Joe Keery had to multi-task during Spree shoot

Joe Keery had to do serious multi-tasking on the set of his new movie Spree as some scenes required him to act, drive and film the footage at the same time.

In the black comedy/horror, the Stranger Things actor plays Kurt Kunkle, a troubled rideshare driver who is obsessed with trying to become a social media star and frequently livestreams parts of his life and makes video content in an attempt to go viral.

As such, Joe was put in charge of operating cell phones used to film some of the footage as well as driving and acting at the same time, and he found it to be a stressful yet immersive filmmaking experience.

“There are a lot of scenes in the movie where I’m pretty much operating a lot of the phone stuff,” he explained to The Hollywood Reporter. “It can be kind of stressful because it’s another thing to think about. It’s something that can bring you out of the character if you allow it to because you’re worried about it. I had my frustrating moments on set where I got kind of fed up, but at the end of the day, I think it really did inform the character and just made it even more immersive — especially the stuff in the car.”

The Molly’s Game star explained that sometimes they had 11 cameras – eight regular cameras and two or three phone cameras – running simultaneously and that meant he was really in the car alone with his customers, much like his character.

“I’m driving the car the majority of the film, as well, so once the cameras are rolling and there’s no one from production, it’s just me and the other actors on set,” he continued. “And in that way, it can be truly immersive, which is really fun. It kind of turned into a little bit of a play sometimes because we could just run the scene as many times as we wanted.”

Spree is in U.S. cinemas now.