with sea spray from their faces, and they look it. According to the series’ star that distinct look is a combination of costume and makeup expertise and good old-fashioned grime.

“Emmie Holmes is our costume designer on the show. She’s incredible with not just making it look nasty, but also keeping it consistent,” Stokes said. “In a show where you’re constantly so physical and you sweat like a madman all the time, we can’t wear the same outfits all the time. So they’re constantly having to have additionals for everything that we wear. They do such an incredible job of making it seem like we never change. But in reality, every day it’s a brand new shirt with new stuff. So it’s like you wake up, you drink your morning coffee, you put on a nasty looking shirt, and you get sprayed down with water all over the place to make it seem like the shirt is sweaty.”

Next up is hair and makeup, which specializes in fake dirt and sweat. “Rudy [Pankow] sometimes likes to go the extra mile and grab some dirt from the ground and shove it on his face,” Stokes said. “It’s not what you would think Hollywood would look like. You’re like, ‘I’m gonna sit in the hair and makeup chair, and I’m gonna get all glammed up and beautiful.’ We do that. And then 30 minutes later, everyone’s sweating and dying. By the end of the day, you’re so excited to get in the shower in the trailers and wipe it all off.”

All of this work and grime was doubled for one of Stokes’ most challenging scenes. In Episode 8 the Pogues find the cross of Denmark. But while waiting for a way to transport it, John B is attacked by one of the fiercest foes of the American South: an alligator. As he fights for his life, Sarah (Madelyn Cline) goes after the reptile.

“That was arguably the the worst day of filming,” Stokes said. “It was 22 degrees outside. There’s permafrost on all of the vegetation in the swamp. The water temperature was below 60 degrees. We were in and out of the water for like six and a half hours straight. It was insane. I mean, we actually had to go in and VFX out all of the breath, because you could see everybody’s breath. Like it was midwinter.”

The alligator used in the scene was a fake one. “It was on like a giant chicken rotisserie machine. So I literally would grab it. Then you’d have two massive stunt guys, or you know, our special effects department, and they would spin it like when you go into a Publix and you look in the back of the Publix and you see the rotisserie chickens,” Stokes said. As many times as Stokes had to perform the scene, his stunt double had it worse. “My stunt double, Cole Eckhert, was just a superhuman. I don’t understand how he’s able to do the things he does. He did a lot more times than I did. We both were laughing at the end of the day. Like what are we doing? Should we change careers?”

All of this hard work resulted in a scene that lasts roughly 12 seconds on screen. “That’s the magic of filmmaking,” Stokes said. “You do a lot, you see a little. But was intense.”

As excited as Stokes is for people to watch Season 2, he’s just as thrilled about the show’s potential future. “We want to tell five seasons of this story. Hopefully, we get the opportunity to do that. And it’s starts here, with that ending and Big John’s face looking like Obi Wan Kenobi back alive or Luke Skywalker sitting on the rock as he turned,” Stokes said. “I’m just I’m super excited for the world to kind of take in this new chapter.”

Watch Outer Banks on Netflix