Latest news with #TheBear
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
F1 the Movie to Squid Game: the week in rave reviews
Disney+; full series available now Summed up in a sentence The Bear isn't the chaotic 'Yes, chef!' drama it used to be – but that's no bad thing, as it is beautiful to watch this urban family grow. What our reviewer said 'Payoffs big and small ping in every scene as narrative seeds carefully sown – including in that bad third season! – burst into bloom and these people we have come to adore are rewarded.' Jack Seale Read the full review Further reading 'Shh, chef!' The agonising, joyful power of silent TV episodes Netflix; full series available now Summed up in a sentence The Korean dystopian thriller is now much less pointed than its first stellar series, and it has become ludicrous even by its own standards – but fans simply must know how it all ends! What our reviewer said 'If you can get on board with the new contestant twist – and that is a big if – then the final two episodes have a nicely grand and operatic feel to them, and ultimately, Squid Game does its job. But it leaves the impression, too, that it has become a more traditional action-thriller than it once was.' Rebecca Nicholson Read the full review Further reading 'People like happy endings. Sorry!' Squid Game's brutal finale ramps up the barbarity BBC One/iPlayer; available now Summed up in a sentence As he grieves his beloved father, the atheist broadcaster sets off on a pilgrimage that takes him on a surprisingly glorious spiritual adventure. What our reviewer said 'What Amol Rajan Goes to the Ganges expresses most powerfully of all, certainly to this fellow bereaved Hindu, are the irresolvable particularities, and commonalities, of second-generation grief.' Chitra Ramaswamy Read the full review Channel 4; both series available now Summed up in a sentence The second series of Bridget Christie's whimsical and wonderful menopause story is life-affirming – with cracking comedy moments. What our reviewer said 'The Change is ambitious, surreal, moving, and above all hysterically funny. It is unlike anything else on TV.' Chitra Ramaswamy Read the full review Further reading Bridget Christie on brain fog, flirting, and why she won't be taking a lover: 'My heart is full. I am open to it, but I'm not looking for it' In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence Brad Pitt stars as a supercool old-school driver returning 30 years after a near fatal crash to break all the rules of Formula One racing. What our reviewer said 'Motor racing is a sport in which constituent team members seem to be competing against each other as much as against the opposition, and so it ought to be an ideal subject for a movie treatment. There's a fair bit of macho silliness here, but the panache with which director Joseph Kosinski puts it together is very entertaining.' Peter Bradshaw Read the full review Further reading Brad Pitt in the paddock: how F1 the Movie went deep to keep fans coming In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence Heart-wrenching true story about anti-Nazi activist Hilde Coppi, a dental assistant who is arrested while pregnant What our reviewer said 'Hilde's story, told here by interspersing scenes of her grim prison life and the first summer of her love affair with Hans, is comparable to that of iconic anti-Hitler activist Sophie Scholl, but this is a more adult, passionate drama.' Peter Bradshaw Read the full review In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence Documentary that draws on director Hind Meddeb's on-the-spot experience in 2019 as protesters rose against the 30-year rule of Omar al-Bashir. What our reviewer said 'Meddeb finds among the protesters a vivid, vibrant artistic movement: an oral culture of music, poetry and rap which flourishes on the streets. There is also a kind of subversive, surrealist energy: the camera finds a mock traffic roadworks sign reading: 'Sorry for the Delay – Uprooting a Regime'.' Peter Bradshaw Read the full review In cinemas now Summed up in a sentence Thirtieth anniversary rerelease of Amy Heckerling's high-school romcom coming-of-age classic starring Alicia Silverstone and Brittany Murphy, composed entirely of quotable funny lines, remains a sophisticated pleasure. What our reviewer said 'Silverstone is amazingly innocent and charming and her sublimely weightless screen presence has a kind of serenity and maturity that belongs to an instinctive comedy performer.' Peter Bradshaw Read the full review Further reading Alicia Silverstone to reprise