Joseph Quinn told Jimmy Fallon how his Stranger Things character helped him win over US immigration.
Quinn played the role of Eddie Munson in the fourth season of Stranger Things. In the hit Netflix show, Eddie is the leader of the Hellfire Club at Hawkins High, an electric guitar player in his band Corroded Coffin, and the friend and role model of Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo).
During Monday (25 July) night’s appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the 28-year-old British actor told the host how he almost didn’t make it for his talk-show debut.
“I was held up at immigration yesterday… and I was taken into, I guess what you could call it more of a dungeon,” Quinn told Fallon. “And I was waiting for about 20 minutes and then I was summoned to this desk where someone asked me, ‘what are you doing in the United States, Sir?’
“I said, I’m actually here to meet Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show. And he didn’t believe me,” Quinn recalled.
“And one of his colleagues looked over at him, looked at me and said: ‘Leave Eddie alone!’
He continued: “And then he said ‘it’s Eddie from Stranger Things’ and he was like ‘You’re Eddie Munson?… Do you come back next season?
“I was like I don’t know… and he said ‘you better’ and gave me my passport.”
During the talk show, Quinn also gifted Fallon a Hellfire Club T-shirt, making him an honourary member.
Last week, Quinn revealed that he received help from his Stranger Things co-star Joe Keery (Steve Harrington) after struggling with his American accent for the show.
On a recent episode of the Off Menu podcast hosted by comedians Ed Gamble and James Acaster, Quinn said putting on the US accent made him “feel like a sociopath”.
“After a while, I was so far down the rabbit hole, at points I’d be like ‘Do I sound good? Do you like this? Do you like what I’m doing?’” he told the hosts.
After panicking over his accent, Quinn said Keery helped calm his nerves. “I was talking to Joe Keery and at one point I was so deep in it, and he was like ‘Dude, I can’t save you, but I promise you it’s gonna be fine,’” Quinn said.
He was also filmed being brought to tears by a fan who thanked him and told the audience that Quinn had been shouted at by Comic Con staff, after he apparently spent “too long” with fans who had travelled to see him.
