Stranger Things star Joe Keery (Steve Harrington) joins GQ to reveal his 10 Essentials. The American actor and musician breaks down his daily essentials: from his cowboy boots (“I took these from the Stranger Things costume department”) to his keyboard (“it’s a nice way to fill your time, it’s better than scrolling”). Watch the full episode of GQ’s 10 Essentials, as Joe ‘Djo’ Keery reveals 10 things he can’t live without.Djo's new album, The Crux, releases April 4.
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00:00A-cam, B-cam, speed.
00:03Hey, what's going on?
00:04It's Joe, and these are my 10 essential items.
00:07Geez.
00:08Shh.
00:09Shh.
00:10Shh.
00:11Shh.
00:11Shh.
00:12Shh.
00:13Shh.
00:14Shh.
00:15Shh.
00:16Shh.
00:16Shh.
00:17Shh.
00:18Shh.
00:19Shh.
00:20Shh.
00:21Shh.
00:21Shh.
00:22Shh.
00:23Shh.
00:24Shh.
00:25Shh.
00:26Shh.
00:26Shh.
00:27Shh.
00:28Shh.
00:29These are great.
00:30They're Laredo.
00:31At the end of shooting A Stranger Things,
00:34I took these boots from the costume department.
00:36This is kind of like my first pair of cowboy boots,
00:38actually.
00:39They're not too flashy.
00:40They don't have any chrome,
00:42or they don't have any massive heel.
00:44There's no spur, you know, not yet.
00:47So they're pretty low-key, I feel like.
00:49It's a little much, but yeah, they're good.
00:51Book, gotta have a good book.
00:53This is The Summer Book by Tove Jansson.
00:57My sister gave it to me for Christmas.
00:59It's a great book.
01:00It's about a grandmother and her granddaughter,
01:03and it's like a series of short stories.
01:05It's just a nice, simple sort of read.
01:07I got a nice bookmark in here, me and my pop.
01:09My dad came and visited me in Atlanta.
01:13It's really nice when you get a chance
01:14to just kind of check out.
01:15Has to be the right book, though.
01:16I sort of gave up on trying to finish books a long time ago.
01:19The pressure I put on myself
01:21to finish everything I started.
01:23You can get down on yourself about reading books.
01:25I just sort of eventually was like,
01:27eh, if you don't like it, you know,
01:28put it to the side and start something new.
01:31Must have a nice hat.
01:32I did not know about a martini and a rosebud.
01:34I just bought this randomly
01:35because I just thought it was a cool hat.
01:36I just got it quite recently,
01:38but I've already put some miles on it.
01:39It looks kind of disgusting, but whatever.
01:42Things are meant to be worn.
01:43I've been obsessed with hats ever since I was a little kid.
01:45I really like this hat.
01:47This is a spa hat.
01:48Got this when we were in Australia, the entire crew.
01:51We went to the spa together,
01:53and they gave us these funny little hats.
01:55It's a great little hat.
01:58What's not to love about this hat?
02:00It's great.
02:01If you wore this with like a nice pair of glasses,
02:03people would think you're so intellectual.
02:05I feel like I have so many funny hats.
02:07Do I have the courage to wear them all the time?
02:09No, but it's nice to know that I have them.
02:11["Sweet Child O' Mine"]
02:17Oh yeah.
02:18This thing is the cutest little thing.
02:20When I was starting to record this new album,
02:25I realized that I didn't really travel with instruments,
02:28which is so silly.
02:29And so when I found this,
02:30it was like small enough where I could fit it in my bag.
02:33It's really convenient.
02:34It's nice to just have.
02:36So if you have like an off night in a hotel or something,
02:38or it's got a couple of little onward effects,
02:41a little delay, chorus, phaser, tremolo, wah.
02:45Change the octave.
02:47All you need, really.
02:48["Sweet Child O' Mine"]
02:55That's sort of the idea,
02:56is that if you just have this around long enough,
03:00you're gonna mess around with it and something will happen.
03:02Whereas if you just don't have it, then that won't happen.
03:05It's just kind of a nice way to fill your time.
03:06It's better than like scrolling and wasting time that way.
03:11But it's nice.
03:12It sounds really good.
03:12I really like this thing.
03:13["Sweet Child O' Mine"]
03:15I have a digital camera that I love,
03:17but I was on Stranger Things,
03:19so I figured I gotta document this.
03:22So I figured I gotta document this thing
03:25while I'm doing it, shooting like crazy.
03:27That's kind of how it first started.
03:29And people are like, yeah, you gotta shoot on film.
03:31I do think it makes a difference.
03:32It just looks different and it's fun to experiment
03:34with the different kinds of film.
03:36It's also really easy, this camera.
03:37It's not a very difficult camera.
03:39Got a little gummy bear guy on it.
