For Madelyn Cline, fame came with a White Claw.

The Outer Banks star was sitting in a Los Angeles park with a friend back in 2020, when she was recognized by a fan for the first time. “I saw this car drive by once, twice and then a third time,” Cline tells Tudum at the London Hotel in West Hollywood. Feeling creeped out, the actor asked her friend if they could leave. “We start grabbing our stuff and walking to our car and these boys come out of their car and walk towards us. They hand me a White Claw and they’re like, ‘Can we have a picture? You’re from that show!’ And then it hit me. That was the first time that had ever happened. I took the White Claw and I took the picture.”

Now, a little more than two years (and countless photos with fans) later, Cline is fast becoming one of the most in-demand young actors in Hollywood. The 25-year-old, who left college in South Carolina to pursue an acting career, has two seasons of Netflix’s teen adventure drama Outer Banks under her wing (with a third arriving Feb. 23) and is quickly racking up rising young star experiences  — like employing her own glam team, traveling the world and booking fashion brand partnerships — much of which she shares with her 14 million enthusiastic Instagram followers. 

Sitting across from her in full glam/working professional mode, Cline is every bit a Series Star, but also the epitome of chill vibes: Every now and then she’ll let a yawn slip out or make a casual quip about her shapewear being too tight. “I’m still learning how to live on my own and be an adult,” she admits. “But now it’s filled with things like [press days and photo shoots] that I had always dreamed about doing.” 

The actor, known as Maddie to friends and loved ones, has a natural charm that effervesces on-screen and off, which is part of why fans are obsessed with her Kook-turned-Pogue character Sarah Cameron on Outer Banks. “These kids, they really go through it,” Cline says of the upcoming third season, which continues to follow the Pogues’ quest for gold and Sarah’s turbulent relationship with her family. “Sarah’s been through a lot.”

Cline’s own upbringing was definitely less perilous, though it certainly had its share of adventure. Born and raised just outside of Charleston in Goose Creek, South Carolina, her interest in pop culture and entertainment was piqued from an early age, and her mom, Pam, an estate agent and her father Mark, an engineer, encouraged their only child’s creative pursuits.

“It wasn’t an exact moment I can pinpoint, more a growing fascination and then kind of [an] obsession,” she says about her motivation to try her hand at acting. “I had little characters I would dress up and play, and I would put on little skits with friends.” 

Cline’s first professional paychecks came from modeling gigs and TV commercials for brands including T-Mobile. She was six weeks into her freshman year at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina, when she decided to move across the country to pursue acting full-time in Los Angeles.

“I definitely like to think that everything happens for a reason, but at the same time, I’m too self-doubtful to fully believe that,” she admits. Her first year in Los Angeles wasn’t without its challenges — sleeping in her car, living in crappy apartments and working minimum wage jobs — but unlike the majority of people who move to Hollywood with stars in their eyes and nothing to show for it, Cline soon became a fully fledged working actor with guest roles in Vice Principals, The Originals and, in 2017, a two-episode stint in Season 2 of Stranger Things.

“I was so excited to be on that show and really nervous to meet everyone,” says Cline. “It was the biggest set I’d ever been on, which was really intimidating. It was an overnight shoot and a costume party–type scene where Nancy [Natalia Dyer] and Steve [Joe Keery] break up. I had the greatest time.” 

In 2018 Cline booked Outer Banks. The series, about treasure-hunting teens from opposite social sectors growing up in the barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina, became an instant hit and made its stars almost overnight celebrities when it premiered in April 2020. “Because we’ve come up together, we’ve all gone through the same things,” says Cline of the cast’s tight-knit bond. “That’s really helpful and lovely.” She adds that she’s so grateful for everything the show’s given her — the opportunity to embody a character she loves for 30 episodes, so far, and exposure that helped her land a role in last year’s starry ensemble whodunit Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. 

On set of the 2022 Knives Out sequel, Cline felt like a sponge, soaking up “as much as I possibly could,” from her co-stars, including Daniel Craig, Kate Hudson and Janelle Monáe. “I got to watch them in their element, doing what they do,” she says. “They're all so free, and really, really nice and professional — everything I want to emulate as an actor.” Cline also got to play up her comedic talents and is personally responsible for her character Whiskey’s memorable mascara-tinted, tear-stained cheeks. “I was like, ‘If she’s crying about Duke [her boyfriend, played by Dave Bautista], I want it to be comedy. I want [her makeup] running down her face. I want her to look like an absolute mess. I want the hair extension strips to be showing. I want her to have one in her hand.’ I wanted her to be so disheveled just because it was so funny. It was just so unhinged. But I was afraid to do too much at first, so when I came out [with slightly smudged eyes], [director] Rian Johnson was like, ‘OK, if you're going to do that, you need to go 1,000%.’ So we just went full Alice Cooper. It was fun.”

