-Absolutely.
-I´m such a huge fan of the show.
Steve is one of my favorite characters.
-Thank you. Thank you. -A great --
He had a great Season 2, I thought.
-Yeah, yeah.
-Really enjoyed Steve in Season 2.
-Yes, yes, yes.
-A lot of actors prepare for roles.
I heard you prepared for six weeks
for an element of Steve
that maybe turned out to be a waste of time.
-At the beg-- yes, at the beginning of the first season,
I got the part and talked to the Duffer Brothers,
and they´re saying, "Yeah, it´s gonna --
he´s gonna be kind of, like, this jock character.
And he´s, like, a swimmer."
They had that incorporated in the thing.
So for, you know, the first -- I don´t know --
for like six weeks prior to shooting,
I was training, doing all this, like, you know, swimming prep,
and then show up, you know --
Also, I thought I was gonna be in, like, a Speedo.
-Yeah. -It´s a TV show.
Like, the first thing I ever did,
I was gonna be in a Speedo, so...
-Yeah, so you don´t want to be, like, the chunky swimmer. Yeah.
-I was gonna be known as "Chunky Steve"
for the rest of my life. -Yeah, exactly.
-No, but then, we showed up the first day, and, like --
"Oh, yeah, the swim-- Oh, no, no, we cut that.
No, we cut that." [ Laughter ]
So that was totally -- -So you just got
like six weeks of working out for nothing.
-Yeah, it´s, like, the most in shape I´ve ever been.
-Yeah, although, it is good to be in shape because --
and I remember this,
but watching the show really brings it into focus --
very tight jeans in the ´80s. Are you in --
-They´re very tight. -Yeah.
-They don´t tell you about that when they cast you.
-Yeah.
-About the jeans and how tight they will make them.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-I feel like... -Oh, yeah.
-...when you watch, like, Jane Austen,
you realize how painful corsets look on women.
And then, when you watch "Stranger Things,"
you´re like, "Jeans were not a good time in the ´80s."
-It´s a similar thing. -Yeah.
-Oh, yeah. Jeans were very tight in a lot of ways
and places that you might not ex-- you know.
And, also, the material that they have...
[ Laughter ] The material is, like, stretchy
that they have for jeans now, you know.
-Yeah. It has a little give. -Jegging?
-Yeah. -It´s like nothing.
It´s like you´re wearing a baseball glove.
-Yeah. -It´s like a -- you know.
Very tight. [ Laughter ]
-It´s basically like -- like, yeah, denim is chain mail.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-So you´re having to, like, duck and run around,
but you´re trapped.
-One of the other things is you --
The Demogorgon last year
was a man in a Demogorgon suit. -Oh!
-And these are pretty awesome photos of --
-That´s Mark. Yeah.
-That´s Mark. -Yeah.
-Who was a Demogorgon. -Yeah.
-And so when you had to fight the Demogorgon in Season 1,
you actually had somebody who was in the room.
-Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was kind of
the big difference between the first and second season.
-Because now it´s CGI. -Yeah, it´s CGI.
´Cause they can´t have, you know, like,
a person on all fours pretending to be a little...
- Yeah. -...dog guy.
-Like, you can´t have a person this small in a --
I mean, they can´t -- they won´t let children do it.
-Yeah, it´s, you know. [ Laughter ]
They´re already breaking so many laws with what they´re doing.
I mean, compared to last year, it´s like I just felt terrible
having to -- you know, he´s in this big, hot suit,
and he´s sweating.
He´s getting, like, water through a tube and a fan,
and he´s, like... between takes.
And then, "Action!"
and I literally, for like eight hours,
had to just, you know -- hit, just -- smack him, like...
-Just whale on him. -Like, in the stunt,
he´s, like, sweating and hot and tired and...
-Was he ever like, "I´m not a real Demogorgon"?
-Yeah. He´s -- I´d be like, "Dude, I am so sorry."
I´m trying to sell it. So, you know.
-Your hair receives a lot of ink.
-Yes. [ Scattered cheers ]
-Multiple -- -Yes.
-These are multiple headlines
just about your hair on the show.
-This is so crazy. -"How to Get
´Stranger Things´ star Joe Keery´s
Gravity-Defying Hair." [ Light laughter ]
I like this -- "We Need To Talk About Steve´s Hair
From ´Stranger Things´
Again." [ Laughter ]
We already needed to talk about it.
We need to talk about it again.
-Yeah, yeah. -And this -- but this --
you just brought this with you, right?
-This was not -- -Yes. I mean, yeah.
My -- I mean, my parents have kind of crazy hair.
[ Laughter ] I guess. I don´t know.
Yeah, for a long time, my dad was always on me
about, you know, cutting my hair.
And you know, "Go get a haircut. You got to, like, gel your --
got to do something to get your hair to stay down, you know?
Like, it´s too big. Get it down, you know?
It looks crazy." [ Light laughter ]
-So when you got the part, did you call your dad
and give him the news that you were right?
-Finally, I´m right, you know. [ Laughter ]
No. No. No. Yeah.
-You play a high schooler on the show.
What were you doing -- when you were in high school,
what were -- what were your jobs?
What were you doing for --
-Um, man, I worked at a restaurant.
I was a -- Oh, I delivered pizza for --
-I was a pizza delivery guy, as well.
Did you enjoy that? -It´s okay.
-Yeah. -Yeah. I wasn´t so great at it.
I didn´t have -- It was before --
I didn´t have the iPhone. -Yeah.
-So I was just like --
as we´re getting the pi-- I don´t know.
-Yeah, no, you would have a map in the car.
-You would look at the map. You would look at the map.
And then -- And I didn´t even have one in the car.
I didn´t even -- So it was just look at the map and then say,
"Oh, I guess that´s kind of where it is," and then just go.
-Oh, so you´d have to memorize the map?
-It was terrible, yeah.
-Did you ever have any angry customers who got late pizza?
-Oh, that´s one of my dad´s favorite stories.
This old guy just -- I had to, you know --
I was calling him, hanging up.
Like, calling -- Like, "I don´t know where you are."
He´s like, "It´s over here."
You know, it´s like this really kind of weird building.
And I finally pulled up.
And I was like, "I´m so --" Like, "I´m terribly sorry.
Of course, you don´t have to pay.
I´ll pay for the pizza. You know, whatever."
And then he didn´t say anything.
It was this old guy with his hat, and it was just really low.
He was really short, too.
I just remember how short he was.
I pull up in my Volvo, and he just takes the thing.
Just writes on the thing.
Looks at me, like, just really dead in the eyes,
and then gives me back the receipt and walks inside.
[ Chuckling ] And on the thing, he had just written,
"Pizza delivery is not for you."
[ Laughter ] It´s like...
And then I quit. And that´s when I knew.
-It´s funny. That´s great. -Yeah.
-Yeah, he sent -- It´s also --
I don´t know who reads that and is like, "But it´s my dream!"
-Yeah, I know, like --
Who´s like that´s their main -- -Yeah.
-It´s like, "Are you kidding me?"
-Yeah. -"This is what I was going for."
-I like to think that that guy is watching "Stranger Things,"
seeing you, and a tear runs down his cheek.
-Yeah. -He´s like,
"I told him to go chase" -- [ Laughter ]
-He was the guy. Yeah. -Yeah. "I knew. I knew."
-It was you out there. Wherever you are, old man.
Yeah, yeah. -Thanks so much for being here.