Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler) rejoins GQ to reveal his 10 Essentials, almost 5 years on from his first episode.The Canadian actor and musician breaks down his daily essentials: from his Rolex gifted by Stranger Things co-star Natalia Dyer (“Joe Keery got a sticker and I got a watch… who’s the favorite?”) to his South Park hat (“it’s a show I’ll never get sick of watching”). Watch the full episode of GQ’s 10 Essentials, as Finn Wolfhard reveals 10* more things he can’t live without.* probably not 10 things…HELL OF A SUMMER released exclusively in theaters on April 4, 2025. THE LEGEND OF OCHI is in select theaters April 18 and everywhere April 25. His debut solo record, Happy Birthday, is out June 6th.----------Director: Sam BalabanDirector of Photography: Brad WickhamEditor: Louville MooreTalent: Finn WolfhardSenior Producer: Lizzy HalberstadtLine Producer: Jen SantosProduction Manager: James PipitoneProduction Coordinator: Elizabeth HymesTalent Booker: Paige Garbarini, Meredith Judkins, Katie PearceCamera Operator: Lucas YoungGaffer: Niklas MollerAudio Engineer: Rachel SuffianProduction Assistant: Erica PalmieriPost Production Supervisor: Jess DunnPost Production Coordinator: Rachel KimSupervising Editor: Rob LombardiAssistant Editor: Billy Ward
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hey, I'm Finn Wolfhard, and these are my 10 updated essentials.
00:12I'm gonna be 100% honest. I just wanted this. This is not an essential.
00:16I mean, it's an essential now that I have it. I really like Columbo.
00:20I've seen like scattered episodes, but I love it every time I watch it.
00:23I want to watch the entire thing, and then I just thought about like,
00:26I wonder if they could get me a Columbo box set, and they did.
00:30It's the incomplete series. I was at a friend's house, my friend Colin and Andrew in Chicago,
00:36and they're like, you've never seen Columbo? I was like, no, and we just had this night
00:39where we watched like a bunch of Columbo episodes, and it was so fun, and for whatever reason,
00:44it just stuck in my head, and when I was asked to go on the show again, this was the thing that popped
00:50into my head and what I wanted to ask for, so. How do you close this?
00:54So that's Columbo. This is a DVD of the Simpsons movie. I'm a gigantic Simpsons fan,
01:00but like as a whole, I feel like the first whatever, like eight seasons are the best,
01:04and then the Simpsons movie was the thing that kind of like capped it off. I mean,
01:08I love this movie, and I won't get tired of it. It's one of my favorite openings to any movie of
01:12all time, where Homer Simpson tells the audience that they're idiots for watching the Simpsons movie,
01:17basically.
01:17Favorite Simpsons episode?
01:19Tab in my head. Favorite Simpsons episode? Homer Simpson versus the city of New York City.
01:23We're here at like where that episode takes place. That's one that comes to my head,
01:27but there's so many. There's hundreds of episodes that I love.
01:35This is Yeti Thermos. I was shooting a music video in the Rockies in Alberta,
01:40and I really had never been like exposed truly to the elements before, but this was the time
01:46where I actually felt like I was in like a National Geographic or like nature documentary,
01:49and I was terrified because I was really excited to be in that environment obviously,
01:53but also it's cold as hell. Bought as much thermal gear as I possibly could and layered up and then
01:58got this Yeti Thermos, and it honestly really saved me. It's like keeps stuff warm for so long,
02:05and I would fill it up with warm water in the morning, and it would keep me going throughout the
02:08entire day. So it kind of saved my ass like many times on that shoot.
02:14This is a Rolex Oyster Perpetual. Natalia Dyer, who's on Stranger Things with me, she
02:20has some beautiful watches, and when we finished the show, you know, after a year of filming,
02:26it was our last season, so it was a big milestone I think for everyone, and Natalia and I are very
02:30close, and she came to set and just like gave me a little bag with a letter that was to me that
02:37was like a very personal sweet letter, and this is what was with it. It's one of my prized possessions,
02:43and I wear every day. But it's just like a really classic watch. When it comes to like older Rolexes,
02:51I guess, you know, obviously Rolexes, Rolex, like they're a little more expensive, but this one
02:54I think specifically is a bit less expensive than the classic Rolexes, so it was definitely meaningful,
03:00super special, and one of my favorite items that I have. Yeah, Joe Kira got a sticker, and I got the wash.
03:05You know, who's the favorite?
03:09Okay, this is a Contax T3. Last time I was on this show, I was shooting on a T2, and I've shot on a
03:17bunch of different Contax. This is still like a big part of like traveling for me. I'll want to get
03:22the city that's around me, so I'll just try to walk around and take photos of the city or whatever's
03:28around me, and then sometimes I'll take like portraits of friends. For whatever reason,
03:31in the last few years, I've just been super into taking, yeah, landscape shots. Joe is like an
03:35amazing photographer, actually. Last year, when we were shooting Stranger Things, he shot so much.
03:42He had like a Leica that he was shooting that was a digital Leica that he shot in black and white,
03:49and a bunch of like point-and-shoot cameras that he would cycle through, and then on set he actually
03:55had so many photos that he made a zine out of it, and like made it as the rap gift to the crew and to
04:02the cast, which is really awesome. I think they'll come out like when the show comes out, just because
04:07there's so much spoiler stuff, but I'm excited for people to see those photos.
04:14Okay, beta blocker. No, this is propanolol. I found this out, I guess, years ago. It's a beta blocker,
04:21so it's like usually I guess used for people with high blood pressure, but people with anxiety that
04:26are people that like are nervous about public speaking take it a lot because it slows their
04:30heart rate down, and like it cuts the symptoms of like physical anxiety down, and I just thought
04:35if I'm going on a show or I'm talking about my essentials, I'm going to tell the truth. When needed,
04:40I'll take it, but I won't take it obviously like every day. It's only really when I have something
04:44that's like making me super nervous coming up. I'll take it before I perform sometimes, like on stage with
04:49my band or like by myself. I'm also, you know, naturally a very anxious person, so listen, it could
04:56just be grocery shopping. This is The Knicks by Nathan Hill. This is a book that I read over and
05:04over and over again last year. It's definitely one of the best books I've read, and I just love
05:09the characters in it so much. The book is just basically about this kid whose mom abandons him at a
05:14very young age. He grows up to sort of be this meandering older guy who teaches at a community
05:20college. He basically recognizes his mom in the news because after she abandoned him, she became this
05:25radical political activist, and he sees an opportunity essentially to not only kind of exploit her by
05:32writing a book about her, but also kind of as an excuse to like get to know his mom that abandoned him.
05:37The book is just about like reconnecting with family and your, I guess, biological roots and how they affect you
05:42as a person and how much of your life is like nature versus nurture, and yeah, I love it.
05:48This is a MacBook and it's got Logic on it. This is like the DAW that I've used basically the entire
05:56time I've made music. Now I use a lot of analog stuff, so I've been using tape and recording a cassette.
06:04Sometimes those break down and aren't as reliable as something like this, and I just love Logic. I don't
06:11know if it's like the the Starbucks of like music production, you know, software, but it really has
06:18always worked for me and always made sense to me because also like I the first songs I ever recorded
06:23were on GarageBand and this is basically just GarageBand on steroids. And these are my headphones.
06:27They're the AirPod Max's. I don't mix with this or anything. This is separate from music production.
06:31This is more just what I listen to music on when I'm like out and about. I haven't found any like
06:37Bluetooth wireless headphones that sound as good as these do, and they're like very comfortable,
06:41and they also block out noise in an awesome way. Like if you're on a plane or on, you know,
06:46on a train or any kind of automobile, but yeah, love these headphones.
06:54This is an empty Ridge wallet. I have one of these and I was going on a promotional tour for the film
07:01that I co-directed and left my house super confident being like, man, for the first time in a long time,
07:06I feel like I've just got everything. Like I've packed everything so right and realized by the time
07:10I was on the plane that I'd forgotten my wallet at my house. So this entire trip I've just been
07:15like just passport as my ID and just kind of like Venmoing people basically. But I realized how
07:24how truly obviously like much of an essential it is, specifically the Ridge wallet, and I'm not
07:28sponsored by them. It sounds like I am. I for years had this like old hand-me-down like roots wallet
07:35that was super thick and it was so heavy that I would put it in my pants and like literally make
07:40my pants fall down. It was like a joke amongst like me and my friends that I just had this like
07:45old man wallet that was literally falling apart. And then I got one of these and it's so small and
07:50sleek and like super easy to travel with. And it kind of legitimately did like change my day to day.
07:58It's just two pieces of metal stuck together with some cards in between and that's kind of all I, all I need.
08:03This is my baseball cap. It's like a vintage South Park hat. South Park is also just a gigantic
08:12inspiration. So integral to my childhood and life. My co-director of the film that I directed,
08:18Billy Brick, got this for me for my birthday a few years ago. It's my favorite hat that I wear
08:23everywhere. It has like this old Comedy Central logo at the back which I think is like the coolest
08:27version of that logo. It's a show that I will never get sick of watching. I'll go back and watch the
08:32same episodes over and over and over again. Sometimes like I'll actually enjoy and get
08:36more inspiration like watching South Park or watching like old episodes of The Simpsons
08:40sometimes than I do from like watching sometimes like new movies.
08:42I have these like brown Wrangler pants that I've literally worn for the last four years and there's
08:49just something about them that work for me. I don't know. They just like hug my leg well and like
08:57the material is awesome. My friend growing up lived in California and always had like such cool surf
09:05style and kind of skater boy like style and he would wear these and so they always stuck with me.
09:13They're like my favorite pants. This is a bronze shaver. I have the most disgusting facial hair of all
09:21time. This is great because it gets like super close. It's not like I get like long facial hair.
09:26My dad as long as I've he's been my dad has had a beard and that has not passed on to me in any way
09:33in any sense. The best I'll get is like literally as long as head hair on my neck going down. It's
09:40like truly disgusting. But I started using this on set last year. The charge lasts like forever on it
09:46which is awesome especially if you're traveling. I've gotten a lot of mileage off of it for sure.
09:53These are my 10 essentials. Thank you so much for watching. I don't know if I've ever seen
09:57the show where someone puts like their anxiety medication in a Columbo box set in the same
10:03episode which is deranged so you know I hope you get a kick out of it.