Lifelong Learning with Rudy Pankow

When Netflix released the first season of its hit series Outer Banks in April 2020, it proved to be the perfect antidote to weeks of lockdown monotony. Set on the eponymous island chain off the coast of North Carolina, the show offered gorgeous locales, teenage camaraderie, and, thanks to a plot revolving around a hunt for sunken treasure, plenty of adventure to viewers who had mostly spent the better part of a month trapped alone in their own homes. The show was an instant success, lauded by critics for its propulsive and engaging drama, and quickly became a regular on Netflix's top ten list. Three years later, the cast and crew recently celebrated the latest season with an immersive daylong experience and music festival, complete with performances by Khalid, Lil Baby, and alt-J; a Kildare Surf Shop featuring an exclusive capsule collection from American Eagle; and a recreation of The Wreck, a popular restaurant on the series. For Rudy Pankow, who plays the troubled JJ Maybank, the event, which was open to the public with complimentary tickets that were snatched up in minutes, offered an incomparable opportunity to connect with the passionate audience. "It's always fun to see a positive and supportive response in a group setting," he says. "That was completely new for me to see the appreciation of fans really come through. I hope they had fun."

If the breakout popularity of Outer Banks has come seemingly out of nowhere, the same is even truer for its young stars, including Chase Stokes, Madelyn Cline, Madison Bailey, and Jonathan Daviss alongside Pankow as the central Pogues, a self-appointed nickname for the blue-collar locals who set themselves apart from the area's wealthy summertime vacationers, known as Kooks. Across three seasons, the gang has survived hurricanes, murder accusations, and countless life-or-death situations in pursuit of various legendary treasures, the latest being the mythical city of El Dorado. The show's plot is dense with twists and turns, but at its heart lie the foundations of a classic teen drama: love triangles, academic obligations, and especially parental strife. Pankow's JJ is particularly complicated, with an absentee father who physically abuses him before abandoning him and an emotional intensity that feels ready to snap at any moment. Having spent several years in the role, the 24-year-old actor says his character’s development has been especially fulfilling this season. "JJ evolves just like any other person everyone in life, but I think it's confusing," he explains. "I think JJ is getting to a confusing point in his life where the fear is no longer, 'Oh I'm afraid of when I grow up.' He's grown up, and that's scary. He's just thrown into the deep end with responsibilities by himself."

By now, Pankow and JJ feel inextricably linked, but the actor explains that he originally went through nearly a dozen rounds reading for several different roles when he first began discussions for Outer Banks. "It really helped me shape what this show was going to be in my head because I auditioned for three characters and I got to feel the energy in each and what their role was in the story," he recalls. "We're all just chess pieces in a bigger story." Still, when co-creator Jonas Pate texted him to ask which character he felt most connected with, the answer was obvious. Pankow says he related to the complex dual nature of JJ, who has an innocent effervescence but is shadowed by pain, anger, and fear. "I think there's this feeling of running from growing up a little bit, but at the same time, you know you have to. There's moments in your life where you really do have to grow up and be a responsible person," he adds. "I was also drawn to that love of having fun, while still suppressing all these responsibilities, this trauma, this abusive father. I feel like that's something that we all share as people. We're like, 'I really wish I had a different hand,' but the key is you need to have the most amount of fun no matter what hand you’re dealt. I love that about JJ a lot, that he's like, 'Let me make the most of it.'"

On the heels of his breakout role, Pankow is now on the cusp of a new stage in his career, with a number of projects expected later this year, including the lead role in the forthcoming film Chocolate Lizards alongside Thomas Haden Church, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Bruce Dern. As Erwin, an aspiring actor who finds new purpose working on an oil rig in a tiny town in Texas after disastrously getting fired from his first big job, Pankow was able to mine his own recent history to capture both the thrill and the pressure of that big break. "I actually loved to think Erwin was a better actor than myself," he laughs. "I liked giving him that sense of, 'Yeah, I earned this,' but you see this starstruck-ness and these nerves because this is still one of his biggest jobs and he's been working hard. It did take me back to when you book something and all of a sudden you see the trailers, you see the amount of people, you see the amount of extras, and you're like, 'Does it feel like this amount of pressure every time that you have an acting role?'"

Still, Pankow holds his own and carries the film alongside his veteran castmates, and says that he focused on relishing the experience and learning as much as possible from them. "You've seen them catch lightning in a bottle and you want to know the secret—and it's like Kung Fu Panda, the secret is yourself," he says. "You just need to look at that co-star and trust that we're here for the same purpose, which is telling the story as beautifully and truly and honestly as we possibly can."

Much like Erwin, Pankow sees himself as a perpetual student, continuing a process of growth that began when he was a high school student in Ketchikan, a small town on Alaska's Inside Passage best known as a waypoint for cruises headed north. After years of watching his brother rehearse for school plays, he says he only realized during his senior year the power that acting could have. "I was laughing at him playing make believe but then I came around to find that, sure, you can call it pretending, but they're living," he recalls of his epiphany. "There's a life to everything on stage, there's a life to everything on film, and that clicked really late in my brain." He credits a two-line part as a chimney sweep in Mary Poppins with setting him on his current path. "That's when I realized how fun it was and how much I enjoyed playing and being real and being truthful. It clicked in my brain where it was like, 'Oh, I'm not just going on stage for a brief moment, I am the chimney sweep.'"

With the support of his parents, he decided to take a gap year and move to Los Angeles. Soon after, Pankow attended a workshop headed by Larry Moss, the legendary acting coach who trained under Stella Adler and Sanford Meisner and has worked closely with Leonardo DiCaprio, Hilary Swank, Tobey Maguire, and many others. Pankow calls Moss a "guru" and says he has been inspired by him to continuously hone his craft every chance he gets. "When you see him tune people to the perfect pitch and all of a sudden you're watching and you're crying and laughing and breathing with the person on stage—that is how well Larry Moss did his job," he says. "What Larry teaches is more of a practice, like meditation a little bit, where acting is not instantaneous. It's not, snap the fingers and you have it. It's definitely more, sit, think, feel. What are you trying to say? What are you trying to get? All those cliché actor things that everyone says, he has a way of wording it differently and getting your brain to connect to that."

Outer Banks was renewed for a fourth season just before its latest premiere and Pankow is set to pick up the hunt for El Dorado soon, but it is clear that, alongside the hit series, he already has a broader plan in place for the work he wants to create. Returning again and again to the importance of taking care and consideration for oneself, he says his hope is to use his platform to inspire others who might see a little of themselves in the characters he plays on screen. "I think what really draws me to the craft right now is when somebody watches a performance, they want to see a little bit of an answer," he says. "You're never going to fully understand life as it is, but [I like] playing characters that really do educate others. It's not teaching directly, it's teaching secondhand, where they're watching someone go through it. I think those are the types of roles that I'm really drawn to."

Pankow's final advice on his approach to acting could apply as meaningfully to life itself. "Sometimes there's so much to care about that you can start caring about the wrong stuff," he adds. "You have to navigate what your goal really is and your true purpose is as an artist. When I say 'care,' you need to care about yourself and what you want to tell rather than what everyone else might want you to do."

Outer Banks is now streaming on Netflix.

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