Q: I just feel like I'm like a lot of viewers of this show, who, the first the first two episodes, I hated your character so much. He'd come on screen and I'd be like, this guy again. And by the time we've gotten to season 5, he's my absolute favorite character. He's the center, he's the heart of the show. I love seeing him, I love watching his growth. How do you think about and describe this guy's journey over the course of the years?
Ebon Moss-Bachrach: I didn't find [Richie] particularly unlikeable. I found him as a man that was, lacked impulse control and was, I don't know, a bit like histrionic and loud. But I really related to him or sympathized with him as he was someone who was in the throes of grief, mourning his best friend, his life, his sun, you know, Mikey Berzatto.
Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Jon Bernthal talk about The Bear and Ebon neither confirms nor denies whether there will be a season 6 of The Bear.
Craig: Is that it? Are we done? Is The Bear done?
Ebon: I don’t know.
Craig: Are you telling me the truth right now?
Ebon: I don’t know what I’m supposed to say, what I’m not supposed to say. I don’t know what time it is. I think we’re on 49th Street. Like, yeah.
Entire interview of Jon Bernthal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach on TODAY
Full transcript of the video under the cut:
Craig: Later he recommended you for The Bear.
Jon: Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah I say he returned the favor.
Craig: How did that come about?
Ebon: You know, we were trying to… We had been talking the first season, you know, in the first season of The Bear we talked about Mikey Berzatto a lot, this kind of specter looming over the whole first season of this man who’s taken his life and sort of left everyone trying to stay afloat, you know, in the wake of his disappearance. And I was like, I don’t know who could play this part, who could play this part. I don’t think we should have anyone. We should leave it sort of like the gold in the trunk of Pulp Fiction, just leave it unknown. But then I thought about Jon. I was like oh, there’s one person I think that could really…
Jon: It’s either no one or…
Craig: Either no one or Jon. Well, that’s a friend.
Jon: I’ll take it.
Craig: That’s a friend. Have you finished wrapping the fifth season, the final season of The Bear?
Ebon: I finished shooting the fifth season, like, maybe five weeks ago or something like that. I finished right in the middle of February.
Craig: Is that it? Are we done? Is The Bear done?
Ebon: I don’t know.
Craig: Are you telling me the truth right now?
Ebon: I don’t know what I’m supposed to say, what I’m not supposed to say. I don’t know what time it is. I think we’re on 49th Street. Like, yeah.
Craig: So it could be the end, it could not. Okay, that’s fine.
Ebon: You know, the world is a beguiling and elusive place.
