EXCLUSIVE: 'Stranger Things' Star Joe Keery Teases Season 2, Talks Working With Winona Ryder

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Joe Keery is gleefully soaking in all the excitement surrounding his show, Stranger Things.

ET caught up with the 24-year-old actor at Variety's Power of Young Hollywood event, presented by Pixhug with Vince Camuto, on Tuesday in Los Angeles, where he opened up about what life has been like since portraying Steve Harrington on the popular Netflix series.


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Keery told ET's Katie Krause that there was "no way" he would have anticipated the show's success, following its eight-episode first season.

"It was a definite surprise," he explained. "I mean, I read the script, loved the script and everything, and knew that everybody who was working on it was great, super-talented -- but the response has been crazy. Really crazy, yeah."

Although Keery says he hasn't heard anything about season 2 just yet -- "I'm waiting just like everyone else!"-- he does have some thoughts on how he'd like to see his character develop.


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"I'm really interested to see how [Steve's] relationship with Nancy [Natalia Dyer] and Jonathan [Charlie Heaton] develops," Keery said. "Now that everyone is kind of in on this supernatural side of the story, where it goes from there."

"It's a complicated relationship for sure," he continued, "especially when you throw Jonathan in the mix, but I think at the end of the day, Steve really loves her. So, going off of that for season 2, I think that's a really solid place to start and we'll see what happens."

Keery also discussed what it's been like working alongside Winona Ryder, who portrays Joyce Byers, the mother who desperately seeks to find her son, Will, who mysteriously went missing one night.
"She asks a lot of questions on set, always very calm and very kind to everybody," Keery gushed. "I mean, she’s the professional actress, she’s like the best."


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Also the best? The story about how Keery spent his first-ever paycheck from the show.

"I went back home to Chicago and I went to the wiener circle and got a hot dog -- Chicago dog!" he hilariously revealed.

Earlier this month, Ryder opened up about what it was like returning to the small screen 15 years after she made headlines for a shoplifting incident in an interview with Porter magazine.

"Psychologically, I must have been at a place where I just wanted to stop," she explained. "I won't get into what happened, but it wasn't what people think. And it wasn't like the crime of the century!"


WATCH: Winona Ryder Speaks Out on 2001 Shoplifting Arrest and Returning to TV

"It allowed me time that I really needed, where I went back to San Francisco and got back into things that," she continued. "I just had other interests, frankly."

Hear more in the video below.