Madelyn Cline’s time filming Day Drinker in Spain came with an unexpected complication far removed from the movie set. While working in Madrid, the Outer Banks star found herself repeatedly dealing with local police at the apartment where she was staying.

What made the encounters especially unsettling was that Cline could not understand why authorities kept returning. The officers spoke to her in Spanish, took her personal information and even her passport, leaving the actress worried enough to consider moving out.

The mystery eventually took an even stranger turn when Cline mentioned the situation to her Day Drinker co-star Penélope Cruz.

Madelyn Cline recalled the bizarre experience during the August 13 episode of Jake Shane’s Therapuss podcast. While filming in Madrid, the actress said police repeatedly came to her apartment despite her being the only person staying there.

“I’m really scared, and they keep talking to me in Spanish, and I’m trying to translate, but I don’t know how,” Cline recalled telling Penélope Cruz. She said the officers were also “taking my passport and my information,” leaving her unsure why she had suddenly drawn their attention.

Via Entertainment Weekly, Cline’s account of the incident comes from her conversation with Jake Shane on his podcast Therapuss, where she explained just how unsettling the encounters had become. She was not only struggling to understand the officers, but had no idea what they believed she had done to warrant their repeated visits.

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And that was when Cruz, who knew the area well, began asking the right questions.

Once Madelyn Cline told Penélope Cruz about the increasingly unsettling encounters at her Madrid residence, Cruz did not dismiss them. Having previously lived in the same area, she started asking questions about Cline’s apartment building. A call from one of her former neighbors eventually provided the missing piece of the puzzle.

According to Cruz, police had “tracked some local crime ring” to the building where Cline was staying. Cline later learned that the operation was a s** ring, and the authorities apparently believed that she was the person running it.

“They thought it was me leading it. They thought I was the madam of it,” Cline recalled. She made clear that she had “no hate” toward s** workers, but could not help seeing the absurdity of how badly the situation had been misread.

“They thought that I was their fearless leader...I was a fearful leader. I was accidentally elected.” Cline joked. Via Entertainment Weekly, Cline shared the story during her Aug. 13 appearance on Shane’s Therapuss podcast, while recalling her time filming Day Drinker in Madrid.

The irony is almost too perfect. In Day Drinker, Cline plays a private-yacht bartender who becomes entangled with a mysterious passenger played by Johnny Depp and a criminal figure portrayed by Cruz. The cast of the film also looks different right now because of an earlier casting change. Directed by Marc Webb, the thriller is currently scheduled to arrive in theaters in March 2027.

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Madelyn Cline’s Madrid experience sounds almost too bizarre to be real. But for the Day Drinker star, the misunderstanding was very real. Let us know how you would have reacted in that situation in the comments!