The Bear S2 Most Shocking Scene Was Actually Improvised By Jon Bernthal
Carmy's older brother, played by Jon Bernthal, doesn't appear so often, but this time the actor's improvisation produced one of the show's best scenes.
The second season of The Bear, one of last year's best shows, has been released on FX. The show is about a young chef who returns to his hometown of Chicago to run a family restaurant. In the sequel, Jeremy Allen White's character, chef Carmy Berzatto, opens a new restaurant – and things get tense in the kitchen.
In episode 6 of season 2, fans were shown a scene from the Berzatto family's past. The focus was on Christmas dinner when Mikey, Carmy's older brother, played by the incomparable Jon Bernthal, was still alive.
In the episode Fishes, Berzatto's mother, Donna, cooks Christmas dinner. She bakes seven fish according to the biblical tradition, which each of the characters understands in their own way, and cooks another million dishes.
The episode ends with a big scandal. Off-screen, Mikey allegedly took some drugs, which led to an argument with Uncle Lee, played by Bob Odenkirk.
Donna drank a lot, threw a tantrum, and then crashed her car into the house. Most likely, Donna has some kind of depression – a mental disorder that was passed on to Mikey.
What shocked viewers the most was the scene where Mikey started throwing forks at Uncle Lee and then got so angry that he knocked over the table where the glasses, plates and bowls of food were in perfect order. This short scene was definitely a nightmare for perfectionists.
In a recent interview, Jon Bernthal admitted that he improvised the scene:
“Oh, the table flip definitely wasn't scripted. […] I was like, 'Hey, man [Chris Storer], you gotta let me kind of go crazy at least once!' I do a lot of action stuff and I'm aware of how big of a reset that it is, where the food is meticulously laid out and it's so specific and is a character within itself. He definitely gave me the green light.”
In some shows, improvisation is strictly forbidden. For example, the creator of The Sopranos David Chase forbade the actors to add anything of their own and change the original script.
However, when improvisation is used, sometimes scenes are born that eventually become iconic and gain even more value when fans realize that it was not planned in advance.
Source: Variety