Clueless role in TV sequel Prime Video; out now Summed up in a sentence Gory horror franchise returns with a hugely entertaining sixth instalment which sets up an entire family tree for the slaughter. What our reviewer said 'The most entertaining kills, which this time around involve everything from lawn tools to an MRI, have a Buster Keaton-esque flair for physical comedy. These sequences, along with the plot as a whole, tend to include little callbacks to the past: buses, barbecues, ceiling fans and logs make cameo appearances, thrilling little reminders of the havoc they can wreak in a Final Destination.' Radheyan Simonpillai Read the full review Reviewed by Marcel Theroux Summed up in a sentence A black comedy about endangered snails and Ukraine's marriage industry is disrupted, in both narrative and form, by Russia's full-scale invasion. What our reviewer said 'Rather than feeling distracting or tricksy, the author's intervention heightens the impact of the story, giving it a discomfiting intensity and a new, more intimate register. We all have skin in the game at this point.' Read the full review Reviewed by Lara Feigel Summed up in a sentence A flamboyant tale of fakery and forgers that delights in queering the Victorian era. What our reviewer said 'In book after book, Stevens is showing herself to be that rare thing: a writer who we can think alongside, even while she's making things up.' Read the full review Reviewed by Christopher Shrimpton Summed up in a sentence The perfect lives of wealthy New Yorkers are shattered by a violent act on a birthday weekend. What our reviewer said 'A bracingly honest and affectingly intimate depiction of abuse, family dynamics and self-deceit … it upends its characters' lives so ruthlessly and revealingly that it is hard not to take pleasure in a false facade being finally smashed.' Read the full review Reviewed by Joe Moran Summed up in a sentence Behind the scenes at the Guardian, 1986-1995. What our reviewer said 'Few events in these years, from the fatwa on Rushdie to the first Gulf war, failed to provoke fierce disagreements in the newsroom.' Read the full review Reviewed by Kathryn Hughes Summed up in a sentence How animals have shaped British identity. What our reviewer said 'Hedgehogs were reputed to sneak into human settlements at night and steal eggs (true) and suck the udders of sleeping cows (almost certainly false).' Read the full review Reviewed by Alex Clark Summed up in a sentence Life on the women's wards of Iran's infamous prison. What our reviewer said 'It is unclear how many of these dishes are materially realised within the confines of the prison, and how many are acts of fantasy, a dream of what life might be like in the future.' Read the full review Out now Summed up in a sentence After her 2021 album Solar Power embraced switching off, the New Zealand musician returns to pop's fray to revel in chaos and carnality. What our reviewer said 'Virgin is haunted by a very late-20s kind of angst, born of the sense that you're now incontrovertibly an adult, regardless of whether you feel like one – and despite the euphoric choruses, the sound of Virgin is noticeably unsettled and rough.' Alexis Petridis Read the full review Further reading Girl, so inspiring! Lorde's 20 best songs – ranked Out now Summed up in a sentence The mysterious new Sheffield-based artist's thrillingly complete sound world is glitchily complex but beguilingly light on its feet. What our reviewer said 'You can find affinities with other artists and styles here: the bookish but playful minimalism of another Sheffield musician, Mark Fell; Objekt's trickster vision for bass music and techno; the white-tiled cleanliness of some of Sophie's work; Jlin's paradoxically static funk. But the way it's all pulled together is totally NZO's.' Ben Beaumont-Thomas Read the full review Out now Summed up in a sentence The US singer's seventh album takes his meta-theatrical style almost into showtune territory as he confronts being abused by a camp counsellor as a child. What our reviewer said 'Christinzio's inventive, infuriating writing often packs three extra songs into every single track – but this time for good reason. When the chatter falls away on instrumental closer Leaving Camp Four Oaks, he achieves a hard-won, sun-lit sense of peace.' Katie Hawthorne Read the full review Out now Summed up in a sentence The US saxophonist pulls back the vocals of his last record to present a new ensemble and all-original repertoire, resulting in an ideal balance of ingenuity and rapport. What our reviewer said 'He has introduced a terrific new young road band on an all-original repertoire … the result is an album that feels more like an ideal balance of Redman's own ingenuity and his ensemble rapport.' John Fordham Read the full review On tour this week Summed up in a sentence The US singer-songwriter debuts some songs from her long-awaited new album The Right Person Will Stay on her first stadium tour. What our reviewer said 'Lana Del Rey is crying real tears next to plastic weeping willows, momentarily overcome by the size of the audience. This sort of tension, the push-pull between genuine vulnerability and an exploration of aesthetics, has always been there in her music, and her wonderfully ambitious first stadium tour runs on it.' Huw Baines Read the full review
The Age
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
The Bear is back and ready to be binged. Here's what you need to know
The FX dramedy The Bear arrived on Disney+ in the winter of 2022, and unlike a lot of award-winning TV, this series has stuck to a yearly release schedule, always arriving in late June. So get ready to start hearing 'Yes, chef!' during everyday interactions. Season 4 debuted in full in Australia on June 26, returning viewers to the eclectic, vibrant Chicago food scene and the struggling restaurant at the heart of the story, the Bear. At the end of last season, Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), the Bear's chef and co-owner, had just received a review in The Chicago Tribune that might determine whether or not his place stays open. But viewers still don't know what it says. They almost certainly will find out in the new episodes, though Christopher Storer, the creator of The Bear, likes to keep the show unpredictable. Here are some things to keep in mind going into the new season. Chaos on the menu
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘The Bear,' ‘My Mom Jayne,' Lorde's ‘Virgin,' and the best to stream this weekend: June 27, 2025
Like clockwork, it's time yet again for another helping of The Bear. More from Gold Derby Overexposing Pedro Pascal, revisiting that 'Sinners' spit scene, Springsteen 'Tracks II' ranked, and what to read this weekend: June 27, 2025 'F1: The Movie' - Instant Oscar predictions FX's award-winning comedy (we're not going to engage in that tired argument again) returns for its fourth season this week. Across 10 new episodes — all of which are now available to stream on Hulu — Carmy (Emmy winner Jeremy Allen White), Sydney (fellow Emmy winner Ayo Edebiri), Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach, also an Emmy winner), and the rest of the family are moving forward and attempting to make the restaurant a success following middling reviews that call out the chaos and inconsistency of their dishes. Their pursuit of culinary excellence in the face of yet more challenges — including dwindling operational expenses — drives the season, resulting in a compelling new chapter that makes The Bear the awards contender to watch this weekend. However, if you're looking for a more traditional drama, our other prestige picks include: Smoke: Black Bird's Dennis Lehane returns to Apple TV+ with this new series inspired by true events. Adapted from the Firebug podcast, the series follows a firefighter-turned-arson investigator who wants to be a writer (Taron Egerton, also an executive producer) and a police detective who's made one too many questionable choices (Jurnee Smollett) as they investigate two separate serial arsonists. The supporting cast includes Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Rafe Spall, Greg Kinnear, John Leguizamo, Anna Chlumsky, Hannah Emily Anderson, and Adina Porter. The first two episodes are now streaming on Apple TV+. Squid Game: Far be it from us to judge Netflix's decision to drop two seasons of its Emmy-winning drama just six months apart (though separate Emmy cycles, of course), but it does feel a bit like "too much of a good thing." Season 3, which also happens to be the South Korean drama's final season, follows Emmy winner Lee Jung-jae's Gi-hun as he attempts to stop the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun) and put an end to the deadly game at the heart of the series in the wake of his best friend's shocking death. All episodes are now streaming on Netflix. Ironheart: Marvel's latest series was years in the making, having been announced in late 2020 at a time when the MCU was growing mostly because Disney needed more content for its new streaming service. The six-episode series follows the minor character of Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), an engineering prodigy introduced in 2022's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, as she lands back home in Chicago after her experiments get her expelled from MIT. In need of cash to fix the suit of armor she nicked on her way out, Riri teams up with a group of thieves, which goes about as well as you think it does. The first three episodes are now streaming on Disney+. Our top movie streaming pick this week is My Mom Jane, Mariska Hargitay's documentary about her mother, actress and sex symbol Jayne Mansfield. The film, which is Hargitay's directorial debut, premiered at Cannes and also screened at the Tribeca Film Festival. After a small theatrical run, it's now streaming on Max. The heartfelt and personal documentary follows Law & Order: SVU star Hargitay on a journey to better understand and feel close to her mother, whom Hargitay has no memory of, as she died in a car accident when Hargitay was 3. Through interviews with her older siblings and looking at Mansfield's archival materials, Hargitay gets a full portrait of her mother in all of her complexity, and explores how being Jayne Mansfield's daughter shaped her own life and career. If you're not into celebrity documentaries, here are some other new releases to watch this weekend on streaming or video on demand: The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie: Here's a fairly surprising fact: this is the first fully animated, theatrically released Looney Tunes movie in the franchise's 95-year history. It's a rambunctious, gag-filled ode to classic Looney Tunes that finds Daffy Duck and Porky Pig teaming up to try to stop an alien invasion. The film was initially developed for Max, which dropped it during Zaslav's Purge of 2022, and now, ironically, is back on Max after all. : Danielle Deadwyler stars in this daylight ghost story that did better than expected in theaters earlier this year. The Bear Season 4 scene-stealer plays Ramona, a mother of two who is grieving the death of her husband in a car accident. One day, a mysterious woman, shrouded in black, appears in the front yard of their house. She sits there and says 'today's the day' in a spooky singsong voice. She's very menacing. No spoilers, but it's one of those horror movies that's very literal about giving a physical form to psychological conditions. Critics praised Deadwyler's performance, but felt the plot gets too complicated in the third act. Stream in on Peacock and decide for yourself. : This psychological horror indie is the directorial debut of Destry Allyn Spielberg, youngest biological daughter of Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw. It's set in a post-apocalyptic America where a plague has wiped out most of the adult population, and follows a group of orphans who get taken in by one of the few remaining adults (Michelle Dockery). She turns out to be insane, and wants one of the teenage kids (Zoe Colletti) to become the daughter she lost. It's a tough situation for everyone. The film is streaming on Tubi. : An under-the-radar black comedy starring Nick Kroll and Andrew Rannells, I Don't Understand You finds the humor in an increasingly bad situation. The film follows Dom (Kroll) and Cole (Rannells) on an Italian vacation to celebrate their anniversary and accidentally kill an elderly woman. As they try to cover it up, they keep digging the hole deeper. The cast also includes The Gilded Age star Morgan Spurlock as the woman's son, and Amanda Seyfried as the mother of a baby Dom and Cole are planning to adopt. It's now available to rent or buy on VOD platforms including Amazon. The banger maker is back with her fourth album, Virgin, and critics are loving it so far! Listen now before all of pop music sounds like this in a year. Bruce Springsteen's sprawling Tracks II: The Lost Albums box set dropped this week to gushing reviews hailing it as a "treasure trove" of unreleased material. If you're a fan, your weekend plans are set. The erstwhile duo and early aughts indie-rock royalty, the White Stripes, are celebrating the 20th anniversary of Get Behind Me Satan and, as a part of the look back, have released a new video for their track "Red Rain." Best of Gold Derby Everything to know about 'The Batman 2': Returning cast, script finalized Cristin Milioti, Amanda Seyfried, Michelle Williams, and the best of our Emmy Limited Series/Movie Actress interviews Paul Giamatti, Stephen Graham, Cooper Koch, and the best of our Emmy Limited Series/Movie Actor interviews Click here to read the full article.
