OUTER BANK'S RUDY PANKOW [IN PRINT]

INTERVIEW BY CLARA SEELY-KATZ

Rudy Pankow is nothing like his rash and emotionally stunted character, JJ, from the widely loved Netflix original Outer Banks (season two streaming now). His Instagram is peppered with majestic nature shots, smiling selfies, and of course, lots of snapshots from filming the show capturing him and his friends having a good time in the beautiful North Carolina Outer Banks.

PHOTOGRAPHER: IRVIN RIVERA

Pankow is an actor in the industry purely for the craft, wanting to learn about others and about life by entirely throwing himself into his roles. Whether in a student film, a movie or even on the stage, Pankow seems enthused about every role he has played and what the future might have in store for him.

Pankow was an absolute joy to talk to. In our conversation, we spoke in-depth about what it means to first move to Los Angeles as a creative and how the city has a certain kind of magic. We discussed what might be in store for the young actor in the future and how where he has been has shaped who he is today.

STYLING: MONTY JACKSON @ A FRAME AGENCY, GROOMING: BLONDIE @EXCLUSIVE ARTISTS USING MAC COSMETICS, R+CO, CREATIVE DIRECTION: PHIL LIMPRASERTWONG, STYLING ASST: JAKE MITCHELL

I love backpacking and hiking and camping and nature in general, and I noticed on Instagram you feature yourself surrounded by nature. What draws you specifically to being outdoors?

What draws me specifically to nature is the fact that you can dive into your connection with everything. I ask myself so often, what is it about nature? Why do I love it so much? And I think there are multiple reasons. I find myself drawn to nature for different reasons, but I think the ultimate reason is that nature doesn't ask anything of you. You can just be. It always will just be. It's always gonna be waiting for you when you go out there, and if you're comfortable with yourself out in nature, I feel like you can be comfortable anywhere.

So jumping off of that, what is your favorite national/state park?

I don't know if I have one favorite. It definitely changes depending on what I am feeling and what I am trying to connect with. If I had to say right now, I think my favorite is Zion. It is truly such a special place. I haven't been to all of the state parks yet, but that is for sure something I am going to follow up on.

Have you hiked Angel’s Landing in Zion?

I actually have not hiked angels landing. We did a hike around Angel's Landing, but Angel's Landing was, at the time, treacherous. They said it wasn't the right conditions to hike it. Also, I've heard it's pretty hardcore. I still haven't done it, but I think it's on the bucket list. So I'll just have to go back.

If you had to choose only one for the rest of your life, would you only be able to go to the desert or the mountains?

Mountains, for sure.

After growing up in Alaska, how was moving to Los Angeles like for you?

LA has grown on me. I mean, I'm not saying that it's definitely a place where I want to be for my entire life. But at first, LA was definitely a beast of a place to me, and now it's kind of growing into less of an intimidating thing. I am finding a rhythm in the city and of things. At first, it was like, I don't know anybody here, I'm gonna have to have an intuition about people. I wanted to be careful, but I didn't want to be judgmental. There are so many people that you can connect with. I think that is the true beauty of LA. I think it can also be the most isolating part. When there are so many people with different motives and goals, nobody wants to trust each other. That's the most challenging part about LA. The city is great; it's sometimes just finding the type of person that's also looking for friends and genuinely trying to connect that can be tricky.

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Outer Banks Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix