Outer Banks’ star Chase Stokes says, “I have always had the mindset that it is not about how the aircraft takes off but how it lands.”
The 33-year old actor reflects on his life-changing experiences as he closes the final episode of the Netflix series for young adults, “Young Adult Action Adventures”, which returned to the streaming service on Thursday.
Stokes, along with the Outer Banks’ cast members, spent a large part of their meteoric rise on the set. The show was a hit when it premiered, and the cast returned to the set as soon as possible. Stokes makes a joke about them being the “test-dummy” to return to set.
He told The Hollywood Reporter that “all of these shows [when] they pop off are like going to Paris Fashion Week, and doing all of this stuff.” We were taking COVID test three times a day. Wearing masks, we acted out scenes at freezing temperatures and pretended it was summer.
Stokes felt it was a blessing to have the ability to focus and lock in on the show. The restrictions and guidelines meant that we could not go outside, so on Friday nights we drove around in our cars to see what was going on.
The actors did not realize how popular Outer Banks had become before the public began to see it. Stokes remembers filming in Charleston’s downtown during Season Two and 3,000 people showing up to see the cast movie. It was at that moment when it became clear that the show had a following and was doing more than simply racking up numbers on Facebook.
Stokes says, “It isn’t just a couple of paparazzi; there are hundreds across the street screaming as you are in the middle of taking a shot.” The Charleston Police Department has to be there to do crowd control so that we can shoot at the places that we paid for.
Stokes admitted that he had “a really hard time” adapting to fame, given the fact the show was filmed in the little bubble they lived in. It felt maddening once the pandemic was over. He recalls, “I was taking my dog on a stroll in L.A. and he took a shit along the roadside and a TMZ bus stopped beside me to take photos.” In the beginning, all of them clung together.
Stokes has been approached by other young adults for advice in recent years. Stokes has felt that he can’t help because he’s not sure how he or the Outer Banks actors handled this change. He says that there is no fool’s guide to success.
Outer Banks has its own unique trajectory, says the actor. There’s one thing that young adult actors have to deal with, and it is breaking free from the genre. Stokes, when asked whether he still feels pigeonholed by his early YA career, says: “I feel incredibly pigeonholed to this day.”
There is a slight shift in the way people perceive starting romance or coming of age series. Stokes feels the change and does not. He says that there is no ego involved in this experience.
You watch as the Heated Rivalry boys go and work on new projects and then move onto other activities. Euphoria’s kids have done it. Stokes: “Even Off Campus I hear rumors of what the kids are doing.”
After a breakout hit, shooting schedules and timelines can alter an experience. Outer Banks took longer to produce than other shows due to its global setting and ambitious scope.
The actor explains, “It’s important to look at things in a new way and to respect them rather than coming from the point of frustration that you feel limited.” This is a great opportunity for me to redefine who I am. I am not the guy who has floppy hair on the beach and the boat with stoners. “I’m able to play a troubled character.”
Stokes asked Dawson’s Creek actor Joshua Jackson for advice on how to get past the role that made him famous. It was really calming to hear that being known for this role is an honor.
Stokes needed some time to himself before he could tackle the first post-Outer Banks project. He had a “late quarter-life crises” instead of quitting the show to take advantage of the numerous opportunities he was offered towards the end filming. He began to question who he really was, outside Outer Banks.
He says, “I have been John B for more time than I was Chase.” At 33 and playing a young man who has been what he is for the past 19 or 20 years, I had to find myself.
Stokes, who was 27 when he began the show, went to an internist and underwent “deep therapy.” His goal had been to maintain his same body as it had been at the time he first started. He says, “I was so wrong.”
I left the show… my liver and kidney were failing. “I had to deal with so many medical issues, and my mind was out of sync,” says the actor. It was important for him to get his bearings straight rather than just masking it and going back to work.
Stokes didn’t force himself to go to work. Stokes says he had blood tests done every two weeks and received TMS therapy (transcranial magnetic stimuli). For a man of his age, Stokes’ testosterone levels were “alarmingly” low. It took a lot to return to baseline and was a bit scary at first.
In the past month, Stokes has been able feel like himself once again. Stokes has become a therapist who is very religious and stays on top of his therapy because he knows that something’s wrong, but he didn’t have the time to investigate what. He knew that people thought he should take advantage of the momentum, but he could not continue as he had been.
