‘The Bear’ Star Ayo Edebiri on the High Expectations for Season 2: ‘I’m Trying Not to Feel Anything’

hit half-hour comedy “The Bear” picked up a whopping 13 2023 Emmy nominations in today’s big reveal — but in Hollywood’s eyes, the show, now in its second season, is already a winner, with A-listers calling their agents to secure them a quick cameo.The story revolves around talented-but-damaged chef Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), who moves home to Chicago after a three-Michelin-star stint, getting back to basics at the family’s Italian beef joint. “The Bear” received a nod for Outstanding Comedy Series, pitting it against big-hitters like Max’s “Barry” and Apple TV+’s “Ted Lasso.”Featuring top-notch performances from the likes of White (“Shameless”), Ayo Edebiri (“Big Mouth”) and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (“Girls”) — all of whom received Emmy nominations for their work in Season 1 — an additional highlight has been guessing which famous actors will pop up next, anywhere from a few moments to multiple episodes.

The Bear‘s second season places us in a frigid Chicago winter, where our beloved, stressed chef Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and his crew are hard at work turning their now-shuttered sandwich joint “The Beef” into “The Bear,” an upscale dining destination.The second season of Hulu’s surprise hit from Christopher Storer (Eighth Grade, Ramy) proves that without change, even the most timeless meals can go off.

Cardi B, Lee Pace and Diane Keaton show off their unique sense of style while attending the Thom Browne show during Paris Fashion Week on Monday (July 3) in Paris, France.

Emily Longeretta Just as it did in its first season, “The Bear” Season 2 created a powerful soundtrack, thanks to executive producers Josh Senior and Christopher Storer, who also oversee the series’ music. From Otis Redding and Pearl Jam, to R.E.M. and Taylor Swift, the duo were able to tell a story of itself through the needle drops — something that is just as important to them as the writing itself. When the writers room began, the group made a playlist and started sharing ideas with others on the team and even some of the actors, with Senior noting that Ayo Edebiri “is super helpful” in the entire process. “It’s the most fun thing we get to do on the show, in my opinion. It’s a blast,” says Senior. “Sometimes we take all the songs out and see if we miss them. Other times, we use the songs to syncopate the scenes and cut them really fast. It’s an integral part of the process. We don’t score the show after it’s cut.”

The Television Critics Association revealed its nominations for its 39th Annual TCA Awards with Succession, The Last of Us and The Bear leading the charge. Winners are scheduled to be announced on Monday, August 7.

Selome Hailu Though the Television Critics Association’s (TCA) summer 2023 press tour was canceled as a result of the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike, the annual TCA Awards move forward. This year, the final season of “Succession” was joined by two Season 1 series, “The Last of Us” and “The Bear,” as the most-nominated projects. Each was nominated for five awards among the fourteen total categories. TCA also added two new categories to the list this year, splitting Outstanding Achievement in Youth Programming into separate awards for children’s and family programming.

, FX's acclaimed dramedy about a fine-dining chef who takes over his late brother's failing Chicago sandwich shop, has returned with a stellar — and even more delicious — season 2. Adding to all the excitement and drama in the new episodes are a number of previously unannounced guest stars, from Jamie Lee Curtis to John Mulaney to Oliva Colman, who all make unexpected — but very notable — appearances throughout. Created by Christopher Storer, stars Jeremy Allen White as Carmy, the put-upon chef who returned home in the wake of his brother, Michael's (Jon Bernthal), suicide.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Fans spent a lot of the time out of the kitchen and in front of the TV over the weekend, saying “Yes, chef,” to the second season of FX’s “The Bear.” On Tuesday, FX and Hulu announced “The Bear” Season 2 had seen a 70% increase in total hours streamed in the first four days following its June 22 launch — when compared to the FX comedy’s first season stats over that same post-premiere time period. While FX and Hulu did not reveal the actual streaming figures behind that data point, the Disney-owned brands did confirm “The Bear’s” second season debut was the most-watched premiere of any FX series on Hulu.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Jennifer Lawrence may be an Oscar-winning actor, but she hasn’t let all that fame and fortune go to her head. “You immediately forget she’s a movie star when you meet her,” says Laura Benanti, who appears opposite Lawrence in the new R-rated comedy “No Hard Feelings.” “She’s so down to earth.” Lawrence stars in “No Hard Feelings” as an Uber driver who agrees to date a wealthy couple’s (Benanti and Matthew Broderick) socially awkward 19-year-old son (Andrew Barth Feldman) in exchange for a car. “Sure, at first I was nervous because it’s like, ‘How are you so beautiful?’” Benanti said of Lawrence. “But then I was immediately laughing with her. She’s so funny, silly and a hard worker. She’s not a princess. She is comfortable being uncomfortable.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor SPOILER ALERT: This story contains descriptions of specific scenes in “No Hard Feelings,” in theaters now. In “No Hard Feelings,” Jennifer Lawrence plays a 32-year-old Uber driver in the Hamptons whose car has been repossessed because she failed to pay her property taxes. She ends up answering a Craigslist ad posted by a wealthy couple (Laura Benanti and Matthew Broderick), offering a car in return for a woman to date their socially awkward 19-year-old son (Andrew Barth Feldman) to prepare him for college life. The movie is a raunchy R-rated comedy that sees Lawrence’s character, Maddie, fully naked on a beach.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Avid car collector Robert Downey Jr. isn’t sure how many cars he actually owns. “About 20,” the Marvel actor said at the Los Angeles premiere of his new Max series, “Downey’s Dream Cars. “The fact that I don’t know the exact number speaks to the fact that I need to convert more of my cars.” “Downey’s Dream Cars” chronicles a team of auto experts who convert traditional gas-powered cars into electric vehicles. The program was inspired by RDJ’s Footprint Coalition, his 4-year-old environmental organization that works to mitigate climate change.

