Outer Banks star Chase Stokes on new films, country star girlfriend

Actor Chase Stokes may be living the luxe life in LA, but his heart is still running around down South.“I was in Malibu the other day,” the baseball-capped Netflix star tells Alexa over Zoom, “and it was high tide, and you couldn’t even go on the beach because the water was up to the shoreline.” He’s longing to be back in Charleston, where even at high tide, “you’ve got 50 yards of sand where you can take the dogs and sprint around, or get in the water and not be immediately bordering on frostbite.” You can take the boy out of the Outer Banks…Or should we say, the “Outer Banks.” The hit series about a tight-knit group of treasure-hunting, (mostly) working-class teens has been shooting in South Carolina, standing in for its northern relative, for four seasons — with some notable departures for its globe-hopping characters.

Most recently, Stokes’ character, the impetuous but big-hearted adventurer John B Routledge, found himself in the Orinoco Basin in South America, looking for the lost city of gold, El Dorado.Part of the show’s draw, he says, “is the National Geographic, David Attenborough, ‘Planet Earth’-esque landscapes.

I never thought I’d be able to play a version of what I like to believe is a young Indiana Jones.”He’s got the square jaw and the self-effacing charisma to fit that suit, for sure.And Stokes knows his source material.

He may be only 32, but his taste in movies is old school — and Spielberg’s iconic archaeologist is top of the list.“One of the most proud purchases I ever made, after we finished the first season of ‘Outer Banks,’ was an original poster of ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark,’’’ he says.

“It was just my thing.I grew up on that franchise!” Other favorites? “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”; “10 Things I Hate About You.” He loves a quality rom-com.Stokes is likely making first-edition poster money now, but much like John B, he keeps his scrappy origins close.

His star...