Joe Keery 'bonded' to Stranger Things co-stars for life
Joe Keery and his Stranger Things co-stars are "bonded" for life and he is grateful they have had each other for support over the years.
Joe Keery and his Stranger Things co-stars are "bonded" for life.
The 33-year-old actor-and-musician - who plays Steve Harrington in the Netflix series - is thankful the young cast had one another for support as they became household names as a result of the global popularityof the retro sci-fi drama.
Discussing his track Charlie's Garden - which was inspired by co-stars Charlie Heaton and Natalia Dyer - he told The Guardian newspaper: “It’s a little tip of the cap to everybody in Atlanta who had such a big effect on me.
“My community down there ended up being so much more important to me than I ever thought that they would be. We’re all bonded for life...
"We always had each other. It wasn’t like being Macaulay Culkin or something, where you’re like, the one person in that one thing. I always feel pretty lucky in that way, where it’s like, I got one eighth of that …"
Joe, who releases music under the pseudonym Djo, had to leave his band Post Animal to dedicate himself to Stranger Things and admitted he initially had "big-time fomo" and struggled with missing his old life in Chicago.
He said: “What an opportunity … I got plucked out of obscurity and put into this thing that thrust me into the public eye.
“But then, immediately, I was met with a sense of … oh man! I miss my friends and my sense of community. It took me a few years, honestly, to grapple with that.”
Joe constantly grapples with fear and anxiety, finding it particularly hard to meet new people.
He said: “I suffer with fear and anxiety every day.
“A great example: you come home to your hotel or whatever. You’re like, 'I could, like, go get a drink and meet some people... Ummm, no, I’m gonna go upstairs.'
"You’re constantly confronted with the anxiety of interacting versus the payoff of meeting a new friend or having a new experience. It’s always worth it to go and talk to somebody, but there’s always a little voice that’s like: well, we could just be safe right now, you know.”
But the End of Beginning hitmaker insisted his reluctance to mix isn't because of his fame.
He said: "“No, no, not because of that. It’s just the fear of rejection, normal human stuff. Everybody has this little monkey on their back. Everybody wants to desperately connect, but also is afraid of it.”
