Jonathan Daviss leans again, throws his arms in entrance of him, and tilts his physique. “I JoJo pose on a regular basis,” he says whereas contorting his body in a pair of dark-blue saggy denims and a crisp denim jacket to imitate one in every of his favourite anime characters (and one he shares a reputation with): Jonathan “JoJo” Joestar of JoJo’s Weird Journey.
Daviss—who goes by JD—has been an anime fan for properly over a decade. It began when he was assigned obligatory studying in highschool and picked up Naruto. Instantly, he turned obsessed. “I went to Barnes & Noble and began shopping for the volumes,” he says whereas lounging on a sofa in a pink T-shirt within the inexperienced room of StyleCaster’s studio in New York Metropolis. “By shopping for, I imply, I’d sit in Barnes & Noble and browse them as a result of I didn’t have cash. That is the time the place they weren’t checking.”
Photographer: George Chinsee. Design: Stephanie Cui.
Daviss has come a great distance since he was studying manga without cost at Barnes & Noble. For the previous 4 years, he’s starred as Pope Heyward, the brains of a ragtag staff of treasure hunters and finest buddies on the coast of North Caroline, in Netflix’s teen drama sequence, Outer Banks. The sequence—which premiered the primary a part of its fourth season on October 10 and is about to return with its second half on November 7—was the catalyst that catapulted Daviss, together with the remainder of the solid, from unknown actors to Gen Z royalty. Nonetheless, after 4 seasons on the primary on Netflix’s high reveals listing and thousands and thousands of social media followers later, Daviss isn’t taking something as a right.
“My life modified after I booked the half as a result of unexpectedly I used to be capturing a TV present for Netflix in South Carolina,” he says. “That was the entire objective within the first place. The present doing properly, that modified my life otherwise. However by way of the factor I had been searching for, as soon as I used to be on that movie set, I used to be working. I used to be enveloped in making one thing come to life. That was the true objective.”
Photographer: George Chinsee. Design: Stephanie Cui.
Does it really feel bizarre to look again on what your life was like throughout that first season?I used to be 19, so I used to be principally a child. It was a giant transition for me. I by no means had a lead half earlier than. We didn’t know what this present might be like and the attain it might have. Each season since then, we’ve been making it with a mindset of, “No persons are truly gonna, watch.” Earlier than then, there have been no expectations.
What was your life like on the time earlier than the present? I used to be doing the artist wrestle. I used to be working two jobs. I labored at Saks Off fifth Avenue within the girls’s shoe division. I used to be additionally charging Chicken scooters on the facet for further money, sleeping on couches, simply making an attempt to make it occur. That starvation positively helped with the audition. I bear in mind considering to myself after the primary audition like, “I don’t know who else they might get in the event that they don’t select me. It might be loopy in the event that they solid anyone else.”
My life modified after I booked the half.
Outer Banks is now in Season 4. How does this season really feel totally different from previous seasons? It was us making an attempt to make it a return to kind and join with what audiences preferred within the first place. Quite a lot of it was ensuring we paid homage and respect to this friendship that was so vital within the first season.
Photographer: George Chinsee. Design: Stephanie Cui.
Photographer: George Chinsee. Design: Stephanie Cui.
When the Season 4 trailer got here out, there have been plenty of feedback from followers about how the Pogues spent the primary three seasons searching for the treasure solely to blow all of it the subsequent season. What was your response whenever you learn that within the script?We had been making an attempt to determine methods to make them poor once more, and when folks watch the present, they’ll perceive the way it bought to that time. There are positively some choices that get made in that first episode. However I’ve to continually need to remind myself that these youngsters are like 17. They’re not like 24 12 months olds who’ve made and misplaced cash. So far as I’m involved, if MC Hammer can lose all that cash, these youngsters can lose all that cash.
Season 4 additionally began with all six of the Pogues in relationships. How do you suppose Pope and Cleo are totally different than John B. and Sarah, and JJ and Kiara? I really feel like Pope and Cleo’s relationship is totally different in the best way Pope didn’t essentially desire a girlfriend on the time. I don’t suppose he needed to be with anyone. He was nonetheless fairly harm about the entire Kiara scenario, and he needed to study to heat as much as Cleo, and vice versa. Season 3 was about him getting over his first crush, and now he’s with someone who genuinely cares for him and has seen him via some actually onerous instances, who’s loyal and constant. Truthfully, he needs he might be extra like Cleo, who’s assured and really positive in herself. I feel he actually admires that about her. That is his first critical relationship and the primary girlfriend he’s ever had. He’s nonetheless studying methods to have a girlfriend, and he or she’s nonetheless studying methods to have a boyfriend who isn’t making an attempt to steal from her. It’s very cute. They’re in a really totally different sort of relationship than the opposite two {couples}.
Do you suppose they’re endgame?Completely. They’re my private endgame.
Photographer: George Chinsee. Design: Stephanie Cui.
There was an enormous demise in Season 4 with Terrance. What was your response whenever you first learn that within the script? It was insane. I didn’t know he would die so fast, nevertheless it positively pushes Cleo’s character into this place for the remainder of the present the place she’s on a revenge quest. That’s her father in plenty of methods. It makes it an actual private journey for Cleo. And due to that, it makes it an actual private journey for Pope. This isn’t like one of many different father deaths, the place you may’t actually do something about it. There’s an actual revenge facet to this one.
