‘The Bear' Q&A: Lionel Boyce dishes on what it takes to play pastry chef Marcus

Chicago Tribune

7 hours ago

Before filming Season 1 of the FX hit 'The Bear,' actor Lionel Boyce was sent to stage at Elske in Chicago's West Loop. In preparation for his role as Marcus, breadmaker for The Original Beef of Chicagoland and soon-to-be budding pastry chef when the restaurant reopens as its titular name in Season 3, Boyce was tasked with learning from real-world chefs to emulate one on camera.
Boyce said it was easier to stage (culinary lingo for 'intern') back when the actors could more easily fly under the radar. But that didn't always work in everyone's favor, he laughed.
'The funny thing is, before the show came out, we were just regular people asking for favors, like, 'Hey, can this person come in here and stage and get a sense of what you do?' The show didn't matter because it didn't exist,' Boyce told the Tribune. 'One day (at Elske), I think someone thought I was a new sous chef coming in to start and they asked me to prep some cheese dish. And I was too nervous to say I don't know what I'm doing, so I just went rogue and started cutting up this cheese. I think the only question I asked was 'so how do you do it? Is there a specific way?' And they were like 'No, no, you know — just do it.''
Boyce, cackling at the 'embarrassing' experience he'll never forget, said he started cutting the cheese.
'Then when they were getting ready for service, I remember one of the chefs who brought mine up, opened one, and then closed it … opened another one, and he made a face. And then he looks over at another chef and they whisper to each other, all worried,' Boyce said. 'Then they start rushing to redo it because I clearly ruined whatever cheese dish that was for. I just felt like a dog that peed in the house. I just put my ears down. I was so sorry.'
Much like his character, Boyce is mild-mannered, kind and effortlessly funny. He spoke with enthusiasm and thoughtful detail about his training as an actor to portray a pastry chef, staging at restaurants and learning skills and techniques to help launch him into new heights.
For Boyce, something shifted when filming 'Honeydew,' a standout episode in Season 2, when Marcus travels to Copenhagen to stage with a pastry chef at a high-end restaurant that closely resembles the three-Michelin-starred, but now-defunct, Noma. He's tasked with creating three desserts for The Bear's menu, as the sandwich shop transforms into a fine dining restaurant.
At this point in the show, Marcus is just about the only calm person amid the clutter of the kitchen, and Boyce looks at the episode like a release of tension. While the Copenhagen kitchen scenes in 'Honeydew' were shot at Chicago's After, the sister bar to Michelin-starred Ever, Boyce did spend time in Amsterdam strolling the streets, much like his character.
In one scene, Marcus is being trained by London-born pastry chef Luca (played by Will Poulter), and gets asked: 'You ever made ice cream before, chef?' Marcus says no. 'Want to?'
A pleasing sequence shows Marcus separating eggs and splitting open a vanilla bean before Luca shows him how to perfect a , an elegant football-shaped three-sided scoop of ice cream.
'Away and back,' Luca says to Marcus, with a quick flair and movement difficult to imitate. In real life, Boyce actually learned how to scoop a quenelle when staging at Elske for Season 1. (Yes, they kept him around after the cheese debacle.)
'When they were talking to me, it felt like a foreign language,' Boyce said. 'They're like, this is a cool thing you can learn. But it seemed like the hardest thing in the world.'
Boyce said he spent a considerable time practicing so he could pull it off when filming the episode directed by Ramy Youssef.
'Me and Will had a funny joke, because by the time we were filming, I'd been doing it so much, I got good at it, and so I was showing him — He's like, 'this is ridiculous. We're going to get on camera, and you're going to be looking better than me. I'm supposed to be the pro!'' Boyce laughed.
That Marcus-focused episode was a turning point for the character, who Boyce describes as 'a cog in the wheel of this whole machine' that is the messy restaurant where there's never enough time on the clock. Boyce is now a breakout star with a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, an outstanding supporting actor Emmy nod and an authenticity that's just so cool.
With all 10 episodes of Season 4 streaming on Hulu and Disney+ Wednesday, Boyce said he's excited for viewers to see a 'new level unlocked' for Marcus, whose ambition and growth is further explored.
The Tribune spoke with Boyce ahead of the new season, which includes an episode he wrote with actress Ayo Edebri, who plays Sydney Adamu. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Before playing Marcus, how would you have described your baking/pastry skills?
