After two seasons of chaos and explosive fights, it’s pretty clear several characters in “The Bear” could benefit from some therapy.
Abby Elliott, who stars as Carmy’s problem-solving sister, told TheWrap she thinks her character Natalie/Sugar has already “done a lot of therapy,” saying, “I think she’s told her therapist everything.”
With a baby on the way amid The Bear’s grand opening at the end of Season 2, Elliott suspects Sugar would spend more time in therapy going through issues related to Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and the restaurant’s dysfunction rather than discuss her impending motherhood. “She’s trying not to focus on the fact that she’s going to become a mother,” Elliott explained.
Chris Witaske, who plays Sugar’s husband Pete, thinks his character would “really unload” in therapy — largely due to his strained relationship with much of the Berzatto family, who often treats him as a punching bag.
“My character really is just this sweet, big-hearted guy who married into this crazy family and becomes this pain sponge for a lot of them,” Witaske said at the Season 3 premiere on Tuesday.
'The Bear' Season 3 to Be Released Early
Despite being the root cause of some of the family’s dysfunction, Oliver Platt finds it highly doubtful that Cicero would ever find himself in therapy, even if it was court-mandated.
“I don’t think you’d find old Uncle Jimmy in therapy,” Platt told TheWrap. “Not how he rolls!”
With the Faks operating with a bit less chaos than the Berzattos, Ricky Staffieri, who plays Theodore Fak on the FX on Hulu series, noted how his character isn’t plagued by the same family trauma as Carmy and Sugar.
“I think he has a good support group,” Staffieri said. “I think the Fak family is supportive — I don’t think it really ties into [the] Berzatto family in the way that we see on the show.”
As for what longtime employees of The Bear — formerly known as The Beef — might discuss in therapy, Liza Colón-Zayas said Tina would unpack “the trauma that made [her] end up at The Bear,” while Edwin Lee Gibson noted Ebraheim might break down “the series of events that landed him as far away from the eastern shores of Africa.”
“No one’s asked him,” he pointed out on the red carpet. “I can only suppose what he deals with when he leaves.”
“The Bear” Season 3 premieres Wednesday, June 26 at 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET on Hulu. Seasons 1 and 2 are streaming on Hulu.
