The Original Beef of Chicagoland is now a fine dining restaurant in Season 3 of FX’s The Bear, or at least it’s trying to be. “I do get out of the walk-in refrigerator,” Jeremy Allen White joked about where we left his character Carmy. FX recently held a press conference for the third season, but the nature of what the new season would entail was kept tightly under wraps. “Carmy does what he does, which is he sort of buries himself back into his work and really tries to challenge himself and in doing so, really challenges everybody around him, and I think becomes quite challenging to be around, as well.”
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Prior to getting stuck in the revamped restaurant’s walk-in refrigerator, Carmy and his cousin Richie had an explosive fight on Friends and Family Night at The Bear. “Season 3 picks up not long after Season 2 ends,” Ebon Moss-Bachrach revealed. “Richie is in a place where he's been exposed to a more evolved way of being, and I think he sees a path to head towards. But it's one thing to see the path, and it's another thing to walk it.” While the cast was cautious to give away any plot details for the new season, they were very open to talking about the on-set experience. “The workplace feels very safe and warm,” Ebon said of reuniting with his family from The Bear. “When you feel supported that way and taken care of, I feel entitled to dig deeper and share more personal things and take risks. It creates a far more dynamic story to tell. And I think I probably speak for everyone, and probably for a lot of our crew, everyone has agency on our set. Everyone feels entitled to say how they feel, to collaborate, to contribute. And it makes for a really exciting place to make a TV show.”
One of the show’s breakout stars, Ayo Edebiri, adds a new credit to her multihyphenate name this season – director. “It's a dream to get to work with our crew as an actor, and so then by extension of directing, that feeling was only amplified. I was so impressed, and so moved every day. Then, I got to direct some of my favorite actors in the world, and it felt like a bit of a masterclass, but it was also a gift.” Series creator and co-showrunner Chris Storer let the cast read the entire ten-episode season ahead of filming, and he asked Ayo which episode she would like to direct. “I was like, ‘I would literally give you my firstborn child, who does not exist yet, if I could do the Liza episode because I would love to work with Liza in that way.’ And then, he was like, ‘Well, we have nice little parallel thinking.’” It turned out that Chris had that same episode in mind for Ayo’s directorial debut.
Liza Colón-Zayas is back as Tina. “What's up with Tina is she is struggling to be her best,” Liza shared about her character’s Season 3 journey. “[She’s] wrestling with the demons of her past, and white-knuckling.” While the life she portrays on screen is chaotic, Liza echoed everyone else’s praise for the cast, crew, and creative team of The Bear. “[We have] the best cast, the best writers and creators, the crew. There's so much kindness. I love what we have going on. It's very special.”
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The Bear has created a lot of unplanned opportunities for its cast and crew. In addition to Ayo Edebiri, assistant director Duccio Fabbri also directs an episode this season. And for Matty Matheson, a professional chef turned TV personality, joining The Bear as a producer and writer on the first season came with his acting debut as Neil, a role that has continued to expand. “They saw that I could remember a couple more lines,” Matty joked about how his role has grown. But he’s still an integral part of how food is depicted on the show. “Courtney Storer is also a producer, and she handles a lot of the menu development,” Marry revealed. “I work with her and her team and ideation stuff of what Carmy and Syd would be thinking about, and how to execute those types of dishes and create those types of menus and who they are and how they would present themselves through a culinary lens.”
“Because the restaurant is elevating, Marcus has to elevate,” Lionel Boyce said of his character, which meant the actor had to learn some new cooking techniques. “I was working with Courtney Storer and Malcolm Livingston, learning more techniques and just making really cool things. I learned how to make Nutella from scratch. That was cool. It's not for the show, but I have this thing I can do.”
The Bear is back, and with the cast and crew getting along famously, everyone seemed to be in a place to do their best work this season. But that doesn’t mean it was easy. “The pressure is real,” Jeremy Allen White shared, with the show being both a streaming success and a critical achievement. “I don't think I'd worked between Season 2 and Season 3. We'd just come off the success of awards season, and I was very anxious. I knew the scripts were so strong, and we have a great opportunity, like we always do. But yeah, the pressure is very real. But then, after a couple weeks of kind of getting back around these guys and our beautiful crew, everything kind of falls back into place. And it feels fun again, and it all feels possible again.”
All 10 episodes of Season 3 of FX’s The Bear are now streaming on Hulu.