A second TV production filming in the area will no longer use space at the Charleston Rifle Club in light of the all-white social club’s ongoing membership controversy.

Last week, a representative from Netflix said that the production of OBX will no longer rent a field owned by the club as a parking lot for crew filming in the area.

The show, which is set in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, initially moved filming to the Charleston area over provisions of N.C.’s “Bathroom Bill” law that remain in effect despite efforts to scrub the anti-LGBTQ law from the books.
[content-8] Crews were set up on the lot just inside the Rifle Club gates for at least two days last week while filming took place at nearby Lowndes Grove Plantation at the end of St. Margaret Street in Wagener Terrace.

After an inquiry to Netflix by the City Paper, the crew relocated.

OBX is the second production to decamp from the Rifle Club in recent months. The production company behind Mr. Mercedes has also used the property for crew and support truck parking, but moved elsewhere “once it learned about the controversy,” according to the Post and Courier. Neither production used the facility as a filming location to our knowledge.

A Netflix rep declined to specify what they paid the club to access the space.
[content-4] The Charleston Rifle Club is a social club with an all-male, all-white membership, situated on Heriot Street at the upper end of the peninsula. Last year, the club made news when it denied membership to Melvin Brown, an MUSC physician and Navy veteran who would have been the club’s first black member. Club rules make it easy for a small group to blackball a prospective member for any reason. On June 3, a vote to change those rules reportedly failed to get two-thirds support from 160 members present, according to the P&C. City Paper columnist Dwayne Green called the vote “a de facto embrace of a discriminatory policy.”

Businesses are not the only groups cutting ties with the Charleston Rifle Club. Local nonprofits and social groups have also reportedly moved meetings or pulled out of fundraisers at the club.

Help keep the City Paper free.

No paywalls.
No newspaper subscription cost.
Free delivery at 800 locations from downtown to North Charleston to Johns Island to Summerville to Mount Pleasant.

Help support independent journalism by donating today.