I bear in mind considering after the primary audition, ‘I don’t know who else they might get in the event that they don’t select me.’
Each season the Pogues get themselves into harmful conditions and so they all the time appear to make it out alive. Do you suppose there’s a chance a Pogue may ever die? These youngsters are like superheroes. I’m fairly positive they might survive an atomic bomb like cockroaches. Like all present, you may have hope [someone doesn’t die.] You’re keen on all these folks, and also you don’t wish to see something unhealthy occur to them.
On that subject, Season 4, Half 1 ends on a cliffhanger the place Pope and Sarah’s lives are at stake. What are you able to tease about how they survive?I’d say it will get extra harmful earlier than it doesn’t.
Photographer: George Chinsee. Design: Stephanie Cui.
Photographer: George Chinsee. Design: Stephanie Cui.
Season 4, Half 1 additionally ends with a cliffhanger about JJ studying the identification of his actual dad and mom, particularly his dad. What are you able to say about how that performs out in Half 2?It’s a extra private connection to this treasure they had been doing to simply pay their payments. Now unexpectedly, they’re implicated so closely that they don’t have any selection. It flips how JJ views the world. His dad’s not his dad. He didn’t have an important one to start out with. Now, we don’t know who this man is. We’re hoping we are able to all hold our crew collectively, and we don’t splinter off.
Have the creators talked about how lengthy they see the present operating for?They all the time mentioned it’s two trilogies, you recognize, they needed to do one other trilogy. Nevertheless it actually depends upon how the followers react to every season as they arrive out and what number of instances you wish to come again for it. We’d love to present the followers as a lot Outer Banks as they need.
How do you see the present ending?I don’t suppose Pope’s getting that scholarship. I’m gonna be trustworthy with you. I feel that scholarship is lengthy gone. I simply hope they will all stay completely satisfied lives. I hope they will all go into maturity and change into full-time treasure hunters as their occupation.
Photographer: George Chinsee. Design: Stephanie Cui.
I learn that you just directed some commercials for Outer Banks Season 4. How did that come about? It was simply an concept I had with the director about JJ’s constitution service, as a result of they’d a cellphone quantity. I used to be like, “It’d be humorous in case you do a type of commercials for it.” He was like, “You need to pitch that to Netflix. I’m positive they’d allow you to do it.” So I wrote six commercials, and I condensed them to 3, pitched them to Netflix with a pitch deck, we set our funds, and had been like, “Hey, this may be actually cool to do. I feel the followers would take pleasure in one thing like this. It’s humorous. It’s on-brand for the character.” They agreed. We shot that on a Sunday, bought all of the Pogues to learn off their enter on what could be humorous, and went in and shot it. I used to be so pleased with the tip end result. It was how I envisioned it. There’s one thing cathartic about writing one thing with your pals in thoughts and doing it similar to you thought it.
[Pope and Cleo] are my private endgame.
What was it prefer to direct your co-stars?It wasn’t as a lot directing them, however giving them solutions each now and again. However they form of knew. You act with folks for therefore lengthy, you recognize precisely what they’re going to do and you’ll plan round that. The primary time they got here on set, everyone was positively like, “Oh, director!” as a result of they’re your buddy and so they gotta provide you with slightly bit. However the entire thing nearly made me cry and tear up watching it occur. I wish to direct and proceed to do movies and shorts.
May you see your self directing an episode in Season 5?In the event that they name me tomorrow, I’d do it. Even when they are saying no, I’m gonna allow them to know I wish to.
Photographer: George Chinsee. Design: Stephanie Cui.
Do you may have any behind-the-scenes tales from doing stunts on the present?There was one time that was actually humorous the place we had been in Barbados, and we’re on slightly raft. Carlacia Grant, bless her coronary heart, was a rookie—a freshman, as I known as her on the time. She introduced her cellphone together with her on the raft, which is a giant no-no for anyone who is aware of. You allow your cellphone on the primary boat and are available get it whenever you’re accomplished. She was like, “No, I’ve a water-resistant bag.” I instructed her to go away her cellphone. She didn’t, and so she dunks herself within the water like everybody else, however she goes too far, and he or she flips over into the water, and her cellphone falls out of her pocket and into the center of the ocean. She’s like, “No!” She tried to leap within the water. We’re like, “Lacey…” What you don’t perceive about water is, whenever you’re in a ship, in case you drop one thing, it’s miles away earlier than you even lookup. She discovered it on her little app method on the market in the midst of the ocean. However she misplaced it ceaselessly. That was her welcome to the OBX second.
Are there any roles that folks could be shocked you’ve auditioned for? I used to be nearly in Creed with Michael B Jordan. I learn for the primary Spider-Man film. I learn for Peter’s buddy, Ned. I’ve been making an attempt to attend for Miles Morales. They’re not doing Miles but, I promise you. As a result of in the event that they did, I’d be at Sony headquarters in a heartbeat like, “Let me audition.” I needed that Transformers film that Anthony Ramos did. However aside from that, you’re taking what you’re given. You retain shifting.
Outer Banks Season 4, Half 2 premieres on November 7, 2024.
Photographer: George ChinseeGraphic Designer: Stephanie CuiStylist: Luca KingstonGrooming: Jessica Smalls
