5 Things You Didn't Know About Stranger Things' Joe Keery

• Everyone knows Joe Keery for his role as Steve Harrington in Stranger Things.
• But there’s more to this legend with great hair.
Check out our list below for some great music, past and future roles, and more.

With Stranger Things 3 inching closer and closer by the day, more and more people are getting acquainted with the world of Hawkins, Indiana, the Upside Down, and Demogorgons. Someone who’s gotten a little bit of experience fighting off those Demogorgons in the first two seasons of Stranger Things has been Steve Harrington, one of the show’s most popular characters—a cocky jock who’s slowly evolved into a legend over the course of the show’s run.

Steve has become a breakout role for actor Joe Keery, who gets to show off his charisma in a role that breaks from typical genre archetypes. Keery has been prominent in the show’s run, but there’s still a handful that you might not know about the 27-year-old star of the show. Here are five of our favorites:

He’s in a band (and a good one at that!).

VOCAL DAY #3 @MiracleWhip pic.twitter.com/VN9qQCVLYo

Keery is a founding member of the psychedelic rock band Post Animal, where he plays guitar, and like all six members of the band, contributes songwriting and occasional vocals. The band is from Chicago, where the biggest local paper, the Chicago Tribune, described their sound as “if Tame Impala listened to a lot of Black Sabbath and were signed to Elephant 6 [the label that timeless indie rock favorite Neutral Milk Hotel was signed to].

Due to his rigorous acting schedule, Keery isn’t a touring member of the band anymore—so, if you get tickets to see Post Animal, you won’t see Steve’s big hair rocking up on the stage. But he remains an official member of the band, and contributed to their compilation, The Garden Series, their EP, Post Animal Perform the Most Curious Water Activities, and their debut LP, When I Think of You in a Castle, which came out in 2018.

You can check Keery shredding away on the guitar in the video below, of a performance from a few years back:

He’s starred alongside Chance the Rapper in a movie.

a24

Have you ever heard of a movie called Slice? No? OK, that’s fair. This was a rare movie from the much-heralded studio A24 that didn’t generate an enormous buzz upon it’s release, though it’s not clear why, because it’s got a whole lot going on.

Keery plays a supporting role in Slice, and the lead role is played by Chance the Rapper. The movie also has roles for Atlanta and Deadpool 2 star Zazie Beetz, The League star Paul Scheer, and SNL and Archer star Chris Parnell. That’s a fun cast! The movie is a horror-comedy, and tells some sort of spooky story about werewolves and pizza. It lives on Amazon Prime currently if you’ve got any interest in checking it out.

He used to work as a bartender in Chicago.

Donato SardellaGetty Images

Keery grew up in Massachusetts, but found his way to Chicago for his college years, studying theater at DePaul University. When speaking to Men’s Health, actor Ben Schwartz (who’s sparked up a friendship with Keery, rooted on the similarities and lookalike qualities between Keery’s Steve Harrington and his own Jean-Ralphio, from Parks and Rec) said that Keery told him that when he was bartending in Chicago, people used to tell him that he had “Jean-Ralphio hair.”

He originally auditioned to play a different Stranger Things character

Netflix

It might be hard to imagine, but according to an interview with Vulture, Keery originally auditioned to play Jonathan, the character played by Charlie Heaton. The two actually share a lot of screen time, especially in season 1.

Believe it or not, Keery originally wasn’t even sure if he would be able to pull the Steve character off, once he was already thinking about playing Jonathan.

“Obviously I love the character. But right away, I was like, I don’t necessarily think I have the right look for that character,” he told Vulture. “And then when I did audition for Steve, I felt I had a pretty good understanding of what they wanted the character to be. I also had a pretty good idea of what I personally wanted to bring to him.”

His next movie will be alongside Ryan Reynolds (who, we might add, is psyched about it).

In 2020, Ryan Reynolds will appear in a blockbuster movie called Free Guy, directed by Stranger Things executive producer Shawn Levy. The movie revolves around a Bank Teller who becomes sentient, and realizes that he’s actually a character in a video game.

While it’s not clear who he’s playing or what the size of his role is, Keery will be in the movie. In fact, Ryan Reynolds was so excited about starring alongside the Stranger Things star that he posted an Instagram alongside him.

View this post on Instagram

First day working with Joe Keery and Utkarsh Ambudkar. My arms feel so safe, draped loosely across their powerful shoulders. @uncle_jezzy @utktheinc #FreeGuy 👕 (special cameo by Thelma the dog)

A post shared by Ryan Reynolds (@vancityreynolds) on

Free Guy will be out just about a year after the release of Stranger Things 3—July 3, 2020.


Source: Read Full Article