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The Ending of 'Fire Island' Was Originally Much Wetter

Hint: It involves Bowen Yang jumping off the Pines ferry.

Las Culturistas Readers got some behind-the-scenes tea from the set of Hulu's Fire Island.

On the latest episode of Las Culturistas — the popular podcast hosted by besties and Fire Island co-stars Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers — the duo had on The White Lotus star Meghann Fahy. The stage and screen actress talked about everything from being in Next to Normal on Broadway to what it was like to film the second season of The White Lotus in the paradisial setting of Sicily.

While filming The White Lotus, Fahy recalled shooting the season's opening scene where her character, after relaxing on the beach, swims out to the sea, only to encounter a dead body floating in the water. Fahy talked about how exhausting it was to film swimming in the sea and then running on the beach multiple times, and her story reminded Rogers of a scene in Fire Island that they almost filmed:

"At the end of Fire Island, the original climax was going to be: So Bowen gets on the ferry and rides away," Rogers revealed to Fahy. "And he's going home, and there was going to be a scene where he jumps off the ferry and had to swim to James Scully in the water, and they were going to have a romantic moment."

For those who have seen the Gotham Award-winning film, you remember in the final version, Yang's character, Howie, does board the Pines ferry back to the mainland, but his housemates hire a water taxi to chase him, resulting in Howie and Charlie (James Scully) having a romantic reunion on the dock.

Yang explained they nixed the original "big rom-com moment" because the water in the bay was "too shallow" for him to jump 20 feet up from the water. Plus, he said the water was "just putrid, rancid."

The scene would have been an exhausting one to film, with Yang most likely having to do multiple takes of jumping off the ferry, so ultimately the SNL cast member said he was "very glad" he didn't have to go through with it.

Fire Island is available now on Hulu. Listen to the Las Culturistas episode below (the Fire Island ferry filming talk starts around the 1:10 mark).

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