Joey Bada$$ will officially make his on-screen debut tonight when the second season of Mr. Robot premieres on USA at 10 p.m. EST. The first half of the two-part premiere was shared online by the Mr. Robot Twitter account, so technically you can watch Joey’s first couple scenes.
But before the show’s official debut, the Brooklyn rapper sat down with Rolling Stone to talk about his role. (He plays the best friend of main character, Elliott, and eats every meal with him at a diner — at least in the first episode. He spent pretty much every second of his screen time talking about Seinfeld and if it’s really a show about nothing or if it has a far deeper meaning. It’s gold.)
“I decided that, if music works out, acting will be relatively more easy. I could just use music as a leverage to get into acting,” he mentioned of his recent transition to another artform. He told the magazine he acted in a couple plays in high school, including one called John Cusack is Not a Famous Actor, so auctioning for the role wasn’t too nerve-racking. (Watch Joey in his high school play below.)
During the interview, though, he mentioned he had the opportunity to play Barack Obama’s best friend in the upcoming biopic of the president’s first date with Michelle Obama, Barry.
So why didn’t he?
“I couldn’t do it because I had to do Coachella,” he said. “I was supposed to be his best friend. I was the guy who was supposed to show him the projects, and show him how black people was living in America at the time.”
Read the full interview on Rolling Stone.
