Joel Kim Booster is well aware that showing skin is part of his personal brand. In his 2022 Netflix comedy special Psychosexual, Booster jokes about his nude photos being easily accessible on the Internet, and quips that he still sends nude photos of himself “with reckless abandon.” prey And Fire Island The star didn’t expect that his reckless exuberance would earn him a hot guest role in the third episode of the third season of HBO’s hit series. Industry, created by Conrad Kay And Mickey below.
“This never happens to me, but they came to me with this role,” says Booster. In episode three, “It,” Booster guest stars as Frank Wade, a Pierpoint employee in the equity research department who must publish a buy or sell recommendation for Lumi, the green energy company founded by Kit Harington‘s Henry Muck, which recently went public.
A fan of industry Since the series premiered in 2021, Booster says it has “never been easier” for him to get an acting role than in the series. “The guys are obviously fans,” says Booster, of Kay and Down. “They had already written this role and came to me and said, ‘There’s this creep in a steam room and we immediately thought of you.’ I guess the brand is strong.”
The steam room eventually turned into a sauna, where Pierpoint banker Rob, played by Harry Lawtey, flirts with Frank in the hope of influencing his buy/sell recommendation. Their cackling chemistry is reminiscent of the sauna scene in challenger between Mike Faist And Josh O’Connor except for one big difference – Booster is completely naked. “They said very early on that this would be a requirement,” he says. “It was included in the offer, like, ‘Are you OK with this?'”
In fact, he thought it was so cool that Booster says it wasn’t even the most nerve-wracking part of the shoot. “I was more nervous about being in a prestigious HBO drama than I was about the nudity, because nudity is pretty normal for me in my everyday life,” Booster says. “Professionally, it was a big deal for me to be taken seriously as an actor and have people believe that I can play a pretty grounded, dramatic, serious role that isn’t too comedy-focused. I’m really grateful for that opportunity.”
Over the phone, Booster chats about how difficult it is to look hot while sitting down, working with Lawtey, and what he thinks really happened in the sauna.
Vanity Fair: So let’s talk about your big scene, which happens to take place in a sauna where you are stark naked.
Joel Kim Boosters: Do you know what I find so funny? This is not the first interview I have done about my brief appearance at industryand you’re the only person who specifically asked about this scene. It’s like me saying, “Guys, I’m a one-episode guest star. I have a one-episode arc on this show where I’m in, like, three scenes, and you’re not going to ask me why you really want to interview me about this episode?” The reason it’s a big deal is because this is the first time I’ve been completely frontal. Let’s be honest.
Did you even have to think about whether to say yes?
When I said yes, I didn’t think about it at all. It was an exciting opportunity to do something really different. And as I said in my famous Netflix special, my nude photos are out there. If you want to see me naked, they’re readily available if you know the right search terms and visit the dark web sites. And I still regularly send my nude photos of myself to random strangers to this day. So at first it didn’t seem like a big deal to do that, I would say.
Tell me about the moment when you were on set, it was time and the camera was about to start rolling. How did that feel for you?
It’s crazy because I didn’t realise until right before we started shooting. In all my nude photos that were leaked online before, it’s because of my hard penis, OK? There are a lot of variables that go into a flaccid penis. It can look so different. Stress is a big factor. I woke up and thought, ‘I can’t think about this because the more I think about it, the more I’ll go crazy.’ And then you lose control of what’s going on down there. I have to say that I shot the majority of my scenes with Harry Lawtey, who plays Robert in the show. (He was) so nice, so welcoming, I really felt like part of the team. industry. He has also been in my position and shot the scene frontally and I couldn’t have had a better partner to calm me down and allow me to really focus on the actual scene and not think about what was going on below.
