Ayo Edebiri and Lionel Boyce about writing the episode of Sydney

Spoiler alert: This story contains spoilers for “worms”, episode 4 of “The Bear” season 4.

Ayo Edebiri’s Sydney Adamu is in many ways the heart of “De Beer” – and the bear, the restaurant De Show is all about the interaction. It may have been the place of Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) first, but even he seems to agree and says Sydney in the final of season 4: “You are The bear. ”

So it was a welcome change of pace when the show concentrated on Sydney for the first time earlier in the season. “Worms”, in the fourth episode of season 4, Sydney sees her braids renewed again by her cousin, Chanielle Deadwyler on her day off. “Worms” was written by Edebiri and her co-star Lionel Boyce-Die does not appear in the episode, but Marcus plays in the show and helped by guest director Janicza Bravo. The three worked together to create what Edebiri calls “a cool new entrance” in her character.

While editing the pieces of season 4 shot with season 3, series maker Christopher Storer Edebiri called to let her know that it seemed as if there was room to add a Sydney-oriented detour, so she threw him on the idea of ​​a chaotic, day-long hair appointment outside the restaurant outside the restaurant outside. Storer gave her the reins as a writer, and she started brainstorming with Boyce before inviting him to go with her in a more official capacity.

“I knew that the episode really had to be black, and I really felt in and the south side,” says Edebiri. For help with choosing locations, they leaned on some of their indigenous colleagues in Chicago, such as Corey Hendrix, who plays Gary aka Sweeps. “We are something like that,” Corey, do you think it’s more Bronzeville? Or do you think it’s more Englewood or Chatham? We’re talking about the threatening gentrification, so we want it to be close to a store that is nice and shiny is-misschien that East Garfield. Is it a two-flat or three-flat house? ”

Hendrix also helped with dialogue, such as when Chantel speaks her restraint to eat with the beef: “That is in the north, right? You know their beef are different. Do some cheese on it!” She says. “That was something that Corey said to me in season 1, and it is always in my mind,” says Edebiri.

Edebiri and Boyce also watched black TV shows for tonal references. “We talked about the episode ‘Barbershop’ from ‘Atlanta’, which is one of our favorite episodes of TV,” says Edebiri. The episode follows Alfred (Brian Tyree Henry) because he is forced to accompany his hairdresser on a series of ridiculous messages before he cuts his hair. “It’s the idea of ​​a wild goose yacht. And in my own experiences, when my hair is ready, who can do it best and the fastest is probably an anti-vaxxer, or I have to look at their children, whether I drive out for an hour and she also does something else. There is always an element of surrealism and comedy when that happens.”

‘The Bear’ of course does not go to the bizarre places that ‘Atlanta’ does, but the effect is similar and reveals who Sydney is in her personal life, as well as how she processes the messiness of the restaurant and the choice she has to make between stay in the bear or accepting her seductive job offering of Shapiro (Adam Shapapiro).

“We get to see her in a room where she speaks differently than how she normally speaks,” says Edebiri. “There is a comfort to be in people who have been removed from the [restaurant]. “As an actor, she says she is usually not someone who spends time to come up with background stories for the roles she plays:” But her cousin makes her out of the end, such as: “You have a hard time with change.” I had something like: “Oh, this is character that I don’t normally do.”

And although Sydney is more relaxed in the Huis van Chantel than at work, there is still a level of pressure on her: Halfway through the agreement, Chantel realizes that she has from braiding her and runs to buy a little more, so Sydney stays alone with her tween daughter, TJ (Arion King). “Sydney is Canonic bad with children,” says Edebiri laughing. Indeed, after Chern’s leaves, Sydney’s discomfort and the blunt of TJ things make things hilarious.

“We both thought of how we were as children,” says Boyce about writing TJ’s dialogue. “We were much more attractive than we seemed. You can be fully aware and see things for what they are – but still, you are a child who wants to run outside, seduced by the simplest things on earth.”

