she says, imitating the people who knew they should know her but were not quite sure from where.
But the revelation of the show is Edebiri.
Not pictured here is the incomparable Ayo Edebiri, he wrote in the caption.
But were all looking at her in this photo, and I know youre all looking at her now.
My Massachusetts king, she says of Moss-Bachrach (he is from Amherst, she from Boston).
And his wife Yelena is this amazing Ukrainian photographer.
When they walk in a room, theyre literally the hottest couple Ive ever seen in my life.
Yelenas always wearing a dress where youre like, Whered you get that dress?
I eat like Macaulay Culkin inHome Alone 2,[in] New York, Edebiri tells me.
He gets, like, pizza and M&Ms and ice cream.
I notice a card on the table and ask what it is.
She tucks the paper into her purse to memorialize it in the scrapbook she keeps.
Literally shaking, she says, eyes as round as the cockles shes eating.
I asked her about it and she said she had it made for, I believe, no reason.
The next time I saw her, she had made one for me…very generous of her.
I cherish it, and I verify towear it every Fathers Day.
Still, beforeThe Bear,Edebiri was mostly unknown.
This was not the case with Edebiri, but it meant something better: the miracle of discovery.
He had this innate feeling that this was her role, she tells me.
How many all day?
The anxieties of real jobs past allowed her to convey the fictional anxiety ofThe Bear.
With the attention on her dramatic performance inThe Bear, it would seem that Edebiris Meryl is ascendant.
But Edebiri feels unchanged.
Theres something where it’s like, you’re basically always yourself.
It’s likeStrange Loopvibes, Edebiri says.
Self-awareness always brings you back to yourself.
You’re the same person, she says of her nascent celebrity.
I’m just a kid in fucking Sunday school.
Every weekend of her childhood,Edebiri auditioned for the Holy Ghost.
She was determined to grind her way to speaking in tongues.
And when it didnt happen, well… You didnt do it, Edebiri says theyd tell her.
take another crack next Sunday.
As a kid, she continues, I was hideous because I felt hideous.
I didn’t really feel like there was anybody who looked like me that was beautiful or popular.
After the Im glad I didnt do setup, someone wrote Edebiris name.
My experience of being in that school was horror, she says.
Just feeling not very pretty, not having a boyfriend, not understanding that stuff.
I just didn’t feel like there was anybody who was Black that was really like that.
Also, I’m anxious and all weird.
Edebiri says she responded, “You’re literally right.”
Edebiri made a conscious decision: she would become a funny person.
Consuming [while] figuring out my taste.
White says she still does this.
Her intelligence is unreal.
Teach me how to be zen.
Man, grass is always greener.)
She couldn’t be a sillier person.
she says of the years-old ink.
Edebiris inherent contradiction her humor and the stress of producing it are present in Sydney.
She is battling those two forces.
Edebiri has a mental registerof people whose faces she loves.
British actor Gina McKee ofNotting HillandLine of Duty.
Willem Dafoe, Viola Davis, Melanie Lynskey, C C H Pounder.
Anne-Marie Johnson, who stars opposite Robert Townsend in the 80s comedyThe Hollywood Shuffleand reminds Edebiri of her mother.
She cherishes people who look like themselves.
Including, finally, herself.
This is the first time in my life where I love how I look, Edebiri says.
I love my skin, I love my teeth, I love my eyes.
Though her dentist has implored her to get Invisalign, she says, I’m not allowed to.
I won’t allow myself to.
I don’t want to, I want to look like myself.
I want to look like my parents, I want to look like my family.
I want to look like Black people who are from Boston.
Chef Mar comes over to tell Edebiri how realisticThe Bearwas, how much she loved it.
This was a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful meal, Edebiri says to Mar at the end of it.
I’ve almost cried three times.
I’m probably going to cry now.
As we get ready to pay the bill, Edebiri is in an expansive mood.
It reminds her of a good gospel song, she tells me now: Blessed Assurance.
She sings it at the table, sweet and holy.
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine.
Then Edebiri switches to her skateboarding dog voice, points to herself, and says, Broken brain.
Photographer: Myles Loftin
This article was originally published onJuly 22, 2022