Like his character in “The Bear,” Lionel Boyce has an aversion to making too much noise. “I’m a person who doesn’t like to talk about myself,” he says.
(David Urbanke/For The Times)
FX’s cultural touchstone of culinary black comedy, “The Bear,” offers the feeling of nervous individuals running around with their hair on fire (plus the occasional kitchen fire) in the Chicago diner where much of the action takes place. But there is one rock of relative serenity. He can usually be found quietly making pies while his surroundings crumble around him. Marcus, played by Lionel Boyce, has a knack for keeping his cool and moving forward.
“Marcus is the release of all the tension,” Boyce said in a recent video interview. “That’s what a lot of people tell me: ‘Everyone’s arguing. Then they cut to Marcus in the bakery and I feel like I can breathe for a second.’”
Boyce, 33, has a similar aversion to making too much noise. He's speaking from New Jersey, taking a break from filming the crime thriller “Motor City.” What's it about? “I'm always really bad at describing these things because I'm a person who doesn't like to talk about myself,” he said.
Others, however, talk a lot about him.
He recently received one of a record 23 Emmy nominations for the second season of “The Bear,” for best supporting actor in a comedy. He also starred in one of the season’s most praised episodes, “Honeydew,” in which Marcus studies his craft with a chef in Denmark and, during his free time, saves a stranger’s life. The guy is busy.
“Honeydew” is one of those “The Bear” episodes that focuses on a specific character and allows the viewer to relax a bit outside the confines of the kitchen chaos. Carmy (best lead actor nominee Jeremy Allen White) has sent Marcus to Copenhagen to intern with chef Luca (Will Poulter, who was nominated in the best guest actor category).
Lionel Boyce stars alongside Will Poulter in the “The Bear” season 2 episode “Honeydew.”
(Chuck Hodes)
At first Marcus is nervous and hesitant (he hasn't traveled much, and this top British chef is a VIP), but he gradually relaxes. The two chefs share their life stories (Marcus played football in college, and his first job in the food industry was at a McDonald's). Marcus stays on a houseboat, where he cares for a cat that may or may not exist. Walking home one night (or early one morning), he finds a cyclist with his throat trapped under a fence. Marcus lifts the fence, and the man, still bleeding, gives him a long hug of gratitude before pedaling off into the darkness.
The episode, for which director Ramy Youssef also received an Emmy nomination, is one of the most hopeful and peaceful of the series so far (just two episodes later came the epic Christmas dinner anxiety attack, “Fishes”). And for Boyce, it marked an important step in Marcus’s development as a character.
(David Urbanke/For The Times)
“It’s the first time he feels comfortable,” Boyce said. “And in the end, Luca respects him because he sees his passion and his passion. I think getting someone who has no interest in you to believe in you is so important for anyone who’s doing something. External validation or confidence from someone who’s not your family or your friends can mean a lot.”
Like Marcus, Boyce played outside linebacker at El Camino College in Torrance. When he realized he probably wasn’t going to make it to the NFL, he turned to hip-hop, as a member of the Los Angeles-based Odd Future collective, and sketch comedy, on the Odd Future series “Loiter Squad” on Adult Swim. This was his primary gateway into acting, which, he soon realized, he enjoyed more than tackling running backs.
“I used to play football and other sports, but I never really got into watching them,” he said. “Now, I always watch movies. I go to the cinema alone. I am very interested in this world. I can absorb it at any time.”
Boyce was trying to figure out what was next when he received the script for the “Bear” pilot. He got the part, and the next thing he knew, he was working on a set (basically, an unpaid kitchen internship) at Copenhagen’s Hart Bageri restaurant (yes, Boyce got to Denmark even before his Season 2 episode) while preparing to play Marcus.
“That was before the show came out, so people don’t know who I was,” he said. “They assume I’m some guy who came from another kitchen and they’re like, ‘Wow, that’s really bad. ’”
Appropriately, “The Bear,” which has been widely praised for the authenticity of its restaurant descriptions, has broadened Boyce’s palate. Take, for example, mushrooms. “I thought I just didn’t like mushrooms, in general,” he said. “Then you have a different kind of mushroom and you learn the different ways they’re prepared. It was more the texture than the flavor that I didn’t like. I’m no longer here doing business and negotiating, putting mushrooms in my food, but I can eat them. I’m not like a kid about it anymore.”
Like Marcus, Boyce is learning, course by course.
