The bear was a brilliant eye-catcher that highlighted the immense acting talents of star Ayo Edebiri – who received widespread acclaim for her role as Sydney Adamu – but in season 3, the show gives her another opportunity to showcase her special skills. She makes her directorial debut with the sixth episode of the new season titled ‘Napkins’ and unsurprisingly, it is one of the best in the bunch. It’s a new hat for her in the industry but it doesn’t seem like it will be the last time she puts it on as she seems to have enjoyed the experience.
During a recent press conference for The bear In Season 3 (which is now available to stream with a Hulu subscription), Ayo Edebiri was asked about her first time in the director’s chair and she raved about the opportunity and her collaborators. The actress and director said:
Directing was a lot of fun. I really loved it. It’s like a dream to be able to work with our crew as an actor. And I guess directing made that feeling even more intense. I was so impressed and moved every day. And then I got to direct some of my favorite actors in the world and it felt a bit like a master class but also like a gift. I was just in the best situation to have real masters of their craft by my side and I just felt so lucky. I thought, maybe this is the best job in the world? Or at least up there with acting. So yeah, it was really wonderful.
SPOILER WARNING: The rest of this article contains mild spoilers for The bear Season 3. If you haven’t seen episode 6 yet, do so at your own risk!
The episode “Napkins” focuses specifically on the backstory of Tina Marrero (played by Liza Colón-Zayas) and how she came to be part of The Beef. We meet Tina again in early 2018 when she loses her job and starts looking for a new position. She gets rejected everywhere, but she eventually ends up at The Beef and has a wonderful meeting and conversation with Mikey Berzatto (Jon Bernthal).
It is a story that offers wonderful insights into Tina as a character and makes rewatching previous seasons of The bear interesting because it gives us a deeper understanding of her loyalty to Mikey and the classic way The Beef operated under his leadership.
As for how Ayo Edebiri came to direct this particular episode, she revealed that she had discussed her directorial debut with showrunner Christopher Storer before Season 3. She also mentioned that she wasn’t the only guest director on this season:
We were lucky enough to be able to read all the episodes in advance as actors, and we had been talking about it for a while. And I know he had one in mind, and I think he and the other producers, like Joanna (Calo), had talked a little bit about how the episodes would be distributed. Because I wasn’t the only guest director that season. Our AD, Duccio Fabbri, also directed an episode.
Edebiri went on to say that the producers had an idea about who should direct which episodes, but when it came to the idea of hiring her for “Napkins,” they were very unanimous. She said:
I think they had a little bit of a plan in mind as to who was going to go where. But then we had a conversation and he said, “What scripts do you respond to?” And I said, “I would literally give you my firstborn child, who doesn’t exist yet, if I could do the Liza episode because I would love to work with Liza.” And then he said, “Well, we have nice little parallel thinking.” So, yeah.
It certainly worked out well and this certainly won’t be the last time we hear from Ayo Edebiri showing off her talent behind the camera.
As already mentioned, all 10 episodes of The bear Season 3 is available to stream now. To find out what else is hitting the big screen in the coming weeks and months, check out our 2024 TV premiere schedule.