The Bear returns for its second season this month.Created by Christopher Storer, the show’s first season followed award-winning chef Carmen ‘Carmy’ Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) who returns to run his family’s Italian beef sandwich shop following the suicide of his older brother.The second season picks up after Carmy’s decision to close the shop in order to open a new restaurant, alongside Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) and Richie (Ebon Mass-Bachrach).A synopsis reads: “Carmy, Sydney and Richie work to transform their grimy sandwich joint into a next-level spot. As they strip the restaurant down to its bones, the crew undertakes transformational journeys of their own, each forced to confront the past and reckon with who they want to be in the future.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor As if Pride Month couldn’t get any gayer, “And Just Like That” Season 2 and Kim Cattrall’s new Netflix series, “Glamorous,” are premiering on the same day, June 22. “Isn’t that incredible?” says Cattrall’s co-star, actor and musician Miss Benny. “That is the gay stuff that I love. I’m excited for our show. I’m excited for that show. I’m excited for the spectacle of it all.” In “Glamorous,” Miss Benny plays Marco, a gender-nonconforming wannabe influencer who lands a job working for a beauty mogul (Cattrall). Miss Benny says Cattrall signed on to “Glamorous” after watching a clip of them playing a “sexual, raunchy and queer” character on “American Horror Stories.” “That blows my mind because I did that whole part saying, ‘What if I do it with a little bit of Samantha?’” they say. “I mimic her portrayal of Samantha a lot in my campier work.”

is ready for seconds. The award-winning and acclaimed FX comedy returns to Hulu with season 2 on June 22, promising new recipes for the same beloved kitchen. Created by Christopher Storer,  tells the story of fine-dining chef Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), who returns home to save his family's failing Chicago sandwich shop, The Original Beef, in the wake of his brother Michael's (Jon Bernthal) suicide.

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Season 2 of “The Bear” will be served shortly. After nearly breaking the internet upon its summer 2022 premiere, “The Bear” will finally return to Hulu on Thursday, June 22. The streamer, which has exclusive rights to the FX Original through its dedicated FX Content hub, will drop all 10 episodes at once for binging galore. The first season of “The Bear” was a surprise hit last year for Hulu, as fans fell in love with the chaotic, yet adored, chef Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto, played by Jeremy Allen White. Season 1 ended with Carmy and his cooks finding hundreds of dollars of hidden money left over by his late brother Mikey, and they plan to reinvent The Beef eatery into the new and improved The Bear restaurant.

The sixth season of “Black Mirror,” Charlie Brooker’s award-winning anthology series that Netflix turned into an original in 2016, might be the most inconsistent in the show’s history. At first, it’s tempting to dismiss it entirely as a production that’s past its sell-by date, especially given how much the world has changed in the four years since the last installment.

The war in the kitchen is over, for now.  Season 2 of FX’s “The Bear” is not about head chef Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), his co-owner cousin Richie (Eben Moss-Bachrach), and sous chef Sydney (by long-reigning series MVP Ayo Edibiri) commandeering a lively Chicago beef kitchen as if it were a battleship, ordering their fellow chefs to fire up every chicken they’ve got or to make giardiniera from scratch.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Bel Powley stars in the National Geographic series “A Small Light” as Miep Gies, the woman who helped hide Otto Frank and his family during WWII. During a reception for the show Thursday at the San Vicente Bungalows in West Hollywood, the actor recalled being on set when she first heard about Kanye West’s antisemitic comments in October 2022. “We were filming the show when all of the Kanye stuff was happening,” Powley told me. “I was obviously living in the world of the show, which has a lot of Nazi rhetoric because we’re making a show about the Nazi occupation in 1942, but then suddenly seeing and hearing that same rhetoric spoken now by a world-famous celebrity with huge influence was so freaky and unsettling and saddening.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor In Jennifer Coolidge’s Variety Actors on Actors conversation with Jeremy Allen White, she proposes that Tanya return to “The White Lotus” as a seagull, so she can poke out the eyes of her evil husband Greg (Jon Gries). Haley Lu Richardson, who played Tanya’s assistant, Portia, weighs in on killing off Greg during this week’s “Just for Variety” podcast. “Jon and I worked together in the first movie I ever did — when I was 17 — called ‘The Last Survivors,’” she recalls, adding, “I was the hero and he was the villain. I killed him at the end of the movie with a samurai sword.” She says she’d like to re-create that moment in Season 3 of “The White Lotus,” which takes place in Thailand. “Portia is somewhere in Asia with a samurai sword and kills Greg,” she says, laughing.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor I’m on the phone with J. Harrison Ghee when they walk into their dressing room at the Shubert Theatre before Tuesday night’s performance of “Some Like It Hot.” It’s their first show since winning the Tony about 48 hours earlier, taking home the prize for leading actor in a musical for their work as Jerry/Daphne.  “Oh, my God,” Ghee says. “There are a lot of flowers here.” Then they sigh and choke up. “I can’t believe this,” says Ghee, who identifies as nonbinary. “Flowers from Billy Porter!” The card reads, “Welcome to the club, bitch.”