On a crisp fall morning, a black truck races down a tree-lined road, narrowly missing an oncoming SUV. As it swerves and attempts to flee, a third vehicle boxes it in, and the truck slams head-first into a nearby pine.
This scene could’ve been filmed on the backlot of some Hollywood studio or in front of a green screen. But the high-octane moment was captured right in the forests of coastal North Carolina, where Kevin Williamson’s new crime drama The Waterfront is set.
The series — based on a true story — is exclusively filmed in and around Wilmington, which has been home to Williamson’s heart-pounding projects since Scream launched his career in 1996. “I love North Carolina,” Williamson, who hails from the area, tells Tudum. “I would shoot everything here if I could.”
On a walk along the waterfront of Southport in November 2024, the prolific writer-director points to various locations that hold a special place in his heart and oeuvre: The dock in front of him is where many a heartfelt Dawson’s Creek conversation unfolded. The abode behind him was home to college student Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) in I Know What You Did Last Summer. The teen slasher’s dockside eatery (where Freddie Prinze Jr.’s Ray Bronson worked) is now the fish house in The Waterfront.
In the middle of all these memories stands the house where The Waterfront’s Peyton (Danielle Campbell) and Jenna (Humberly González) share their most important scene. What could be a soapy showdown turns into something much more meaningful and mature. The same could be said about The Waterfront itself. The series isn’t just a homecoming for Williamson, but something “more adult” altogether, he says. “It’s an escalation of other stuff I’ve done. It’s me looking back on my life growing up. It’s reflection, it’s nostalgic, it’s a little bit of a memory piece.”
The Waterfront is inspired by Williamson’s real-life family history. Like the series’ gruff patriarch Harlan Buckley (Holt McCallany), Williamson’s own father “got tempted to do some things that weren’t so legal and got him in some trouble.” Unlike Harlan, Williamson’s dad wasn’t a key member of an organized crime syndicate. “My dad was a very, very good man. He was a fisherman,” Williamson says.
In fact, the showrunner comes from a long line of fishermen. But, in the 1980s, fishing started to disappear in the region and Williamson’s father couldn’t afford to feed his family. “So someone came along and said, ‘If you do this one thing, you can make all this money.’ And it was hard to say no.” Williamson’s father agreed to run drugs on his fishing trawler. “He got caught, he served his time, he got out, and I graduated,” the writer says.
Although telling this very personal story was always in the back of Williamson’s mind, it was difficult to cast Harlan. “How do you cast Superman?” Williamson quips. But, McCallany’s deep understanding of the character won him the job. The actor tells Tudum he felt an intense “responsibility” in portraying someone so integral to Williamson. “I knew it was a deeply personal story for Kevin and that I had a crucially important part in that story. I really wanted to do the role justice.” .
McCallany — and his fellow actors — weren’t only required to live up to Williamson’s real family, but also his most vibrant childhood recollections. For example, Episode 1’s petrifying shark scene was based on the writer’s scariest boyhood memory. At 10 years old, Williamson went out on a boat with his father and uncle. “We woke up one morning — as far as you could see, there were sharks,” he explains. “My uncle held me over to see them. It terrified me. That one little moment always stayed in my head. It traumatized me to such a degree that I knew one day I was going to write that scene.”
After speaking with Williamson, members of The Waterfront’s cast quickly realized “there’s a piece of him” in each character, actor Melissa Benoist tells Tudum: Buckley matriarch Belle (Maria Bello) is a testament to Williamson’s love for his mother. Peyton represents his appreciation for strong women. Benoist’s troubled Buckley daughter, Bree, allows him to explore how broken people put themselves back together. “It was all the more motivating and inspiring because Kevin was being so brave and vulnerable with us. He was sharing a lot,” Benoist says. “All of us just wanted to do right by him.”
Throughout production, the writer would often point out connections between his past projects and current The Waterfront filming locations. “It’s just such a full-circle moment for him,” horror movie fan Gonzalez tells Tudum. “He would be like, ‘Do you know where you’re sitting? This is where that I Know What You Did Last Summer scene happened.’ It was such a fan moment for me. I was like ‘I’m literally talking to the Kevin Williamson, where the movie was shot. Now I’m filming a show here!’ ”
After months exploring Williamson’s Wilmington, the entire cast came to love the city as much as their showrunner does. Their group chat — “It’s called ‘Not Dawson’s Creek,’ ” reveals Gonzalez — keeps communication going after months of group dinners during filming. “We had three restaurants that all of us would go to. Every night, it would be like, ‘Oh, who wants to go to Seabird?’ Then five of us would go, and you’d end up seeing someone else there. It was this summer camp vibe,” Benoist says. “That city is so beautiful. It’s very easy to romanticize.”
Williamson is proud to share a personal slice of his home with the rest of the world with The Waterfront Season 1, now streaming. “It’s been exciting because when you’re in the middle of production, it’s so myopic. You’re so focused on what you’re doing that day, in that moment,” he says. “To sit back, watch it, and see all these performances come together is so great. I love this cast.”
Additional reporting by Chancellor Agard.
