(lighthearted music)
- Hey man, if people wanna say, "Yes, Chef,"
I'm not gonna stop you.
I'm one person that probably lives very far away from you.
So it's cool, I guess.
Very out of body, but it's cool.
Hi, I'm Ayo Edebiri and this is On the Rise.
I don't really know if there's an age that I realized
I was talented.
I'm a very like hardworking sort of anxious person.
That energy has sort of been happening from jump.
I just come from a family of very hardworking,
very determined people.
No matter what I was gonna end up doing, there was kind of
like no choice but to try my best and try to do things well.
If anybody's like Nigerian or Bajan,
you will understand that sentiment.
I was always a part of after school programs,
musical theater improv.
I played multiple band instruments that no one needs
to look into.
Once I was in college, I'd been doing comedy for a while.
I'd been doing improv.
But I had started to understand that it was an actual
like career where there were avenues where you could like
make rent money and have insurance.
Once I started meeting, especially like women of color
who had had careers and different types of careers
within entertainment, I started to see it as a avenue
I could go down.
I saw "True Grit" in theaters with my dad,
with Hailee Steinfeld who was in "Dickinson",
which I wrote for and was in a few episodes of.
And I saw that movie and I was like, "I can do that.
That's me on screen."
I remember saying that to my dad after the movie.
He was like, "No, no, that's not you.
And I don't know if you could do that."
But I think seeing that movie and seeing like a young person
just give a performance like that, I was like,
"Whoa, this is cool."
It was great getting to work with Hailee.
It felt like a real masterclass because she's just had
so much experience in so many different types
of experiences.
She was so talented and is like a great person.
Feels like such a cheesy thing to say.
Yes, I got to work with a celebrity.
And actually she's very wonderful and very talented,
but it's true.
In college, I had been reading for a lot of friend's plays
and I really enjoyed that.
When I had started doing writing professionally
and I was working in writer's rooms, I had started again
doing table reads and I was having a good time. (laughs)
I felt like maybe I could do this.
I had had representation for writing.
And so I had said, "I think I wanna do
this acting thing too."
And they were like, "Okay well, cool.
So do like a million other people.
Maybe take some acting classes, we'll send you some tapes
and we'll see how things shake out."
(lighthearted music)
My school put on a production of the "Wizard of Oz",
and I was cast in the roll of one of the melting witches.
So because we didn't really have you know, technology
because we were a Catholic school in Boston.
The way when the witch melts there was gonna be,
the girl who was cast as the wicked witch,
she was gonna start melting.
Then there would be a slightly smaller girl
who would start melting.
And then there would be the smallest girl who would melt.
And I was gonna be the last girl.
And I was like, "Here we go, this is my starring role."
I was practicing my screams.
I was like screaming, "I'm melting," in the car.
Like I was ready to do it.
As any serious actress would you know,
I needed to do more research.
So hit the Blockbuster with my mom.
And we got a VHS of the "Wizard of Oz" that had like
behind the scenes footage.
And in order to pull off that effect, they used a trap door.
And so I got it stuck in my head, even though Mrs. McCord
clearly had outlined the plan, you know what I mean?
Big girl, middle girl, small girl.
I had got it stuck in my head that there was gonna be
a trap door suddenly in our very old, historical,
Catholic school of Boston.
And that I was gonna get stuck in the trap door.
And I had started crying about it.
And then Mrs. McCord was like, "Fine, fine,
you could be the coroner."
It's very exciting that people have been responding
to "The Bear."
There's just so much stuff available to watch
especially on streaming.
So you never know if people are actually
gonna watch things or not.
I'm like so blown away by Chris, and Joanna,
and the writer's room, and our crew who are just like
all geniuses.
And the cast obviously, is such like a wonderful,
really special, lovely, kind group of people.
Even though it's quite stressful to watch, it was pretty
stress free experience for me, personally.
So the kitchen in the pilot, that is an actual
restaurant kitchen.
And then for the next seven episodes of the show
the production designers created a working kitchen
that was built in a sound stage that looked exactly
like the kitchen that we were in, down to like
the water stains.
I still don't understand how they did it.
All the fire was real.
All the plumbing was real, all of that.
Everything that we are cooking in the show,
we were cooking in real life.
And we got in trouble a few times for eating
in between takes. (laughs)
Because they'd be like, "These are props."
Like, "These are props.
We know that this is like food that looks good
and smells good and whatever.
But like, you guys can't be like eating chicken piccata
in between the takes.
Like we will have to use this for the next shot.
Please get it together."
The chicken was good, yeah.
Can you tell, I haven't really had proper a lunch yet?
(chuckles)
- Are you good?
- Yes, Chef.
- Yes?
- Yes, Chef.
- Thank you, Chef.
- A whoa moment just might be that my dad
is watching the show.
My dad's a very tired man.
He doesn't suffer fools and he doesn't really watch much
except for sports.