Hamilton Spectator
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
What to Stream: ‘The Bear,' Lorde, ‘Smoke,' ‘A Minecraft Movie,' ‘Nosferatu' and Nelly and Ashanti
The Jack Black-led movie phenomenon 'A Minecraft Movie' and Lorde's fourth studio album, 'Virgin,' are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you. Also among the streaming offerings worth your time, as selected by The Associated Press' entertainment journalists : All 10 episodes of season four of FX's 'The Bear' drop Wednesday, Nelly and Ashanti get their own reality show and Bill Skarsgård leads an update of the 1922 silent vampire classic 'Nosferatu.' New movies to stream from June 23-29 — The Porky Pig and Daffy Duck movie 'The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie' comes to HBO Max on Friday (it will also broadcast on HBO on June 28 at 8 p.m. ET). Reviews were a little mixed, but mostly positive for the full-length animated feature. Bob Strauss wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle that 'The laugh ratio is more hit-and-miss than in the tightly scripted shorts, but enough jokes land to satisfy most funny bones.' The film had a wild ride to end up where it was originally intended, including a theatrical release in December not from Warner Bros. but Ketchup Entertainment (who will also distribute the previously shelved 'Coyote vs. Acme' ). — Mariska Hargitay's documentary about her mother Jayne Mansfield, 'My Mom Jayne,' will also be streaming on HBO Max on Friday. The Hollywood bombshell died in a car accident at 34, when Hargitay was only 3. — La-la-la-lava, ch-ch-ch-chicken, Steve's lava chicken is now streaming on HBO Max, as is the rest of 'A Minecraft Movie.' A box office phenomenon with over $950 million in worldwide ticket sales and counting, this movie adaptation of the popular game stars Jack Black and Jason Momoa. In his AP review, Mark Kennedy wrote that 'the Jared Hess-directed action-adventure artfully straddles the line between delighting preteen gamers and keeping their parents awake. It's an often-bananas adaptation, with bizarre digressions into turquoise blouses and tater tot pizzas. It has Jennifer Coolidge being very Jennifer Coolidge. Need we say more?' — Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp and Bill Skarsgård lead the Robert Eggers-directed update of the 1922 silent vampire classic 'Nosferatu,' streaming on Prime Video starting Friday. Jocelyn Noveck wrote in her AP review that 'it will chill you to the bone' but that 'it may not terrify you.' Everything, she adds, in Eggers 'faithful, even adoring remake ... looks great. But with its stylized, often stilted dialogue and overly dramatic storytelling, it feels more like everyone is living in a quaint period painting rather than a world populated by real humans (and, well, vampires) made of flesh and, er, blood.' — AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr New music to stream from June 23-29 — What will the next era of Lorde look like? 'What Was That,' the singer's first new single in four years, recalls the clever synth-pop of her 2017 album 'Melodrama,' casting aside the folk detour of 2021's 'Solar Power.' The song that followed, 'Man of the Year,' is stripped and spare – just Lorde and a sorrowful bass. Who knows what will come next? Listeners will have to wait until Friday when she releases her fourth studio album, 'Virgin.' (Read AP's review.) — The 'F1' movie, starring Brad Pitt and Damson Idris, is quickly gearing up to be a summer tentpole. Naturally, the filmmakers knew its sound had to be massive, too. That arrives via a score by the many-time Oscar winner Hans Zimmer and a huge soundtrack releasing as 'F1 The Album' via Atlantic Records, the team behind the award-winning 'Barbie' album — with bespoke tracks from Chris Stapleton, Ed Sheeran, Myke Towers, Blackpink's Rosé, Tate McRae and many more. Learn all about how the soundtrack came together here. — On Friday, arty alt-rock legends Failure will receive documentary treatment in 'Every Time You Lose Your Mind: A Film about Failure,' available to stream on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+. The unorthodox and influential band finally gets their due in the project, directed by frontman Ken Andrews. And don't worry if Failure isn't a familiar name to you. Some of the featured voices in the documentary certainly will be: Paramore's Hayley Williams, actor Jason Schwartzman, comedian Margaret Cho, legendary producers Steve Albini and Butch Vig and many more participate. — AP Music Writer Maria Sherman New series to stream from June 23-29 — All 10 episodes of season four of FX's 'The Bear' dropped Wednesday on Hulu. Viewers will find out if Michelin-starred chef Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) can successfully run an acclaimed and profitable fine dining restaurant in Chicago. The series has led to acting awards for White, Ayo Edebiri, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Liza Colón-Zayas. — Jensen Ackles ('Supernatural,' 'Tracker') stars in a new crime thriller series for Prime Video called 'Countdown.' Ackles plays a LAPD detective assigned