-Thank you for being here. -How cool. Oh, my gosh.
-Feels great, right? Come on, yeah. They love you.
I want to thank you for being here,
but I will say how cool it was to meet your sister,
by the way, backstage.
-Sister's here, yeah.
-Caroline? -Caroline.
It was just her birthday.
-It was? Happy birthday, Caroline.
Should have said it backstage.
[ Cheers and applause ]
But that was a cool story that you told me back there.
I guess when you were about to start acting,
she encouraged you, and she said...?
-Yeah, I was probably, like, a freshman in high school,
and she was a part of, like, stage crew.
You know, sound and lights. -Yeah.
-And I was gonna sleep in and skip
and just miss the stage crew thing,
but she was like, "Come on, get up," you know,
and sort of brought me along.
And you know, yeah.
-Got you into the theater. -Got me into it, yeah.
-And thank goodness you stuck with it.
-I did. -Did she say, "If you do this,
and you get on 'Fallon'..."
-Exactly. -"I gotta be there."
-I gotta be there. -And she's here.
-And she's here tonight. -So it's all happening.
This is all supposed to happen. -Yes.
-Caroline, we thank you. -Thank you, Caroline.
-Steve Harrington, this is your first big break.
-For sure, yeah.
-Where were you working before then?
-I was a waiter. -Good.
-Waiter. -You have to.
-Have to, yeah, waiting tables and doing commercials.
-How were you as a waiter?
-I was a pretty good waiter, I think.
-Really? -I was a great waiter.
I was pretty, uh, charismatic. -Okay, I like that.
-And what I lacked in organization,
I made up for in maybe, delivery, I guess I would say.
-Yeah, and you just got the audition,
and you were like,
were you working when you found out?
-I was, so I auditioned for, you know,
they did the big cattle call or whatever.
You know how it works, they send out across the country.
Taped it, didn't hear anything. Moved on.
3 months later, got a callback for some different role,
for Steve, and I was like, "Oh, man, the jerky boyfriend?
Okay, whatever."
And sent that in, yeah. -That's hilarious.
The jerky boyfriend, yeah. -The jerky boyfriend.
It was what he was.
It was like, you know, James Spader in "Pretty in Pink."
Something like that. -Yeah.
-And so my friend, Matt Williams,
he would kind of help me tape all my auditions.
And we just, you know, set up the camera.
Got, like, two mugs, pretty DIY,
and did the tape, and then
he worked at the restaurant with me,
and so when they did call
and I ended up getting the job and stuff,
there was a nice moment of, like, a silent...
He was a food runner and I was a waiter,
and I got the call in the back, and was like, "Oh, my God.
This is great. I don't have to work at a restaurant anymore!"
[ Laughter ]
And I saw him.
He was probably stocking the truffle aioli or something.
An I just gave him, like, a, "I got the job!"
-Yeah! And he was like, "What's up, buddy?"
-He was like, "Yeah! Get back to work, though!"
-Get back to work, yeah. "We'll celebrate after."
-"Is this for 9? Are you table 9, right?"
-You didn't think you were gonna make it past Season 1?
-Yeah, the brothers wrote, you know --
I read one, maybe, episode of the show, two episodes,
and it was kind of like, we read three episodes
and then they had two more and stuff.
So it was really, they were building it as they were going.
-It was day-to-day for you. -It was day-to-day.
-I can't imagine the show without you.
-That's very nice of you to say.
-You are "Stranger Things." We need you. We need Steve.
[ Cheering ]
-Thank you. -You make the whole show.
I love you.
-Thank you.
I will tell the brothers that you said that.
-Yeah, please. They made me nervous.
Because, you know, before this season,
Netflix put out a billboard,
I don't know if saw this but...
-Yeah, I did see this. -Look at this.
This is on the billboard. It says "Protect Steve."
-Yeah.
So I actually paid for this. It was really expensive.
[ Laughter ]
-Wow. -It was.
-Oh, that's a lot of money. -I pretty much broke even.
It was worth it.
-It was totally worth it. -Yeah.
-But you obviously -- we can say this.
We're allowed to say it, because...
-I'll let you say it. -I'll do it.
Noah came on the show and said, someone dies.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-It's not you. -It's not me.
-Okay. There you go. We can say that.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Are you tough with the spoilers
and holding in the secrets and all that stuff?
-Um...
-Like your family wanted...? -Not super.
-Does Caroline know?
-Yeah, she knows.
Well, she doesn't -- She gets very scared.
A lot of my family doesn't like scary stuff, unfortunately.
-Especially if it's to do with their family member.
Yeah, exactly.
-Joe? You can't, yeah.
-You know, they'll watch some, but mostly kind of through...
It's pretty scary. -It's a global phenomenon.
Congratulations. It's the biggest thing.
And you just got nominated for, like, 13 Emmy Awards.