Of course the tension falls away as soon as the subject of food arises. When TJ expresses hunger, Sydney regards it as an opportunity to connect. Slowly, on a walk to the supermarket, the two begin to open themselves for each other.

“There is nothing more humiliating than spending an afternoon with a child,” says Edebiri. So they tried to mirror that idea in the food that was eaten on the screen, where Sydney cooked a nicer version of Hamburger Helper. “I like that because the show has moved to the beautiful dining room, we have a moment when you see more humble food but Sydney try to elevate it a bit with bread crumbs and fresh herbs. It just feels like something that would happen. You get stuck with a child, and you want to make something that a 11-year-old could eat, but also in a food weather. think From that as a food desert, because you live there. ‘

Along the way, TJ starts to trust in Sydney about what drama with her friends at school, and Sydney realizes that TJ might have a good perspective on the choice for her at work. At the end of their time, TJ tells her that she has to do what she wants, but does not hide her confusion why Sydney would choose to work so dysfunctionally somewhere. Sydney takes that advice to heart and calls Shapiro to work on paperwork later that day.

“We wanted to see Syd make a decision in this episode, even if it is the wrong decision,” says Boyce. Later in the season Sydney changes thoughts and chooses to stay with the bear, but Boyce and Edebiri wanted to add that choice complexity. “It is interesting to have her back track. We tried to show that what Shapiro presents in the end is really really good. This person means it well, even if they sometimes abandon. It is only about the people you work with.”

It’s also about the people you talk to. “Looking at the chemistry that read, she was very stuck,” says Boyce about King’s audition for the role. “She turned this dynamic, where Sydney was always the backbone in the kitchen.”

As a director, Bravo agrees. “TJ was a representation of Syd and they form a closeness. They see themselves together.” That is why TJ’s decision -making is ultimately exactly what Sydney needs to finally take a step.

There is something unmistakably funny looking at someone who is so young to implement viable life advice, and when Chantel finally comes home, it becomes clear where TJ gets it from. CHANTER RODDELT with Sydney about mutual friends and poking on the orbit of Sydney on the north side of Chicago with Gusto, making their relationship feel deeply and lived in.

Bravo says about casting deadwyler: ‘I had met her a few months earlier and I found her so, so funny. I asked: ‘Why do you always play the mother of a dead child? “That is clearly not true, but she often plays a woman in sorrow. So I wanted to do something with her where she had to be more and crazy. ‘

With Chantel, Edebiri thought it was especially worth writing to a character that “you don’t see much, to the point where, when people are looking for references, they don’t know where to see a black mother from the middle class. I even read a review where someone referred to her as a single mother. – Before the episode is even ready.”

If there is a lesson in ‘worms’, it will come when the smile of Chermant falls away when she has finished braiding Sydney’s hair and Sydney says he is not a stranger. It is clear that Sydney has not seen CHantel and TJ for a long time, and that she has long neglected her personal relationships while throwing herself into her work. When Sydney says they will see each other quickly, Chantel pushes back, her joy only returns when Sydney is on it to put a hang on and tells her that she should invite their mutual friend Mary.

“Hairdressers and beauticians, they are really connectors. It is like food – it’s a different form of taking care of people,” says Boyce about CHANTER’s work. “Because they have such a close relationship, she knows how Syd feels, so she will push her. Because she can, like a family member. She is like:” Come hang out. I can push you because I know you so long. ”

But will Sydney actually keep their plans?

“No,” says Bravo, “but I think they both know that. Chanel will always answer the phone. She will always be there. But Sydney is during this period that they can’t do both things. She can hardly come for herself, good? I probably didn’t want it to happen, but I probably couldn’t happen.”

Edebiri and Boyce see it differently.

“I think she will follow the hang because the group chat has been made,” says Edebiri. “If the group chat was not made and there was no responsibility, then maybe no hanging. But I think she will do it.”

“I have faith in Syd,” says Boyce. “By the end you see Syd open. Such as:” I want to make contact with people, and it’s ok to let people in that way. “