to a task force investigating the murder of a government official. Eric Dane of 'Grey's Anatomy' and 'Euphoria' also stars. It premiered Wednesday. — Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez's second shot at love didn't work out but there's another celebrity couple who has rekindled a past flame. Recording artists Nelly and Ashanti were an item for more than 10 years before their breakup in 2013. They got back together in 2023 and are now married with a son. The pair are the subject of their own reality show called 'Nelly & Ashanti: We Belong Together.' It debuted Thursday on Peacock. — Taron Egerton and Jurnee Smollett star in the new thriller 'Smoke' for Apple TV+ as investigators working together to catch two serial arsonists. It's created by Dennis Lehane and based on a true story where an arson investigator turned out to be a serial arsonist. 'Smoke' reunites Egerton and Lehane who worked on the Apple limited-series 'Blackbird.' John Leguizamo and Greg Kinnear also appear in 'Smoke,' out Friday. — 'Nautilus,' a reimagining of Jules Verne's novel 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas' comes to AMC+ Friday. It's an origin story of the character known as Captain Nemo and portrayed by Shazad Latif. Nemo is an Indian prince whose birthright was stolen from him and he's on a mission for revenge. — Alicia Rancilio New video games to play from June 23-29 — In 2019's Death Stranding, a courier named Sam worked to reconnect survivors in a postapocalyptic America beset by 'beached things,' gooey monsters trapped between the worlds of the living and the dead. Sam is back in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach , but now he faces a question we've all asked in the internet age: Was connecting everyone really such a good idea? The series is the brainchild of legendary 'Metal Gear Solid' mastermind Hideo Kojima, and fans know they can expect a complex story, flamboyant graphics and some off-the-wall gameplay ideas. (The original included a lot of walking and inventory management next to some mind-blowing boss battles.) Norman Reedus of 'The Walking Dead' returns as Sam, and yes, he's still carrying a baby who has psychic powers. Embrace the weirdness Thursday on PlayStation 5. — Lou Kesten
Elle
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Elle
Abby Elliott on the ‘Vanderpump Rules' Character that Inspired Her Feud Scene in ‘The Bear'
Spoilers below. If Carmen Berzatto ultimately decides to leave the restaurant from which FX's hit dramedy The Bear draws its name, fans are certain to riot—but Natalie 'Sugar' Berzatto will have done her job well. As the older sister to Jeremy Allen White's emotionally stunted chef Carmy, Natalie has spent her entire life looking out for her mother and brothers, gamely putting up with their 'bullshit,' as actress Abby Elliott puts it. But at the beginning of the newest season of The Bear, she's a new mother and an operations manager at a struggling restaurant—and, frankly, too exhausted not to be forthright. 'I think because she's exhausted, because she's a new mom, she's able to really express a little more to Carmy what she's feeling,' Elliott says. 'So she's telling Carmy, 'If you're not in love with [the restaurant business] anymore, that's okay.' And that may not have been something that she could have said before.' The scene Elliott is referencing takes place in episode 2, and is one of several moments that underscore season 4's focus on emotional release after the pressure-cooker pace of season 3. 'Catharsis: I feel like that is exactly what this season is,' Elliott says. As an actress, she found it increasingly difficult to separate herself from what Natalie was undergoing on-camera. 'I really, really feel all of her feelings, which is a new thing for me on TV shows. I go through the emotions of Natalie now and feel like I am living in it.' But, of course, Natalie's role isn't simply as The Bear's budget-minded brain or its emotional engine. Elliott's comedic background—she was a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2008 to 2012, and has starred in several sitcoms since—goes a long way toward legitimizing the FX series' status as a bona fide comedy. A standout scene arrives during a much-hyped wedding showdown in episode 7, during which actress Brie Larson makes a guest-star appearance as Natalie's frenemy, Francie Fak. Elliott's inflections around phrases like, 'Francie Fucking Fak!' and 'You were drunk as shit!' make an otherwise overwhelming shouting match a treat to watch. 'Tonally, you really have to ground it and sell it,' Elliott says. 