He came to the premiere and they showed the first
two episodes and he was like, "I think this is actually
pretty good, I might watch this."
And my mom was like, "Your dad is actually watching it!"
So yeah, to get my father to like leave cable TV
and even log into a Hulu account.
I mean it's mine, but you know what I mean?
It feels pretty big.
My mom is somebody who's inspired me a lot.
She came to this country when she was 17
and wasn't necessarily living her dream,
you know what I mean?
Both she and my father, I think were working very hard
for our family and they did that so that I could then
pursue my dream.
Now I'm an adult and now they're starting to do things
that they really enjoy and are passionate about.
And so those two are definitely role models for me.
She's also my friend, but I think Quinta Brunson
is definitely somebody who's a role model for me.
I'm just like really in awe of her hustle
and her work ethic.
And the fact that she's somebody who I feel like really does
try to make space for people, open doors for people.
Janelle James, who's also on "Abbott", one of my first
writer's assistant jobs, she was a staff writer on.
It's just really cool to like also see her be like
an Emmy-nominated superstar right now.
I loved watching Whoopi Goldberg growing up.
I don't know, who are other role models of mine?
I feel like they just become like older,
white character actors. (chuckles)
Hey man, I love me some John Turturro.
I love me some Stanley Tucci.
David Hyde Pierce, that's a legend.
That's a legend to me.
If I wasn't acting, I would've teached for a few years.
I was getting my teaching degree before I changed my major.
When you do your teaching certification you have to do
like every single age group.
And teaching like children, children was so wild.
There was one kid.
I can't remember what I was like explaining.
It was like photosynthesis or something.
And he was like, "I don't know what you're saying.
Like you're saying it, but why?"
And I was like, "I have no good reason.
I have no good reason."
Somebody told me and now I'm giving you this information.
The idea where I'm like, "Oh, I have to mold a young mind."
You know, like, "Not me.
No, no, no, no, no."
You don't want me doing that.
No!
I thought for a while I was gonna be a doctor.
Which is so crazy to even think about.
I fell under the "Grey's Anatomy" spell that we all did.
Somebody asked me the other day about like, just like
a simple math equation and I couldn't even make it
to the equal sign.
You know what I mean?
It was rough.
So for me to have the hubris to be like,
"Absolutely, I could finish and get good grades
in math and science courses, and then become a doctor."
It's a little ridiculous.
My first celebrity crush.
Loved Lee Thompson of the famous Jett Jackson.
Loved Larry the Cucumber.
Just being honest.
I mean, Chad Michael Murray, deeply imprinted.
Deeply imprinted.
Leonardo DiCaprio.
I mean, that's like an obvious one.
Having very weird, specific memories of watching
Titanic with my mom now.
Being like, "Hmm."
Then there was this like girl, Fatima.
She used to work at this Dunkin' Donuts
that I would get a donut at.
And I was like, "We can make this work."
I was like, seven.
Hey, (chuckles) life happens.
The platform.
I don't really know if I have a platform.
I dunno if I deserve one.
I dunno if anybody does.
It is good, I know that it's good.
Earlier I said some role models and it's like,
how many of them are actually like darker-skinned
black women?
I felt like growing up, especially on TV,
I didn't really have a lot of that.
Also you know, people who are just like,
they're a bit strange, they're a bit like flawed.
I was not cool.
I played the oboe.
You know what I mean?
I had to like seek out people who were black and weird.
That's like, feels so humiliating to be like,
"Am I the platform of being an absolute freak?"
But hey I mean, you know, I feel like that was something
that I could've used when I was younger.
And it does feel cool to be a part of a moment.
I think I hope.
There's like a lot of cool, young, black people
who I think are just like being themselves.
And so I feel like to be even adjacent to that is...
That might be a good thing.
Five years, I'll be 31.
I would love to have a consistent exercise regimen.
I would love to be more flexible.
I have a you know, tightness in my sort of hips
that's happening as I'm getting older.
I would love to figure that out.
I'd love like a little yard situation for my dog.
That's a reasonable goal.
Now I have a dog and I'm like, my dreams are not for me.
They're for my biological son, my dog.
Yeah.
He's like a Chihuahua Terrier mix.
He looks like a little gremlin and he is.
His ears are bigger than his head.
He's absolutely manipulated my entire life and that's fine.
That's good.
Vibing out to me means like paying my taxes
and getting a decent return.
Vibing out means calling my mother on a regular basis.
Financial stability, that is vibing out.
Working consistently and working with people who I respect
and you know, doing good work, challenging work.
I think that is like more interesting, maybe.
Than like getting photographs taken of me
while I'm like at dinner.
I won't be too crazily ambitious.
I'll mostly just dream for my own health and my dog to have
sort of a place where he could you know,
have the zoomies in peace.
I'm planning, I'm focusing on my career.
I'm thinking about it, but I feel like there's also been
a decent amount of sort of vibing that's worked
in my favor so far.
So I just wanna be able to keep working, vibe out.
(upbeat music)