Joey Bada$$’s role in Mr. Robot Season 2 hasn’t gotten much attention, until now. Fans on reddit and Twitter are praising his performance in the first of the two-part season premiere that leaked online Sunday evening. The 40-minute secret premiere (now unavailable) gave a tease of insight into Joey’s character, Leon. Though it wasn’t completely obvious in the first episode, Joey revealed last month that he is Elliot’s new drug dealer, replacing the late Shayla who was murdered last season.
“He [Elliot] is a functioning addict. I start off as his new pharmaceutical drug dealer and we become pretty tight,” the Brooklyn emcee revealed on Hot 93.7’s Youtube Channel. “They loved me from the jump.”
After the Five/Nine hack, Elliot has disconnected himself from the world. Now living with his mother, he follows a rigid daily routine including chores around the house, watching basketball games and sharing meals with his friend, Leon.
In a reddit thread devoted to Joey’s performance, one user said Leon’s scenes were the best of the premiere episode.
[Spoilers S2E1]Joey Badass from MrRobot
Joey appears to be quite talkative, and those who watched the premiere before it magically disappeared report there’s a scene where Leon lectures Elliot about the philosophy behind Seinfeld. The two talk about how the show is about nothing at all and depicts life as meaningless. We’ll have to wait and see just how big of a part Leon plays in Elliot's life moving forward. There's always the chance that his character is just a figment of Elliot's imagination.
Many only know Joey Bada$$ as the leader of Pro Era, a collective of rising hip hop artists based in Brooklyn, NY. What fans don’t know is that Joey studied screen theater at Edward R. Murrow high school in Brooklyn, which is known for its theater program.
“The only real challenge that this was performing in a new capacity.... doing the same scene over and over again on a different angle. Then, if mess up we gotta do it again,” Joey said of his first experience on the set of a TV series. “The first day I shot, I had a scene with Christian Slater and Rami Malek. I was like damn, they are setting the bar so high. I guess from rapping I'm used to memorizing things all the time, so lines are easy for me. It’s just about the action... I'll improvise if I don't know the exact line to keep it flowing. It’s almost like freestyling.”
We’ll be waiting for that scene with Christian Slater…
Mr. Robot Season 2 returns July 13.
