Photo by Maika Monroe
What happens when the theatre kid/music nerd earns a life-changing role that marks him as the next All-American Boy Next Door? If you’re Joe Keery, that means your teenage stans call you Steve from Stranger Things, and a pizza company fashions you like Ferris Bueller. From a sleepy Massachusetts town to the Chicago indie rock scene to Hollywood, this episode finds Michael talking to Joe while he’s isolated in Atlanta while shooting. The pair discuss how Joe’s rise to fame found him adjusting to reality while circling his passion back toward doing what he loves on his terms. Together, they unpack the circumstances behind the first Djo album Twenty Twenty, dissect the Boy Next Door mythology, and offer a new portrait of Joe Keery with no red carpet attached.
Michael Penn II (aka CRASHprez) is a rapper and a former VMP staff writer. He's known for his Twitter fingers.