Spoilers are ahead for the finale of The Bear’s second season. If you want to catch up on the FX comedy, you can stream it with a Hulu subscription.
The Bear is known for building tension and expertly bringing the intensity of a kitchen onto the screen. In Season 1, the best example of the show creating this stressful, yet masterful, vibe, was in Episode 7 when they used an 18-minute one-take to showcase the chaotic inner workings of The Beef’s kitchen. In Season 2, they used this method again on The Bear’s first night open, and the scene centered around Ayo Edebiri’s Sydney as she called out orders. So, with that in mind, we spoke to the actress about it, and she revealed that it was even “harder” than the on-take in the first season.
The first third of The Bear’s Season 2 finale, which amounts to about 12 minutes, is filmed in one take as the crew takes on their friends and family night at the restaurant. The sequence centers around Ayo Edebiri’s character who is reading orders and running the kitchen. Just watching the scene, it became clear that it was a feat of filmmaking, and likely a major challenge to shoot.
The Emmy-nominated actress confirmed this while speaking with CinemaBlend’s Sean O’Connell during the junket for her upcoming project on the 2023 movie schedule, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. She said:
It was a one-take. This one was a bit harder because I was just saying words and orders, and I feel like in the first season there was more character tracking which kind of helped. Really, I was like ‘I have to sit down in my room, and memorize table numbers and items off of a menu that doesn’t totally exist, but it does.' I was making sure that that made sense to me, and then just working with everybody in tandem sort of like we did the first time.
I totally get why this one was so much harder than the oner in Season 1. This sequence bounces back and forth between the front and back of house, following the servers and Richie as they travel between the two. At the center of the madness in the kitchen is Edebiri, and she’s firing off orders while trying to keep order in the kitchen. They get more swamped, and as the scene goes on the tension builds to a breaking point before cutting to the ticket printer.
Ayo Edebiri fires off a ton of orders and specific instructions to the other chefs, which could not have been easy dialogue to memorize because it isn’t totally connected. Thinking about that, when it came to how many times she ran lines before filming, she noted that it felt like she really had to drill the dialogue at home to be ready on the day. She said:
I mean personally, it probably felt like 100. In terms of the takes, I’d say in classic Bear style, I don’t think we did too many, maybe six.
Knowing that they only shot this uber-complex scene six times makes it even better. It also really proves that, like the chefs they play, The Bear’s cast is at the top of their games. Between this sequence in the finale where the restaurant officially opens and the intense family dinner in Episode 6, clearly, this cast and crew know how to build an intense moment that you also can’t look away from.
When it comes to this iconic scene in the finale, I can totally see why Ayo Edebiri thought it was harder than the Season 1 sequence. It also showed her talent as an actress and the overall skill of the ensemble. To see what I’m talking about, make sure you stream The Bear on Hulu.