Smeared makeup aside, Cline’s experience making Glass Onion — which was filmed on location in Greece and was also all over social media — was pretty much a glamorous five-star vacation compared to the dirt, grime and amped-up intensity involved in filming the new season of Outer Banks. Indeed, Cline and her co-stars got so filthy on the job, she jokes: “I don't want to talk about it.”

“When we’re not actually truly [covered in real mud and dirt], they put furniture polish or fake soot on us,” she says, referring to Season 3’s realistic-looking grime. “Lots of different things go into making us look very, very dirty. I’m going to be honest with you, some of this makeup that they used did not wash off for days. I would be walking around on my off days looking filthy, because my soap and water wasn’t cutting it.” 

What else would we expect from a show that, over the last two seasons, has consistently raised the stakes for its adventurous, frequently-in-peril young characters? But in addition to the reliably action-heavy storyline, Season 3 finally offered Cline an opportunity to delve into a softer and more complex side of Sarah. “Season 1 was bridging the gap between two different worlds,” she explains. “The adventure took off from there and then, in finding her footing and her voice, came some conflict, which happens sometimes when you speak up about things and others disagree.”

In the new season Sarah is once again caught between two worlds, dealing with the stress and trauma triggered by the actions of her villainous father, Ward (Charles Esten), and her troubled brother, Rafe (Drew Starkey), who do not understand her love for John B (Chase Stokes) and the rest of her friend group from the poorer part of town, the Pogues. “Her journey has been shedding an old part of herself,” says Cline. “This year with Sarah, we hit an emotional wall. I was really happy to do a little bit of internal work on her. We slow down and see some of the effects of the things she’s gone through the past couple seasons. I was really excited the writers gave that to me, because you can’t have all this go-go-go without hitting a wall at some point.”

One special element in that on-screen exploration involved Cline temporarily taking over voice-over reins from co-star Stokes to narrate two Season 3 episodes — a first on Outer Banks. “I was really, really excited that they trusted me with it this year,” she says of the new narration. “It's always been John B’s, but Sarah’s journey is kind of internal [this season], and a voice-over feels like the voice in your head — it’s very personal. Sarah faces a lot of emotional challenges and some decisions that are not easy, so I’m grateful for it because it lets the audience into her thoughts and feelings and that’s helpful. It’s a very cool process to be a part of.”

Not that that means Sarah (and Cline) endure any less adventure or dicey moments in the upcoming season. Relationships, et al., are tested, treasure is (of course) hunted and these sun-soaked teens somehow remain in constant danger. “We always have to add a little bit of trauma to the mix,” Cline jokes of the sky-high stakes. “I love that she’s part of the Pogues and now in on the action. She’s tough. She’s growing a thick skin and she’s not afraid to get dirty and be a badass.”

And with Season 4 officially greenlit during Outer Banks fan experience event, Poguelandia, Cline has some theories about what the future might hold for Sarah. “I have high hopes,” she says coyly. “We end [Season 3] on an interesting note. I mean, it’s Outer Banks — it’s adventure, always. I’m really curious to see where the story goes. Really, really curious.”

As for her own trajectory, once she wraps up the current promotional bonanza, Cline is hoping for a little downtime. “Outer Banks is really physically and emotionally challenging,” she says. “You have to give your body the rest that it needs, take naps, vegetate a little bit. I’m a vegetation-type person — I love to just sit and let my mind be empty. I’ll play a silly little game, watch some silly little TV, scroll on silly little TikTok. That kind of downtime is what recharges me.”

Looking ahead, Cline hopes to continue to flex a variety of different acting muscles. “I would love to do a period piece,” she says. “I always thought Kim Novak was really cool. I’d love to do a psychological thriller or a rom-com. I had such a good time playing comedy on Glass Onion — the physical comedy of it all — I’d love to do that more. People tell me I have similar energy to Lisa Kudrow. I’ve always thought I was the Phoebe of the Friends group, so I’ll take it.”

Outer Banks Season 3 premieres Feb. 23. 

The Outer Banks Season 3 Trailer Just Washed AshorePoguelandia is not quite the paradise the Pogues hoped.