“Unfortunately we have seen many great people die too early for continuing [on] and I still have much to live for.” The actor said, “I have many things I would like to achieve and do.”
Stokes did not want to move on until the issues were resolved. He admits, “Hindsight 2020 is the year I would have probably not been here much longer had I neglected my health. That’s a very jarring idea.” This knowledge has brought him joy, though, because he feels he is now aware of his limitations.
Stokes, having found a solid foundation for his career, is now moving forward on new projects. These include I Told the Sunset About You (his upcoming debut as a director) and Thunder Road (AMC’s forthcoming NASCAR show). He read the first script of the show before casting had even started. He immediately knew there was something special, and compared the feeling he felt when reading Outer Banks to that of his first time. He jokes: “I made Cliff Roberts and Taylor Elmore have lunch with myself after I forced my way down their throats.”
Stokes loves the show, but not just for the driving. He’s excited by that too. Over Zoom, he proudly displays a video of himself driving at 150 mph on a racetrack. It’s a very different creative process from his previous experience. He’s able to get a wider perspective on things than he could have in Outer Banks where actors did not receive the entire scripts up front.
I had a 3-hour discussion yesterday with our showrunner about characters. “Our writers are phenomenal,” says he. “I’m terrified. “I’m terrified. I have been in the Outer Banks for so long and I am now entering a completely different environment.”
Stokes is naturally bittersweet about closing his Outer Banks chapter. The show consistently has billions upon billions of viewers. This is not like a show I produced for a TV network that went well. “This show was a beast — it has quietly been one of Netflix’s most popular shows worldwide for the past five years,” says he.
“I never thought in a billion years that I’d be part of anything that has the impact this character and universe have created. Stokes says, “I’m grateful to have been a part something that brought hope during a time of confusion in the history of mankind.” “I am really proud of my messaging and storytelling and of being part of something which didn’t skirt around the edges but really tackled the issue head-on, as that is how I approach life.”
The actor is grateful as he heads towards the end of the press tour and the fan event for his show. The actor is now ready both emotionally and physically to continue his journey. Stokes says, “I’m feeling great for the very first time since a long while.”

Michael Cohen’s radio show, where he once appeared as a “Cheeto dusted cartoon villain”, was a public reunion of sorts between President Trump and the man who called him that and had testified in both court and in front of Congress.
Cohen’s prison sentence was the culmination a detente behind-the scenes that was unimaginable a few years back.
It was a very friendly interview. Only a few passing references were made to their turbulent pasts.
Cohen told Mr. Trump: “They weaponized me like no one has ever weaponized anyone before, and very few people have.”
He continued, “I appreciate the fact you have recanted all you’ve said.” It’s an important thing you did.
Cohen told CNN that he sent a new pardon request to the White House, which had previously been rejected by the former administration. He had not yet received a response, and would follow-up on Friday.
Cohen stated, “I took the same application and the same documents and rewrote that cover letter to remove the name of president Joe Biden. I then replaced it with President Donald Trump.” … The application is not on my list of things to do. … “I intend to contact you tomorrow to see what has happened. I sent it via FedEx and I have the receipt.”
Cohen is the latest Trump supporter to have a public fall-out but then find themselves in the good graces of the President. Elon Musk, Florida Governor and others are recent examples. Ron DeSantis.
The split with Cohen, however, was the most private. Cohen boasted he’d “take a shot” for President Trump and was at his side when Mr. Trump rose to prominence. Cohen testified in the criminal trial of Mr. Trump for hush funds 2024 after their breakup. This testimony helped Mr. Trump get convicted just when he tried to make a political comeback.
The Trump-Cohen fence repair
Since then, Cohen has criticized the prosecutors involved in the case – an admission which paved their way to reconciliation.
Cohen said that he had many conversations with the President over the last year, and he explained his decision to leave the White House in the first part of the interview.
Amnesia is not forgiveness. The past is not a myth. This does not imply that I’ve forgotten, or the past has not happened. “Forgiveness doesn’t mean erasing the past,” said he. It is having the courage and determination to not let yesterday dictate your tomorrow.
He was nostalgic when recalling a period when he had been one of Trump’s closest aides. “Boss remember when I used to be by your side?” he said at one stage.
