When Jon Bernthal filmed his first episode of The Bear, during the show’s first season, he did it on his lunch break. It was early 2022, and he was the lead of Showtime’s American Gigolo, a job that required him to be in Los Angeles — and on set — every day. But he got a call from his old friend Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Bernthal’s first professional gig was understudying for Moss-Bachrach in an off-Broadway play) about an enthralling opportunity. “Ebon was like, I’m doing this thing and it’s really special, and there’s a role that’s really important we want you to do,” he says. “He’s the kind of guy who isn’t talking about, ‘Oh it’s going to be a massive hit or commercially successful.’ He told me it’s an incredible group of people doing this for the right reasons.”
Bernthal broke the news about his time constraints, and a few minutes later Moss-Bachrach called back to tell him that Christopher Storer’s The Bear was going to move the entire production to Los Angeles for the day and shoot the scene in one of the producer’s kitchens. “I was like, ‘What is this show? Is this a student film? This is going to be on TV?’ ” he says with a laugh. “But then they showed up and it was the happiest group of people I’ve ever seen.” That brief guest spot, with Bernthal playing the late Mikey — Carmy’s brother and the previous chef of The Beef— became an integral part of the high-stakes Hulu show and a beloved experience for Bernthal. Now, on the heels of an Emmy nomination for his appearance in the second season’s flashback episode “Fishes” — he also received a nomination for guest acting in season one’s “Braciole” episode — he tells THR why.
What did you know about Mikey before that first day of filming?
I understood that what Chris Storer needed from that version of Mikey was this larger-than-life, charismatic guy. In the way that we sometimes glorify and romanticize folks that we’ve lost, we want to see this version of him — his winning smile and ability to take over a room with his energy. When season two came around and I actually got to go to Chicago and be part of the set, I saw that we needed the other side of Mikey. We needed to see the damage and the ugliness, to see him spiraling. It was such a cool exercise for me as an actor to be able to plant these buoys in the water about who he is and why he has this resonance over his family, even though he could be really ugly at times.
Which elements of “Fishes” felt the most important to nail?
I was really excited to build the conflict with Bob Odenkirk — to find these moments that weren’t written, that were about why he drives me crazy, why these two characters go at each other. There’s nothing like family to really go for the jugular, to know how to say that one truthful and cutting thing. Both of our characters were happy to go there.
Were you throwing real forks at Bob?
They started out as soft forks, but I didn’t like the way they flew through the air. When they hit Bob, they’ve got to bounce off of him in a way that looks real and has the right weight. We finally settled on something in between — it was a heavy plastic.
Do you remember what you felt when you found out how stacked the guest cast was going to be in the episode?
I figured everybody would want to do this. It’s the sort of thing people would walk through walls to be in. So I wasn’t surprised as the names started coming in. But then you get really intimidated, like, “Gosh, I hope I can carry my weight with these people.” It’s funny, Ebon sort of said to me at the end of the week taping this, “I kind of want you guys to all go home.” (Laughs.) It’s like having your in-laws over. We’re all stuffed into this house, and eventually the main cast just wanted to get back to their show. And that’s exactly how they should be feeling, so I appreciated it.
This story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