'It really is about playing everything super-grounded and real, trying to feel those feelings, to get to a place of, 'I'm fighting with her because I'm genuinely heartbroken by what she did.' And then trusting that it will be edited and directed in a way that feels [both funny and dramatic].' Below, Elliott discusses working with White on strengthening Carmy and Natalie's bond; how Vanderpump Rules inspired her performance with Larson; and what that crucial finale scene means for Natalie's future in The Bear. When we read [the scripts], it makes so much sense to us. And with Jeremy, our relationship has naturally evolved on-camera, and I feel closer to him now off-camera. I genuinely didn't know how [the scene in episode 2] was going to come out in the moment. I didn't know how emotional it would feel, and that's how [show creator] Chris Storer approaches everything: It's all really fresh and not overly rehearsed. And every time I'm [filming a scene] on the phone, there is an actor also on the [other side of the] phone. Jeremy was really on the phone with me, and Carmy's felt so different this time than the times that he's apologized in the past. Now that Carmy and Natalie are in this emotional place together and she says this thing, it almost feels like a seed she's planting. It brings him to a different place. And then we see her come into the restaurant with the baby, and his face lights up. The way it's shot is so light; the directorial choices were so beautiful in that moment. Everything's coming to light, literally and figuratively. Absolutely. I think, now more than ever, she needs support. She's a new mom, and she still has this very complicated relationship with [her mother] Donna. Them coming together and connecting in the labor episode [last season]? That wasn't really this reconciliation. She's still like, 'Fuck this' when her mom calls her. I think she knows she needs support now. And Pete is a huge part of that. He's the antithesis of how she grew up, and you see her being grateful for him. In the wedding episode, she's reassuring him that she wasn't in love with Francie; it's always been Pete. I love those moments with him, and I love the moments in bed where Nat and him are being affectionate. I think they're so important for Nat's character, to see her not just being walked on and giving too much of herself to Carmy and the restaurant. Chris Storer and I have been having conversations about this since season 2, when the concept of Francie first gets introduced. We were like, 'Who is she?' We talked about Stassi [Schroeder] from Vanderpump Rules. And we were like, 'I think she's kind of like Stassi.' Then, I think it was between seasons 2 and 3, I was at the L.A. Natural History Museum, and I saw Stassi. I was like, 'Oh my God.' I was so embarrassed because my kid was having a tantrum and her kid was so well-behaved, and [Storer] was like, 'This is perfect. This is so Natalie and Francie.' Another thing that Chris and I talked about: I was watching a reality show with all these women at this wedding in those Hill House nap dresses. And I was like, 'It'd be so funny if [Francie and Natalie] are going at each other in these Little-Bo-Peep pastel dresses.' So we tried to do that with the wardrobe in episode 7; she's wearing a headband and I'm wearing a headband. Everything's very cute, and then we're going into this dark drunken backstory. It was my favorite thing to shoot. That episode felt so much like My Best Friend's Wedding and The Wedding Singer and all of those kind of '90s/2000s movies that you watch and you're like, 'Oh, I wish I was at that wedding.' There was a scene in My Best Friend's Wedding, which takes place in Chicago, and [Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz] are in the bathroom at Wrigley Field. Cameron's wearing a little headband and she's in pastel, and she goes off on Julia's character. I kept watching that scene before [filming episode 7] to really get me into it. So much goes down at weddings. It's such a perfect backdrop for drama and comedy. And then when Brie stepped in, it made it all the more perfect. We really hit it off. I think we're pretty similar, and she's so funny. I love her. We were simpatico from the start, which was so much fun to play. And even though we do, sort of, find out [the source of Natalie and Francie's feud], it's still a little unclear! When I was in the scene and when I performed it, I just felt heartbreak for Carmy. I felt heartbreak that he couldn't bring himself in to Mikey's funeral, that he was there and he couldn't get himself to go in. But then I think Sugar's overcome with pride for how far he's come. In that moment, she wants him to be okay. That hug is a hug of support: I got you. I'm going to lift you up and get you to where you want to be. If we were to have that opportunity, I'd love to see her continue supporting Carmy—to have this relationship with him that is now in a good place, a loving place on both sides. I think that she's so capable. She has this healthy work-life balance where... Yes, she's ambitious, but she's not going to [drive herself to the brink] over this restaurant. This was never really her dream. She's here for her brother, to support him, and then she fell in love with it and loves the Bear family. She has her home life, which is very satisfying to her, but she also knows how to operate the restaurant. She knows what she's doing. I'd like to see her continue down that path. For entertainment purposes, I would love to see her with Donna. I'd love to see Donna coming over to babysit. And then having something happen. [Laughs.] This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