It was opened with “Why can’t we be friends” from 1975, and ended with “Reunited, it feels so great,” a 1978 Peaches & Herb tune.
Cohen wrote a lengthy post Thursday on his newsletter to promote the interview. He said, despite their 15-year friendship becoming “political savagery,” they had remained close for over ten years.
Cohen writes: “The bad times didn’t come after the good times, so it doesn’t mean that they never existed.”
He said simply, “We forgiven.”
Before Thursday, the president made no public comments about Cohen. However, in several social media posts, he brought up some of Cohen’s former attorney’s statements that he was under pressure from prosecutors to testify in Mr. Trump’s criminal hush-money case as well as a civil fraud trial.
Highlights from the Trump-Cohen Split
Cohen became the main witness at Mr. Trump’s criminal trial for hush-money in 2024. The case resulted in 34 counts of felony conviction. In the end, he received no punishment.
Cohen, after days of probing questions from prosecutors and a brutal cross-examination by the prosecutors, placed then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at the heart of schemes to suppress the accounts of an adult movie actor and formerly Playboy model, who claimed they had sexual interactions with him during the 2016 election.
Cohen said that Trump had promised to repay the lawyer the money he fronted, and he kept him constantly informed of the behind-the scenes efforts made to suppress stories which the Trump campaign believed could harm the campaign.
Cohen said, “I was working at Mr. Trump’s direction and to his benefit.”
Cohen’s testimonies at that time seemed to mark the end of a relationship once close between him and his client. This was put to the ultimate test in 2018, when FBI agents raided Cohen’s home, office and hotel.
Cohen pleaded later guilty of lying to Congress regarding a Trump Tower Project in Russia, as well as campaign finance violations, in which he implicated President Trump in payments made to Stormy Daniels the adult movie star and Karen McDougal the Playboy’s playmate. The sentence was three years.
Cohen once said, “I sincerely f**king pray that this man goes to prison.” You better believe that I would like this man to rot in prison for the things he has done to my family.
Trump and Cohen make amends
Cohen’s testimony at his trial has changed since then. He is now closer to Donald Trump and insists that he was forced into testifying.
In a Substack blog post from January, he said: “I was pressured and forced to provide only information and testimony which would help the government build cases and obtain a judgement and convictions for President Trump.”
Cohen testified in front of Congress, alleging that Mr. Trump has a long history of lying about the assets’ value to obtain favorable terms of loan and tax advantages.
In a civil fraud trial held in New York in 2023, he gave a similar testimony. The court found that Trump’s companies and he had committed fraud for years by overstating his wealth. In that case, a New York court of appeals later overturned a judgment for $550 million against Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump asked the court to reverse the rest of the judgment.
Cohen’s 2020 tell-all book, Disloyal, the True Story of Former Attorney for President Donald J. Trump, was unrelenting in calling Trump an “organized criminal don” and a “master manipulator.”
Cohen wrote, in a foreshadowing of their future reconciliation, that he had a great deal of affection for Trump. He said, “I still do.”

It was hard to look away from them when they were shown at the Chanel Cruise Show 2026/27 in Biarritz, in April. Matthieu Blazy’s controversial shoes appeared as if someone stripped a classic shoe silhouette down to the sole and some thin straps. They were immediately dubbed one of the most bizarre fashion moments this season by the internet, but what I wanted to know was who would actually wear them.
Chanel’s sandals (with no soles) are the most stunning of this season.
We finally know the answer. Margaret Qualley wore barefooted shoes to the London Premiere of The Dog Stars, which gave them their very first red carpet experience. Danielle Goldberg styled Qualley’s look to be Chanel-inspired. The black dress featured a V-neck with long, flowing fringes. She also wore black nail polish to her toes. Her hair was left loose and the black shoes were the main focus of the night.
The new movie starring Jacob Elordi & Margaret Qualley has just been released.
These shoes are from Matthieu Blazy’s first Cruise Collection for Chanel, and they represent his playful interpretation. Blazy imagined them as a cross between shoes and jewelry for feet in a collection that was inspired by Biarritz and the sea, and the image of a woman emerging out of the water. Margaret Qualley is one of Chanel’s most recognisable brand ambassadors and it’s hard to think of anyone more suited for this type of fashion experiment. It is even more interesting to me to find out who the next person will be to wear them.

