Joey Bada$$ Talks ‘Mr. Robot’ Role, Missing Out on Obama Biopic

Which high school plays were you in?
I was in this one play that was written by one of the upperclassmen. At the time I was a freshman. It was called John Cusack Is Not a Famous Actor. It was a pretty cool play, actually. I was also in one of the upperclassmen’s rendition of Alice in Wonderland.

John Cusack is Not a Famous Actor is a weird title.
Yeah, it was super funny. That play was super funny, man. It was weird and random, actually, but it was dope. It really wasn’t about anything, to be completely honest. It was, like, John Cusack living through his life with, like, a lot of weird, random shit happening to him. It made no sense, but it was hilarious. There’s no way for me to actually explain it to you.

Is acting something you have wanted to pursue? You’re obviously well known as a rapper.
Yeah. I pretty much auditioned to get into Edward R. Murrow. Acting was what I was set to do. Every school that I applied for, I had to audition to get inside because I wanted to be part of the acting programs in those schools. By the time I was 14, 15, I was really committed to becoming an actor. It was just that when I got to Edward R. Murrow, I met all the guys from my [Pro Era] crew, and we were all so interested in music. So I realized in high school that music is my calling.

“By the time I was 14, 15, I was really committed to becoming an actor.”

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. ‘Cause, especially coming out of New York City, there’s so many people trying to get into acting, just like there’s so many people trying to get into music. It’s almost like the same amount of people in the pool of it, you know. So if one is taking off already, I just decided I’d rather use that one to leverage to get to the other one. But they’re both things that I’m really passionate about. Of course, music being my number one, but I’ve always been passionate about acting.

Have you auditioned for any shows or movies before Mr. Robot?
Yep. I actually was casted for this film titled Barry, which is about the early life of Barack Obama. But I couldn’t do it because I had to do Coachella. The week that they wanted to shoot was the week that I had to play Coachella. So I missed out on the Obama movie for Coachella. That’s one hell of a story to tell. You’re the first person I’ve ever told that to in a public space.

Were you slated to play Barack Obama?
Naw, 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.