After five seasons of treasure hunts, shipwrecks, storms and near-death experiences, Chase Stokes and Madison Bailey have accumulated enough Outer Banks stories to make lying to one another surprisingly difficult.
Entertainment Weekly put the longtime co-stars through a game of Lie v. Lie, asking Stokes and Bailey to tell increasingly ridiculous stories while the other person decided whether they were telling the truth.
The problem is that after spending years playing John B and Kiara together, they apparently know each other far too well.
What begins as a lighthearted guessing game quickly turns into a collection of some of the funniest — and occasionally most frightening — stories from their careers.
And one Outer Banks memory is considerably more serious than the others.
Chase Stokes once realised Madison Bailey was actually drowning during filming.
The story begins with Bailey explaining that underwater sequences have always been among the most physically difficult parts of the series for her.
Stokes, by comparison, is apparently so comfortable in the water that Bailey jokingly accuses him of making difficult swimming scenes look even worse for everyone else.
According to Bailey, he moves through the water so easily that it almost appears as though he can breathe underwater.
Unfortunately, one scene became genuinely dangerous.
Stokes remembers filming in Barbados during a sequence involving JJ, played by Rudy Pankow, being knocked unconscious from a boat.
Kiara was supposed to keep JJ above the water.
That required Bailey to support Pankow while also managing her own breathing and position in difficult conditions.
Communication became increasingly hard.
Then Stokes noticed something was wrong.
Bailey had been underwater for too long.
At first, people around the scene apparently believed she was simply continuing the performance.
Stokes did not.
He jumped from the boat and quickly realised that Bailey was no longer acting distressed.
She genuinely could not breathe.
Bailey confirms the story in the video and describes the surreal situation of people believing she was delivering a convincing performance while she was actually struggling underwater.
It is an extraordinary behind-the-scenes story for a series that has repeatedly placed its cast in physically demanding environments.
Outer Banks has always depended heavily on water.
Boats.
Diving.
Surfing.
Underwater treasure.
Storms.
Characters constantly jumping into the ocean for reasons that normal people would probably reconsider.
For actors, making those sequences convincing requires considerably more than standing in front of a green screen.
Bailey’s experience demonstrates how quickly that physical realism can become dangerous.
The story also reveals something about the relationship between the cast after years of working together.
Stokes recognised that something in Bailey’s behaviour was different.
He knew what her performance normally looked like.
This was not it.
That familiarity may have made the difference.
Thankfully, the story now ends with Bailey sitting beside him laughing about it.
Not every confession in Lie v. Lie is quite that dramatic.
Stokes also tells one of the great failed-audition stories of his career.
Before Outer Banks transformed him into John B, he auditioned for Top Gun: Maverick.
That should have been an enormous opportunity.
Tom Cruise.
A sequel to one of the most famous aviation movies ever made.
Potentially a major studio role.
There was just one problem.
Stokes misunderstood what character he was auditioning for.
He went into the room thinking he was playing a pilot.
He was not.
The role was apparently an air traffic controller.
Rather than properly preparing the material, Stokes attempted to wing the audition.
Literally and figuratively.
The result was exactly as successful as that strategy sounds.
He now offers a very simple piece of acting advice based on the experience:
Read everything on the page.
Not just your own lines.
The story becomes even funnier when placed beside where his career eventually went.
Missing Top Gun: Maverick hardly destroyed his chances in Hollywood.
Outer Banks premiered in 2020 and became one of Netflix’s biggest young-adult adventure series, with Stokes leading the show through all five seasons.
Bailey’s career changed alongside his.
As Kiara Carrera, she became one of the original Pogues and remained central to the series through its final chapter.
Their Entertainment Weekly appearance therefore arrives at an unusually emotional moment.
Season 5 is the end.
Netflix released the final season in August 2026, bringing the story of John B, Kiara, Sarah, Pope and Cleo to a close after years of increasingly dangerous treasure hunts.
That makes the game less like ordinary promotion and more like two people comparing notes on an experience that shaped most of their twenties.
The questions move through auditions, embarrassing memories, fan encounters and moments from the Outer Banks set.
Some stories are obviously designed to fool the other person.
Others sound so absurd that they should be lies and somehow are not.
But Stokes and Bailey repeatedly demonstrate how difficult the format becomes when the two people involved have spent years together.
They know one another’s habits.
They know old career stories.
They know which kinds of disasters sound believable.
And they have apparently witnessed enough genuinely ridiculous Outer Banks moments that almost anything could be true.
That chemistry is one reason John B and Kiara’s friendship remained such an important part of the show.
The characters have been through nearly every variation of catastrophe imaginable together.
Their actors have now spent years doing many of those scenes side by side.
Some memories are funny.
Some involve terrible auditions.
And at least one involved Stokes recognising that his friend needed real help rather than another take.
As Outer Banks reaches the end of its run, Lie v. Lie offers exactly the kind of farewell interview that suits the cast.
No formal retrospective.
No carefully rehearsed answers.
Just two longtime co-stars trying to fool one another after spending seven years learning almost everything about each other.
Turns out that is harder than surviving a Pogue treasure hunt.
Watch Chase Stokes and Madison Bailey play Entertainment Weekly’s Lie v. Lie below.