A: Before the character, I was solely on the receiving end. I didn't really cook, aside from making the basics that you make for yourself just to survive. I never appreciated food. So this was a cool entry point for me because it's what the character journey is about. He kind of starts like me — it's just a job for him, and it's not a passion yet, and through the course of the show, it turns into a passion and dreams and all these things. It was cool because the more he learns, the more I need to know.
Q: For each season of 'The Bear,' you undergo specific culinary training with different chefs and the show's culinary producer, Courtney Storer. When you look back at all of those experiences, what stands out to you?
A: I do have more of an appreciation and understanding of what restaurant workers and chefs go through, and as I've gotten to learn and work with different people and learn in different ways, it just felt like it's mirroring Marcus' journey.
For Season 1, I staged at a bakery and got a feel of how a bakery is different from a kitchen — talking to a lot of chefs who are working there, they feel like you retire from the kitchen and you work here because it's the urgency, without the intensity of working in a kitchen.
Season 2, I worked solely with Courtney and it was more hands-on, making things I was interested in and types of bread and dessert recipes.
And Seasons 3 and 4, I worked with Courtney as well as Malcolm Livingston, who is this incredible pastry chef. He's worked around the world. He helped me get to the next level of efficiency and perfection. Baking was always presented to me as a science. It's intimidating and you're following exact rules — but he opened it up, and said no, it's as artistic as cooking is. It's just showing you where the guardrails are, what things need to be exact, and where you could be free.
Q: Do the actors who play chefs still stage at restaurants four seasons in?
A: We don't really stage anymore now, because I think it'd be too distracting. And because we have such a great culinary department, we just work with them now. I think being in a restaurant is great for a couple of days to see the environment, the feeling, but after a while, you need to get out of the way, because this is their day-to-day and they have to produce at a certain level.
Q: Was the Copenhagen episode as transformational for you as it was for Marcus? As a viewer, it's therapeutic to watch because everything else has been so chaotic at the restaurant — everything's on fire, but you're here walking the cobblestone streets and taking pictures and writing out recipes.
A: I think that's the cool thing about all these bottle episodes throughout the show. It feels like an interlude on one hand, and on the other hand, it feels like it's expanding on what you get from this character, and it magnifies it. And for me, it's like in life where when you go on a vacation for two weeks anywhere, you have all these new thoughts and feel like you've transformed, and then you drop back into your real life, and you're like, 'Oh yeah, I'm still the same person, but with this new experience' — it's like morphing. It's not quite who you were before or who you were when you were away, but it's something new. I got all these new thoughts from an acting standpoint, things to care about, consider, and you bring all that and put that back into the machine as a cog and it runs more efficiently.
Q: It's stressful watching those scenes where it's down to the wire, clock ticking loudly and everybody's yelling at each other. When filming, do you guys feel that tense, nervous energy?
A: I think it's not as stressful as watching it, because sound design, music and editing can intensify things even more. And some things are all choreography … more of a rhythm and a dance and you're in unison with the camera.
Q: How about cooking or creating a dish while the cameras are rolling?
A: With the cooking stuff, you do feel a certain level of intensity, because we shoot it in a real working kitchen or a stage that's designed as a working kitchen. We're actually finishing dishes (on camera). It's like three-quarters done, but you're finishing on camera, so you still get to smell the food, hear the sounds and all that visual and auditory stimuli I think heightens it for us.
Q: There is a lot of hometown love for Chicago viewers. Any favorite neighborhoods to visit while you're filming?
A: I like going around different parts — Lincoln Park, Old Town, Fulton Market. I like the walkability of Chicago too. Sometimes I'd rent a car on the weekends and just drive to different suburbs. I went to Milwaukee for the first time this year. I had some time off, and I thought, 'Oh, this is a cool drive.'
Q: Any restaurants, bakeries that you love?
A: I'm trying to remember right now — there's so many — Doma is one I go to a lot. Shaw's Crab House. I love the buffalo shrimp. There's Kasama, the breakfast sandwich and they have great pastries. They have that crazy line, but sometimes it's worth it. Yeah, I'm racking my brain. As soon as we hang up, I know I'm going to be like, 'oh, there's all the places that I wish I would have said.'
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