There are fans of the first day of The bearand then there's Ramy Youssef, a longtime friend of Christopher Storer, the creator of the FX series who also executive produced his Hulu comedy drama Ramy. “I've been a fan of The Bear since before we knew it was going to be picked up,” he says. DAY“Chris sent me the pilot and blew me away.”
A longtime friend and collaborator of the FX series creator, Youssef was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Directing after stepping behind the camera for the second-season episode “Honeydew,” in which Marcus (Lionel Boyce, nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor) is in Copenhagen, baking unique desserts alongside Will Poulter’s loyal chef Luca. (Poulter was also nominated for his guest-starring role.)
The opportunity to direct, Youssef jokes, came about purely out of necessity, rather than any sort of preferential treatment.
“Honestly, I got the job because of scheduling issues. Chris called me and said, 'Listen, man, I can't be in two places at once. I trust you to do your thing,' and he let me go do it.”
Youssef’s planned two-day reconnaissance turned into weeks of exploring Denmark’s capital. “In a way, that process was similar to the wandering that ends up being in the episode,” he says. “It’s a love letter to that city.”
How did your conversations with Lionel Boyce go when you came on board?
It was a really great experience walking around Copenhagen with him. We staged [the French term for shadowing chefs] at Noma, so we could sit together in this legendary kitchen and talk about
how this is the first time his character has been out of the country, and he wants to be outgoing, but he's also scared. Lionel is such an empathetic person and such a great presence on screen. A lot of Marcus' character comes from his essence. So it was really cool to work on that
with him and also getting to shape that dynamic between him and Luca, Will Poulter, where you have this more stoic, dejected chef, who is sort of moved by the essence of Marcus, and it almost brings him back a little bit to remember why he started. Lionel, as a person, brings with him that really beautiful curiosity that inspires everyone around him.
It was a nice surprise to see Will Poulter back for this episode.
With those two guys, it's just, how do you get out of the way? It's hard to take any kind of credit when you have a great script, you have a great show, and you have great actors. The conversations I had with Will were about Marcus' character leaving this really hectic Chicago kitchen and coming to Copenhagen to just focus on the craft. Something that Chris and I, in the early seasons of Ramythat was talked about a lot was how to find a concrete way to represent prayer on screen, something that I felt was missing in contemporary film and TV. And I think the way we approached this episode is that act of cooking as prayer. They're really isolating just prayer and removing it from the church or the mosque or the synagogue, and just focusing on the act itself. [Marcus] was to abandon the frenzy of the institution, of the kitchen, and just focus on that little piece itself. So they have this little enclave where they can focus on why they love it.
This sentiment shines through in the final shot, as Marcus meticulously prepares his dessert and then takes a satisfying bite.
I don’t think that was the end of the episode originally, but I remember we found that moment in the edit. For the scope of what the episode was, it felt like the greatest accomplishment. If you think about anything you work on, you have this feeling of it expanding you, and that might not be noticeable to other people, but you see it and you feel it. I remember watching the footage and seeing that bit of Lionel and hearing it on set as well. At one point, I looked at Chris and thought, “I really think this could end here because it’s so beautiful.” Led by his performance, you feel like, wow, something expanded, something changed. And we just got to see that little glimpse of growth that in many ways is so much more enjoyable than anything anyone else would ever see on the outside. It’s always those little things.
That idea of small things is present in another scene, when Marcus helps a man who has had a bicycle accident. The audience just sits with their interaction, especially the embrace of gratitude.
On the page, that’s probably the scene that Chris and I talked about the most, making sure that we captured the emotion correctly. We talked a lot about service and that phrase, “the service industry.” And I think that moment was all service, no industry. To me, there’s nothing to it other than a pure act of service that transcends culture and language and is just this little piece of a day that, by all other accounts, is actually pretty insignificant. But it’s so full of meaning because you see this guy who can’t help but care about people. That scene ultimately became the hug. It became that moment where, as an audience and even as a fan of this particular show, you’re trained for tension, but it doesn’t happen. And I think there’s something really beautiful about that because life is like that. Sometimes you prepare yourself, like, oh wait, something’s going to happen. And then it just doesn’t.
This story originally appeared in an August standalone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.