Not yet chef. Ayo Edebiri has a message for The Bear fans hoping to see a Carmy and Sydney romance — you will need to wait.
“They got a lot of trauma on both sides. Like if even that [was explored] — I don’t think that window is open,” Edebiri, 27, exclusively told Us Weekly during an interview at the 2023 Golden Globes on Tuesday, January 10. “But if it were, there would need to be like two seasons where it’s just them doing therapy individually before that would even be an option.”
Ayo Edebiri Kevork Djansezian/NBC
According to the actress, The Bear didn’t initially plan to explore a romantic story line between the coworkers.
“I think when we were making it, neither of us [me nor Jeremy Allen White] were thinking about that,” she shared with Us. “It did feel really nice to get to do something that felt different. There aren’t that many platonic male [and] female relationships.”
The critically-acclaimed series, which premiered in June 2022, explores talented chef Carmy (White) as he returns to Chicago to run his older brother Mikey’s (Jon Bernthal) restaurant following his death. Season 1 explored Carmy’s attempts to help keep the sandwich shop afloat while dealing with his own grief over his brother’s suicide.
One month after the show’s premiere, White, 31, hinted at the obstacles the pair still needs to face. “You’ve still got this tension, with Carmy and Sydney, and this power balance that they’re still gonna be struggling with. Yes, he apologized, kind of. Yes, she sort of accepted it. Yes, they both have a shared passion for this thing,” the Shameless alum told Collider in July 2022. “But there’s certainly a lot for them to sort out with one another still left.”
Ayo Edebiri as Sydney Adamu and Jeremy Allen White as Carmen ‘Carmy’ Berzatto in ‘The Bear.’ Matt Dinerstein/FX
Creator Christopher Storer also addressed whether Carmy and Sydney would take their relationship to the next level in the future.
“We wanted to make something that was about friendship and a partnership,” he told Variety earlier this month. “It really is so funny that that is one of the things that people took away — of all the heavy s—t that’s going on in the show! It was interesting because Ayo and Jeremy, since they are our friends and are such wonderful people, I think there is this charisma that comes off both of them.”
He added: “From the beginning, it was like, ‘We should just show people being really good at their jobs and pushing each other.’ Selfishly, I hadn’t seen a show without a romantic plot and was like, ‘That could be kind of cool and interesting.’”
As the cast prepares to film season 2, Edebiri said she was excited to see where the show would go from here. “We’re going back next month to [film] it,” she teased to Us on Tuesday. “Chris hasn’t really told us too much yet. … I trust the writers so much. I really, really do. So, I have no input until we get on set and then I’m like, ‘I have 700 opinions.’”
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi