Madelyn Cline Has Clearly Transformed Over The Years

The following article includes mentions of eating disorders, mental illness, and an abusive relationship.

Many know her as Sarah Cameron, the Kook-turned-Pogue princess on Netflix's "Outer Banks" who stole John B's heart and found her way to buried treasure. Madelyn Cline skyrocketed to fame with her role in the modern-day adventure series where the affluent (known as Kooks) are at odds with the middle to lower class (the Pogues) in a fight to find centuries-old treasures in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Cline quickly became a household name after the series debuted in 2020, but her journey to fame started over a decade ago when she was just a child. The actor chased a professional career for most of her life, and her pursuits paid off. Before she landed her recurring role on Netflix, the star acted in several television series and films, including a small role in "Stranger Things" in 2017. 

Her big-screen roles may have made her a star, but don't let Cline's red-carpet glamour and stunning beauty fool you. She's just as comfortable in a pair of jeans at a horse stable. "When I'm riding, I feel very centered," she told Vogue. Horseback riding is something Cline does to escape the dog-eat-dog-world of Hollywood, where personal relationships are next-day news. Not only is Cline accustomed to her romantic relationships beginning and ending in the public eye (she dated and later split with her co-star Chase Stokes), but she doesn't shy away from talking about the subjects that make us inherently human. From her journey to stardom, her self-image, her love life, and beyond, Madelyn Cline has clearly transformed over the years.

As with many other A-listers, Madelyn Cline has dealt with several ups and downs with her self-image. The "Outer Banks" bombshell admitted to Women's Health that she has struggled with her relationship with food and exercise throughout her life. "Self-love is a constant journey," she explained. "When I was younger I did struggle with eating disorders, specifically when I was a teenager. I think I was around 16 when I started working out a lot," she said. "I would wake up every morning at 5 a.m. and I would work out for 30 minutes. It was super rigorous cardio every day."

Cline admitted that she limited her eating in addition to over-exercising. "It turned into not feeding myself protein and not feeding my body what it needed when I was working out so much," she explained. Her desire for a specific body image impacted her whole life, and she experienced bouts of anger until she ultimately accepted that her goals were impossible to attain. "There's nothing wrong with you, you're just not built that way, and that's perfectly fine," she later accepted.

Cline says she was able to get back on a positive path, with the help of her mother. "She would stand there in the mirror with me and we would list out things that I liked about my body," she said. "After that repetition those things became solidified in my mind. I like my curves, I like my hips, and after a while I started to love my body. I became so much happier."

Madelyn Cline's journey from the South to Los Angeles was full of growing pains, and not just in the acting world. The "Originals" star spoke to Glamour about her transition, admitting that a toxic relationship separated her from those closest to her. "When I first moved out here [to LA], I was kind of dealing with [an] abusive relationship and because of that relationship I had isolated myself from a lot of friends, it hurt a lot of people," she admitted. When it ended, Cline admitted she didn't know who or what to turn to in the healing process.

Cline revealed she didn't recognize herself anymore, and felt afraid to apologize to her friends for prioritizing an unhealthy relationship over them. "I completely changed as a person, I feel like for this person," she explained. But the actor eventually smoothed things over by reaching out and asking for forgiveness to reconnect with her core group of friends. "I fully expected to have the relationship and that bridge be burned, and it didn't," she said." ... It's so much easier to have a conversation and ask for forgiveness or understanding and give that, than it is to hold a grudge."

After landing small roles in television series like "Stranger Things" and "The Originals," Madelyn Cline got her first breakout role when she starred in "Boy Erased" in 2018. The actor landed the supporting role of Chloe in the film, alongside lead actors like Russell Crowe, Lucas Hedges, and Nicole Kidman. The film, which is based on a true story, follows a young man's experience in a conversion camp, which his conservative parents send him to when they learn that he is gay.

The role cemented Cline's reputation as a formidable actor, with the film earning 49 award nominations, including two Golden Globe nods. But getting to work with such giant names in Hollywood was a surreal moment for the star. "That was intimidating for sure," she told Vogue. "That was definitely a fangirl moment for me but when you're in those situations you don't want to fangirl too hard because they're your co-workers ... we're all collaborating so you kind of have that internal freak out for a second and then, you know, you get back to business."

With seasoned actors to look up to while filming the film, Cline did her best to absorb their acting methods and hone in on her craft. " ... You learn so much just by watching them and being around and being able to pick their brain for a little bit and if anything, it's encouraging and it makes you want to continue to work and improve."

Everyone loves it when an on-screen love story becomes a real-life relationship, and no one was more excited than "Outer Banks" fans when Madelyn Cline and Chase Stokes' professional relationship turned into a romantic one. The co-stars, who fell in love with each other during Season 1 of the Netflix show, started dating in 2020. The pair went on to star in Kygo and Donna Summer's 2020 hit music video for "Hot Stuff" and heated things up at the 2021 MTV Movie Awards by sharing a smooch after winning "Best Kiss." The couple seemed head over heels at the start of their relationship, with Stokes even telling Us Weekly at the time, "She's one of my favorite people on planet Earth." 

The two were able to tap into their roles as Sarah Cameron and John B. Routledge without any lingering real-life relationship problems holding them back, and the couple shared in their aim to keep things professional on-set. "Just as a rule we never bring anything negatively to set," Cline told Entertainment Tonight. She also added that their strong friendship laid a solid foundation for their relationship. 

Whether it was talking through a difficult scene, or giving each other space, the co-stars found a way to successfully navigate their emotions on the set. "It's whatever your partner needs at the time and I really really love that and respect that about him and our relationship," she explained.

Madelyn Cline's chemistry with her cast mates onscreen is just as genuine in real life. The "Originals" star admitted she spent the majority of her time alongside her "Outer Banks" co-stars during the COVID-19 pandemic, and they would often get together for movie nights. "I'm lucky because one of my castmates, Drew [Starkey] lives upstairs. We live in the same building so we're able to hang out and I've got a couple of my castmates bumming it with me right now, so I'm not completely alone," she told Glamour in 2020. 

Cline admitted that having such a close-knit connection with her cast and crew was a win-win situation. She and her co-stars were in relatively similar situations in their careers after landing roles on the show, which allowed them to lean on each other as the show became an overnight sensation. Fans of the show were more than happy to be readily updated on their on and off-screen shenanigans together, as Cline often posted photo dumps featuring her goofing off alongside her cast mates.

"We all kind of started in the same place when we got the show," she explained in an interview with Grazia magazine. "And we just stuck together. We're all going through the same thing and it just helps to have people around you who understand and who are there for you. We keep each other grounded and we hype each other up. We're all each other's best hype man."