“If it’s not perfect, it doesn’t go out.”
That’s the direction Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) gives protégé Sydney Adamu (Ayo Edebiri) in Season 3 of FX’s The Bear, and it’s the same guiding principle that series creator and executive producer Christopher Storer has been following since he first conceived of the Emmy®-, Golden Globe®-, and Screen Actors Guild® Award-winning series.
One of FX’s most critically acclaimed and popular comedies, The Bearreturns this Wednesday, June 26, at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, with 10 episodes on Hulu*. In Season 3, all eyes on are on Carmy’s recently reimagined restaurant—and in real life, all eyes are on the cast and crew, who recently wrapped production in Chicago. “We were just coming off the success of awards season, so I was very anxious,” White admits. “I knew the scripts were strong… but the pressure is very real. After a couple of weeks of being around [the cast] and our beautiful crew, everything fell back into place.”
“It all felt fun again,” White adds. “It felt possible again.”
This season, Carmy, Sydney, Richard “Richie” Jerimovich (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and their loyal crew want to elevate The Bear, a former beef stand turned fine dining establishment. That’s easier said than done, of course—and as the temperature rises, tensions are likely to boil over. After his last breakdown, White says, “I think Carmy does what he [always] does: He buries himself into his work and really tries to challenge himself. In doing so, he really challenges everybody around him—and becomes quite challenging to be around, as well.”
So, to motivate himself and his crew, Carmy creates a list of “non-negotiables” that urges them to “push boundaries” and “constantly evolve through creativity,” among other things. (The cast’s list of non-negotiables was easier to execute than their characters’, Edebiri says with a laugh: “Be nice to each other. Learn your lines. Show up prepared. Stay hydrated.”)
Also in Season 3, Carmy will offer Sydney a partnership agreement so they can continue to bring out the best in one another—and this time, to do so as equals. “One of the things this season deals with is what that means to Sydney and what that next step means for her relationship with Carmy,” Edebiri says. “Carmy is somebody she really looked up to… but it’s a lot more chaotic than she might’ve idealized before they really started working together.”
While Carmy is “not the best communicator,” White acknowledges, “he will often make a grand gesture like that… I think that’s his way of reaching out. But oftentimes, people aren’t prepared to receive. He’s got a lot going on in his mind all the time, and people aren’t always aware of what’s going on. You’ll see how that affects Carmen and Syd’s relationship.”
Carmy, Sydney, and Richie, and the rest of The Bear’s staff—which includes Natalie “Sugar” Berzatto (Abby Elliott), Marcus Brooks (Lionel Boyce), Tina Marrero (Liza Colón-Zayas), and Neil Fak (executive producer Matty Matheson)—will face a number of new challenges and opportunities throughout Season 3. Underneath it all is an undercurrent of grief, which has always been “one of the connecting threads of the show,” Edebiri says. At the same time, Moss-Bachrach argues, it is perhaps The Bear‘s “greatest strength. Grief is the river that runs through all of us; it’s maybe one of the only things that we all share in the human experience. That continues [in Season 3]. Everyone deals with it in their own way—or not.”
While things may get heavy onscreen, that’s never the case behind the scenes.
“The workplace feels very safe and warm,” Moss-Bachrach says. “When you feel supported that way and taken care of, you feel entitled to dig deeper, to share more personal things, and to take risks.” Everyone on set has been empowered with a sense of “agency,” Moss-Bachrach adds: “Everyone feels entitled to say how they feel, to collaborate, to contribute.”
*Internationally, Disney+ will drop all 10 episodes simultaneously at the new time in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Gibraltar, the Balkans, Singapore, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Egypt, and select countries in the Middle East, and will launch Season 3 of The Bear in all other territories at a later date.