CINCINNATI – The Cincinnati Reds lost 67 out of 128 games in this season. But Thursday’s loss of 10-9 to the St. Louis Cardinals, was the most painful of them all. They let victory slip away on one of the most mundane of plays.
A win over the Cardinals on Thursday in the five-game finale of the series against a rival division club would have been meaningless in the long run for a team that has already made nonrefundable travel plans for the month of October. It was a warning that the team had drifted from its surprise run to the playoffs a year earlier.
Center fielder Dane Myers, one of few bright spots during a bleak season, dropped his team’s sixth victory as a deep flyball to left center bounced off of his glove. This allowed the Cardinals the opportunity to score both the winning and tying runs.
St. Louis added four runs to the score in the first inning, against relievers Brock Burke & Zach Maxwell. St. Louis won 10-9 after the Cardinals’ Jordan Walker caught the game-ending ball in right field. The Reds responded with their four own runs.
Myers walked, scored and defended the Reds in their four-run bottom ninth. But it’s a part of life; tomorrow we will wake up and continue to play.
In the ninth inning, there were 10 combined runs, five of which came from hits. There were also eight walks, two intentional, and one with bases loaded. A hit batter was recorded, as well as a replay failure and an Automated Ball-Strike Challenge that failed.
Myers’ performance was quite the opposite. Just when it looked like Burke would be able to get out of a tight spot after giving up the leadoff single, and then hitting Cardinals 2nd baseman Bryan Torres in order to score the winning run with no outs at the bottom of the 9th inning, Myers’s play brought the situation down.
Burke, who is left-handed, got Blaze Jordan, the third baseman, to fly to Myers, the center fielder, which moved the runners 90 feet. Then, Burke struck out Everson Pereira, the pinch-hitter, to get JJ Wetherholt, who also hits left-handed. Wetherholt’s fastball was thrown to the left center fielder TJ Friedl who had entered the game as a replacement in that half-inning. Friedl struggled with the sun to catch the ball.
The left field of Great American Ball Park can be difficult to play in mid-afternoon on days with bright sunshine and scattered clouds, such as Thursday.
Friedl shielded the ball with his glove, but it didn’t appear that he was able to catch it in midair. Myers, who was in the center, came to help, but the ball bounced from his glove and hit the wall. Both runners were able to score.
Myers explained that he was “shaded over” (toward left-field) quite a bit. We had discussed before the game the fact that the entire gap in which we were shaded belonged to him. Knowing the sun was bad, and that it would be loud at the end of the game for the final out, I decided to call him off.
Terry Francona, the Reds’ manager said that he is glad Myers took Friedl out of practice.
Francona stated that “(Myers’) glove was just a little dirty and the ball just slipped off.”
Alec Burleson, Cardinals’ first baseman, singled another run after an intentional walking to Ivan Herrera. The ball bounced off Michael Toglia’s glove and into the right field. Burke walked both the following batters including Joshua Baez, with all the bases full.
Burke pitched 13 pitches following Myers’ mistake before Francona turned to his bullpen, which he did not want to do because the team was trying to complete its 11th match in just 10 days before a trans-country flight as well as six away games on its next rest day.
Francona stated that Burke “probably had a bit of a letdown” because he thought not only was the inning finished, but the entire game. It was an incredibly difficult inning, starting with the leadoff strike and the hit batsman. “He came back with some good pitches when runners were at second and third, giving us a shot.”
Maxwell was called up this week from Triple A. He gave up a single that scored two runs to his first opponent before he got out of the game.
The Reds made matters worse by batting around in the bottom ninth with mostly two outs, beginning with Matt McLain’s lead-off walk. The Reds took a 5-4 advantage after his sixth-inning grandslam, as Cincinnati had only managed two runners in the Cardinals’ starter Michael McGreevy’s first five innings.
The Reds’ final out came after Friedl and Myers both struck out. Eugenio Suarez, a pinch hitter for the Reds, singled to score McLain and give him his 1,000th RBI. Cardinals reliever George Soriano walked Elly de La Cruz to load the bases. Sal Stewart was then at the plate, tied with Cardinals Walker in the MLB for RBIs.
Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol called in the closer Riley O’Brien. He gave up two runs to Stewart (and had 96 RBIs on the year) after walking the first two batters.
McLain, at the time, was five for fifteen in the series, and his season average had risen above.200, for the first since June. He smashed an O’Brien off-the-bat pitch at 102mph into deep right field. Walker’s position in the outfield, Cardinals no-doubles defence and Great American Ball Park’s shadier left field made the catch easy. The Cardinals won the game.
It was a great swing. McLain stated that Walker had made a great play. “It’s baseball. “Sometimes you can’t even hit him.”
The Reds learned the hard way that sometimes hitting the ball at an outfielder does not count as an out.

The Times reported that a federal probe into the case of former Rep. Eric Swalwell gained momentum after agents raided and seized Swalwell’s Washington residence over the weekend. They even temporarily held the former legislator at San Francisco International Airport.
Swalwell is a Democrat who hails from Dublin. He dropped out of California’s governor race in April and resigned his seat from Congress after denying allegations he had sexually assaulted a female former employee and acted inappropriately towards other women. Swalwell had been a frontrunner in the polls before he quit the race.
Sources claim that Swalwell had been held at SFO on Saturday for search and release purposes. Federal prosecutors have used civil rights laws to investigate his behavior as a Congressman. Separate investigations are being conducted by authorities in New York City and Los Angeles County.
Source: His house was raided by federal agents on Sunday based upon a search warrant issued in relation to a civil rights inquiry regarding the allegations of sexual assault.
According to court documents, investigators attempted to seize Swalwell’s MacBook Pro and white iPhone.
According to court documents, they sought these devices to determine whether Swalwell had violated federal law which makes it illegal for any person acting with official government authority willfully to deprive someone of constitutional rights.
Swalwell denied all wrongdoing. However, the allegations upended California’s governor race, and shocked Capitol Hill where both political parties were confronted by a culture that shrouded sexual indiscretion with secrecy.
Lonna Drewes said, at a press conference, that the former politician drugged her and sexually assaulted her in Beverly Hills in 2018. Drewes claimed she had met Swalwell at least three times while she was trying to grow her fashion software business and considering a career in politics.
Drewes believes Swalwell injected her wine on the third time. She claimed that they had been invited to attend a political gathering and she stopped in his room to get some paperwork.
She claimed to be incapacitated after only having one drink.
She said, “He choked and raped and as he choked I was unconscious and thought that I had died.” I did not consent sexual activity.”
Sara Azari was an attorney at Swalwell and denied Drewes’ description of the incident. She said that “two adults consenting to something, as we believe, does not violate the law.”
Swalwell and Azari did not immediately reply to comments.
Former Swalwell staffer told San Francisco Chronicle Swalwell started sending nude photos and messages to her after she joined his office. The woman was only 21 years old at the time.
According to The Chronicle, in September that same year she claimed she had drinks and blacked-out with Swalwell, then woke naked on Swalwell’s hotel bed.
She said that in 2024 when she was no longer working for Swalwell she went to a charity function honoring him and then met up with him afterward for drinks. According to The Chronicle, she was drunk but remembered Swalwell pushing himself on her and saying “No.” She pushed him off and told the Chronicle that this happened after she had attended a charity event honoring Swalwell.
Azari stated in April, Swalwell denies all accusations of sexual misconduct or assault. He will pursue “every possible legal remedy” to get back at those who make the allegations.
Azari stated that “These allegations are false, fabrications and offensive – a calculated political hit to ruin the reputation of an individual who spent over 20 years working in government.”
Swalwell was forced to leave the race for governor and Congress after the Chronicle’s and CNN’s reporting revealed his alleged activities.
Swalwell’s relationship with at least another woman raised concern among law enforcement officials about its possible national security implications.
Declassified White House documents, released on Monday by a task force of the White House reveal that Swalwell admitted to FBI investigators that in 2015 he was involved with a female who later turned out to be suspected Chinese spy.
Christine Fang (or Fang Fang) worked as a voluntary fundraiser for Swalwell’s congressional campaign. Swalwell severed ties with Fang when intelligence officials informed him and fellow members of Congress that Chinese agents were infiltrating the government. Swalwell has never been accused of any wrongdoing.