-Those brothers, it's like their life.
They deserve it. They're the best.
-The Duffer Brothers are great. -They're the best guys.
-They are, right? And creative and fun.
But when did you realize, like, that it is global?
It's, like, bigger than just... It's bigger than Chicago.
It's big in America. It's bigger than.
-We did some press.
My other sister, Lizzie, came with me,
and we went and did some press in in Italy,
which was my --
I had gone in high school as a trip.
Pretty cool high school trip, actually.
To go to Italy. I mean, that's pretty cool.
-Wow.
-That's a story for another day.
But we went for the press,
and we were kind of walking down the street
and there was just -- we were walking,
and this little Italian girl, saw me, clocked me.
I could tell.
And then I heard her go,
[ Italian accent ] "Stranger Things!"
From behind. I was like... -Wow.
-Oh, my gosh. -In a different accent.
To hear "Stranger Things."
[ Italian accent ] "Stranger Things!"
-"Lizzie, let's go!"
-Wow. This is actually becoming giant.
-Exactly, yeah, you kind of...
You know, it feels like such a small thing when you're
doing it down there, when you're shooting and working.
-And then to see the final product.
-So many people have seen it. It's crazy.
-I feel like you're also -- I've seen you perform,
as well, live as a musician.
-Oh. -So you must feed off...
-Do like doing it, feeding off the audience?
-I mean yeah. Like, I come from doing high school theater.
I mean, that's what I...
-That's a good energy. -It's a good energy.
It's all about that live thing.
So when I lived in Chicago, that was kind of my --
I didn't do any theater there.
The name of your band, just because
I think I'm saying it right. -Yeah.
-It's "Joe." Is that correct?
-Correct. It's very confusing.
-Yeah. -Yeah, yeah.
So then you walk in the room, you go, "I'm here to see Joe."
Well, that's interesting,
because it's spelled...
-D-J-O. -Yeah.
-"Joe." -It's really funny.
-There's not really a story behind it.
I had a bunch -- -Like DiGiorno?
-Like DiGiorno, pretty much.
-Yeah. -So, not delivery, is Djo.
-Exactly. -Yeah, exactly.
-It's Djorno. -It's Djorno.
-But why "Djo"? Any reason?
-Nah, I just thought --
I wanted to put it out with, it's connected to me,
but it's not, you know, directly connected to me,
was the idea.
-Does it confuse people?
-It confuses people all the time.
People say D-joe, DiGiornio. All sorts of different --
-DJ Oh! Yeah, yeah. -DJ OH!
[ Imitates record scratch ] -"I'm not a DJ. I'm a band."
-No, no, no, no, no.
-But you have a new record coming out.
-Yep, yep. -September?
-Yep, September 16th. And, you know, fun.
-Do you know the title? Can we say it?
-We can. It's called "Decide."
-Yeah. -Yeah.
No way. So that's out September.
"Decide"? -Decide, yeah.
-"Decide" comes out September 16th.
-"D'just Decide," probably. -Yeah.
You always add a "D'". You can always add that in post.
-Exactly. -You can always add that later.
But you're playing big gigs.
You're playing Lollapalooza? -Man. Yeah.
I'm going to be definitely nervous.
Are you excited? -It's fun!
I get to wear this wig.
I wear a wig and get to dress up the whole band.
It's kind of like a Devo sort of thing.
Everyone dresses up. -No.
-Yeah. -You do that?
[ Laughter ] -Oh, yeah.
-And do people...
Because then you can walk around
and go in the crowd and not be noticed?
-Well, that was the idea.
I released it with this different name.
I was kind of like, you know,
inspired by Andy Kaufman, you know?
-Of course. -So that was kind of the idea.
Kind of this alter ego. -I think it's great.
You're fantastic. And I think you could do it.
You could do both for a long time.
-That's the idea. Just keep doing that.
And that'll kind of be fueled by, you know, acting stuff.
-Keep crushing it, buddy. -Thank you.
I want to show everyone a clip.
Here is a joke here in Season 4 of Volume 2
of "Stranger Things."
Take a look at this.
-I'm not sure I love the idea of you driving.
-I'm just starting the sucker.
Harrington's got it. Don't you, big boy?
[ Electricity crackles ]
-What the hell? Hey! Open this door!
-Hey!
-Unlock the doors! -[Bleep]. [Bleep].
-Everybody hang onto something!
-Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Let's go, let's go!
-Drive, Steve, drive! -Go, go, go!
[ Screaming ]
-Go, go, go! -[Bleep].
-Go, go, go! -[Bleep]! They look pissed.
-I mean, it's not every day you lose
your house and car in one fell swoop.
-Hold on, hold on!
♪♪
-Oh, my God.
-That's how you do it right there!
Joe Keery, everybody!
Season 4 of "Stranger Things"
is streaming now on Netflix.
"Decide" comes out September 16th.