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Netflix’s hit show OUTER BANKS was renewed for season four last week and it’s no surprise why. With a legion of loyal fans and a killer season three, I was so excited to hear that we will get more Pogue content… and hopefully a majority of that will be of the :ahem: shipping variety. Season three is an entertaining combination of edge-of-your-seat adventure, the friendships we love to watch, and most importantly… romance (yes I said it!).

As a fellow fangirl, I am so excited to hear what fans think of the new season, and I was even more excited that the OUTER BANKS experience came to DC last week! I had the amazing opportunity to interview the stars of the series, Madelyn Cline (who plays Sarah Cameron) and Madison Bailey (who plays Kiara Carrera), about the season and host a screening of the first episode of season three with an audience full of fellow Pogues on Valentine’s Galentine’s Day with my bestie Lauren Veneziani (@DCFilmGirl). “The Laurens” had so much fun getting to know “the Madys”; they were incredibly down-to-earth and kind and were excited to talk about season three, as well as meet all of the awesome fans of the show.

Enjoy my interview below, where we talked about the real Outer Banks, their own favorite pop culture ships, the OBX fandom, and so much more! I swear we didn’t mean to color coordinate at the season three screening, it was just kismet!

As a pseudo-Carolina girl myself, I was interested in whether fellow Carolina girls Madelyn and Madison had ever been to the real Outer Banks because going to the OBX was such a huge part of my own childhood. “I have never been,” said Madelyn laughing, “I feel like an imposter… I feel even worse because people are like you are from North Carolina, how is the Outer Banks?” For those eagle-eyed viewers, the series is actually filmed predominantly in Charleston, South Carolina… maybe we can hope for a scene at Jockey’s Ridge in season four?

And on the note of filming, as a fellow fangirl myself, I love that the series has such a loyal fanbase. So I was wondering how the cast handled filming scenes in Charleston, where fans and the public can see them. Does it make it harder to keep plot details under wraps? “We definitely have people show up and watch and hang out, and I think everything is great as long as there are no spoilers. It’s a closed set, so for the most part when we have an audience it’s from a distance… I think if anything, it builds excitement when people get to watch. I think it’s really nice and flattering that people want to spend their day standing in the same spot, watching us do the same thing over and over,” said Madelyn. Madison echoed these comments, “It’s a good sense of support. The city of Charleston, the fans there, go very hard for our show and are very welcoming and love what we do.”

Of course, I had to bring up the awesome shipping in OUTER BANKS, but instead of asking them about their own ships on the show, I was interested in what some of their own favorite pop culture ships were. “Jake Ryan and Hannah Montana, ” Madelyn laughed, “Why was that the first thing I thought of?” Madison also came up with another hilarious deep cut answer, “Lizzie McGuire and Gordo! I was really obsessed with Lizzie McGuire, but that’s when I was young. That’s a very deep cut for me. When I was a little older, I was a GOSSIP GIRL girlie, so Chuck and Blair…”

Madelyn and I both haven’t seen GOSSIP GIRL but she did just catch up on GAME OF THRONES! “It’s kind of criminal that I haven’t seen [Gossip Girl] and I am aware of that. I just watched GAME OF THRONES all the way through and I just finished and that was a big commitment. But I enjoyed it because I never had to sit there at night and wonder what I was going to watch, which is the worst.”

Speaking of binge-watching, I love that so many of the OUTER BANKS episodes end with cliffhangers, which makes audiences want to continue watching episode after episode. I was wondering if the actors received the scripts or the general direction of the season ahead of time or are they on the edge of their seat from script to script like we are. “We kind of get them as they are ready,” said Madison .”When we start, we get the first few and then they continue writing the end as we figure out what’s working. If they send one at a time, I am definitely on the edge of my seat… if they send multiple scripts I binge read like I would binge watch.”

With the girls now on their third season of the show, it was interesting to hear that they are able to provide the writers input into their characters. Madelyn elaborated, “I’ve been asked for input before and I’ve also given my unsolicited input before [laughs]. I always really appreciate when they ask because I get excited. I love having a little creative stake in the game and I also think it’s really fun to collaborate. I love having conversations where we just unpack everything. It really helps me with my character. I think they are always really open to ideas. We improv a lot and they are always really down for us to jick-jack.” Madison further expanded with an example from this season, “And put it into our own words. I think we are seeing it now as we are on season three of our show. This season, there was a moment in the script that just said ‘Pogues talk’… and it was like we trust y’all to just have a funny conversation and talk about whatever we think about. But I definitely receive an annual phone call from our writer Shannon, who calls me at the beginning of each season and asks for my opinion on where the character is going and we do get a good bit of say throughout.”

I think fans are going to be thrilled to hear that this season, Sarah has her own voiceovers… and Madelyn was happy about them too, “I was really excited when I saw that this season because obviously it’s usually John B with the voiceovers, and a lot of OUTER BANKS is about his journey with his dad and this crazy hand of cards that he’s been dealt. And this season is kind of a lot about the inner workings of what Sarah is going through and processing everything… confusion, maybe a little doubt… she’ s processing a lot. So I really loved that they gave me the opportunity to have a voiceover because it does feel like you’re talking directly to the audience, it’s literally inner dialogue. And I also love doing it… being in the room and seeing the episode play out because I haven’t seen [the episode] before. It’s all real, raw emotions and I am talking over it. It’s very fun!”

And of course I couldn’t let the girls go without asking about their favorite stunts they have done so far. “I’m a stronger swimmer than I have ever been in my life,” joked Madison, “When I first started, I’ll tell you, it wasn’t good.” Madelyn, on the other hand, may need some more time in the pool, “I have learned that I am not as strong of a swimmer… thinking about being a strong swimmer doesn’t mean you actually are. And also, yes, we did learn how to drive boats in season one but we haven’t had a boat lesson since. Last season, there was an instance where they were like you’ve taken boat lessons, here let’s give you a boat that’s really long and thin and two decks high, the Druthers. The boat itself is meant for long journeys; it could make it from the Caribbean to North Carolina, so it makes sense in the story. However, it’s very rocky and hard to drive. I was supposed to drive it and make a really sharp turn; they wanted it to be really dramatic. So I was practicing and I spun it out [laughs]. The guy who owns the boat said he had never seen the boat do that ever. So from then on, they haven’t let me drive a boat.” Madison had a similar story “I haven’t had a boat lesson since season one either and they let me drive a boat in season three. I was like I learned this three and a half years ago, just give me one second.”

I also got a little nugget of gossip from Madison that a member of the cast crashed a boat in season one… though she wouldn’t name any names. Who do you think it was?

OUTER BANKS Season 3 will be streaming on Netflix Feb. 23.