Jeremy Allen White Watched 1 Al Pacino Performance Repeatedly While Preparing for ‘The Bear’
Jeremy Allen White is receiving lots of praise for his performance on one of Hulu‘s new shows, The Bear. The actor, who’s known for his role as Lip on Shameless, recently revealed that he watched one of Al Pacino’s performances repeatedly while preparing to star in the original series.
Jeremy Allen White plays Carmy in ‘The Bear’
The Bear is an FX Hulu show about a James Beard Award-winning chef, Carmen Berzatto, who leaves his high-end culinary career to take over his brother’s Italian beef restaurant. As he’s often called, White’s character Carmen, or Carmy, begins running his brother’s struggling restaurant and finds himself facing a truckload of problems.
Carmy’s brother Mikey died by suicide, and Carmy has issues processing the death and his grief. He also has to deal with the restaurant’s stubborn employees, with his brother’s best friend leading the charge.
Several problems threaten to shut down the restaurant’s operations, including a terrible health inspection score and a toilet disaster. The revelation that the business and essentially Carmy are in deep debt due to a loan by his brother and uncle creates a pressure-cooker environment on the verge of exploding.
Jeremy Allen White watched one of Al Pacino’s movies repeatedly to prepare for ‘The Bear’
White recently sat down with GQ to discuss his career and success on the new FX show. He told the publication about his fears leading up to the end of Shameless. The 31-year-old said, “There was a period where I stopped feeling like an actor, and I started feeling like I was just here to do [Shameless].”
However, White said he used the unsteadiness he felt at the time to channel The Bear character Carmy. He said, “I think that was something Carmy was struggling with too. We kind of found each other at a similar place.”
His headspace post-Shameless wasn’t White’s only source of inspiration for Carmy. The actor divulged that he repeatedly watched Pacino’s performance in The Panic In Needle Park to prepare for the role in The Bear.
Pacino played a heroin pusher and drug addict in the movie, and his performance received praise. So it makes sense why White would resort to trying to channel the star’s personality in The Panic In Needle Park. “I wanted to bring some of that unstillness to Carmy,” he told GQ.
White also said he took classes alongside his co-star Ayo Edebiri (Sydney) at the Institute of Culinary Education. He also had a stint at French bistro Pasjoli under award-winning Chef Dave Beran’s tutelage, where he would insist on calling Beran “chef” instead of his name. “He would say, ‘You can just call me Dave,’ and I’d say, ‘No, it’s better,'” White recalled.
White’s character Carmy frequently yells out the word “chef” to his workmates in the kitchen in The Bear, which becomes a source of laughter for his colleagues.
‘The Bear’ has received glowing reviews so far
The Bear’s first season went over well with fans who couldn’t stop talking about it. The eight-episode series has a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and critics praised it for its storyline.
Top critic Sophie Gilbert of The Atlantic said, “The Bear is horrifically stressful. It’s also thrilling, ambitious, funny, and devastating. As anxious as The Bear might make you feel, it’s a gorgeous show, riddled with moments of short sharp beauty.”
White has also struck it big with fans who, aside from thirsting over his looks, have praised his acting ability. Deadline reported that the series was greenlit for a second season. Showrunners state that it will return in 2023.
