The Bear star Ebon Moss-Bachrach weighed in on the future of his character Richie’s journey ahead of the show’s third season.
“I think for Richie, he’s become aware that there’s a path for him to find purpose and live a maybe fuller life, a richer life, in a way,” Moss-Bachrach said during an appearance on The Daily Show. “But just because he’s aware of that path doesn’t mean that he’s cruising up to the top.”
Moss-Bachrach’s Richie is a hardened Chicagoan turned passionate fine dining host in FX’s The Bear, which stars Jeremy Allen-White and Ayo Edebiri as Carmy and Sydney, two chefs. Richie, a lifelong friend turned “Cousin” of Carmy, struggles to express his emotions, but made strides in a particularly heartfelt season two episode.
“When he’s yelled for 46 years, you know, I think it’s hard to maybe [retire] the outdoor voice,” Moss-Bachrach added.
But is the hardened exterior fun to play? “Yeah,” Moss-Bachrach said.
“I think of myself as a fairly socialized, polite person. I live in New York, with many millions of other people. And you kind of have to, you know, fall in line.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Moss-Bachrach spoke about how he was drawn to Richie from the beginning.
“It was one of those rare scripts where I read it and within a few pages, especially this character, it just felt so vital and alive,” he said. “A lot of the time I find myself like having to create a character a lot, you know, like the script is kind of open-ended, and you sort of have to figure things out and build and create a lot. And this one, he just felt really fully formed. And I just had a strong connection.”
Plus, he added, “I also felt like I knew people like this. I’ve run into folks like this a lot, and spent some time and loved dearly, some Richie kind of characters throughout my life.”
Moss-Bachrach said having empathy for his character is also the heart of what makes The Bear so beloved. “I read the first two scripts through the audition process, and I just thought it was really funny and sort of tender, in a way, this story about this kind of found family.”
Nevertheless, watching first season’s pilot surprised him. “When I watched [it] and it was so, frenetic and crazy,” Moss-Bachrach said. “I was like, ‘Oh, wow.’ That is not, in any way, what I envisioned the thing to be like. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I called my wife in and friends, I was like, ‘Is this viable?’”
The actor said his friends and family supported him, and eventually, he was able to “marry the thing I saw with the thing I read.”
Season three of The Bear will release June 27 on Hulu.