03:41I stole that from my friend Natalia from Stranger Things.
03:45She's great.
03:46Natalia Dyer.
03:47Scissors.
03:48This is a new one for me.
03:50I've been kind of giving people haircuts,
03:52and that's been sort of a fun thing for me to do.
03:55And so, you know, these are like, whatever,
03:57CVS scissors, but it's also kind of nice
04:00to have a pair of scissors in your suitcase.
04:03I'm surprised, though, that I can bring them.
04:04I thought that maybe they'd be taken out of my bag,
04:07but no, they've let me take them.
04:09You're like, what are the 10 things that I have?
04:11I don't really know.
04:12This is actually one of the things that I have in my bag.
04:14I trimmed Javi's hair on the beach in Australia.
04:20It was a two-part haircut.
04:21Started on the beach, took a little break,
04:24because it was maybe a little weird that we were doing that.
04:27We took it to the hotel, we finished it up,
04:29and I think everyone's very happy with how it turned out.
04:31I can kind of only do one thing.
04:33Here's my philosophy.
04:34Cut up.
04:36I know nothing about cutting hair.
04:37It's purely instinctual.
04:39It's something that, you know, you're volunteering for.
04:42I'm not promising a good hairstyle,
04:43or even close to what you might want.
04:45That's the deal we make.
04:47Must have shades.
04:48These are Persols, very good.
04:52Saw that movie, Sexy Beast.
04:53And Ray Winstone wears a pair of Persols
04:56in that movie that are very cool.
04:58And he's just like so sunburnt and like angry
05:02and kind of like just great in that movie.
05:04Just made me feel like, wow, I gotta get a pair of those.
05:07So I'd recommend them.
05:11Man, I feel like I've been talking about these things.
05:13They're called Fisherman's Flags.
05:14Our team over in Australia gave me these.
05:18I was feeling under the weather.
05:19Let's pop one in right now.
05:21They owe me at this point a percentage in their company.
05:23They're like these menthol, they're very strong.
05:27Does anybody want one?
05:31You might not love them, to be honest.
05:34They're a little like gnarly, but they grow on you.
05:37And there's a wellness aspect to it.
05:39And I'm like, I don't know, I don't know.
05:41I don't know what to do with them.
05:42There's a wellness aspect to it.
05:44And I'm like, this is good for me.
05:46I don't really love them.
05:47I'm addicted to them right now.
05:48Fisherman's friends, strong lozenges containing menthol
05:51were first developed for deep sea fishermen
05:53working in extreme conditions.
05:55Can't you just imagine yourself?
05:58Sea raging, yellow slicker.
06:00Pop one of these in and just get back to work
06:02for another 12 hours in the middle of the night.
06:05They're good.
06:07Those are mine.
06:09This is probably the bougiest stuff that I have.
06:12It's kind of like a fancy lotion that an ex introduced me to.
06:17You know, when you're on set in your early 20s,
06:21you're kind of always like putting a bunch of makeup
06:23on your face, so you are constantly breaking out.
06:25And this helped me kind of like get that under control.
06:28It's called Blue Cocoon.
06:30And it just is like great face lotion.
06:33And it's great if you can get someone on set
06:35to buy it for you.
06:37I got lucky enough to work in Rome.
06:40That was insane.
06:40And my sister was going to school in Rome.
06:43So she also worked on the job.
06:45And looking at this reminds me of her,
06:48but we were like living by the Spanish steps
06:50and we went into this perfume store, Diptyque,
06:52and she was telling me that she used
06:54this like solid perfume thing.
06:56And so I got this little thing and it's like,
06:59you can refill and put the solid perfume.
07:02And it's like very mellow.
07:03You know what I mean?
07:04I never want to smell as though I've jumped in the bottle,
07:08is what my grandfather would say.
07:10Who jumped in the bottle?
07:11It means you have a lot of perfume on.
07:12And so this is like a nice way to do that.
07:14And it's like a cool little metal, I don't know.
07:17It's like a really cool little thing.
07:19Everyone needs a good bag.
07:21You've got your bag, you've got your bag,
07:24and then you've got your bag.
07:25Everyone needs a little bag.
07:271984 APTA annual meeting, Washington, DC.
07:32I don't know what the hell that means.
07:35The thing I will say about this one is like,
07:36it's a handheld bag.
07:37You can't put this on your, which I also really like.
07:40But I love tote bags.
07:42I think they're very cool.
07:43Me and my sister joke about starting a tote bag company.
07:45Who knows, maybe one day we'll do it.
07:49Okay, that's it.
07:50Those are my 10 essentials.
07:52I know you've probably learned many good things
07:54and you'll take so much of this away
07:56and apply it to your own life.
07:58And yeah, good luck giving your friends haircuts.
08:01I hope everyone is happy with their new hair style.