Why Matty Matheson Refused to Play a Chef on 'The Bear'
Canadian chef Matty Matheson not only serves as producer and culinary consultant on The Bear, but he also has a standout role as Carmy’s childhood friend Neil Fak, who is the restaurant’s clueless-yet-lovable handyman. While it would make sense for Matheson to also cook onscreen, the restaurateur turned actor shared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! why he refused to play a chef on TV.
The host pointed out, “You are a very accomplished chef. You are on a show about chefs, about a restaurant. You do not play a chef on that show.” Matheson responded, “I didn’t want to.”
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Matheson recalled that when showrunner Christopher Storer asked him if he would be open to acting in addition to producing and consulting on the Emmy-winning series, he was hesitant to be the only real chef cooking on camera. “I was like, ‘I really wouldn’t want to be a chef if you’re going to ask me that. That sucks. I wouldn’t want to do that because that’s stressful,'” he explained.
Thankfully, Storer had better plans for Matheson: “He was like, ‘We want you to be the handyman guy.’ And I was like, ‘Perfect. I don’t know how to do anything.'”
Kimmel noted that when Matheson’s co-star Ebon Moss-Bachrach was on the show days earlier, he said the host should inquire about the chef’s “acting technique.” Matheson shared that the cast likes to “make fun” of him because he’s not an actor but he acts “serious,” so Moss-Bachrach nicknamed his technique the “Mathod acting school of dramatic reading.”
Though the cast sometimes playfully gives him a hard time for being a novice to acting, Matheson says his co-stars do their best to help him out in between shooting: “Jeremy [Allen White] would come over and be like, ‘Hey dog, let’s go run the scene outside so you can feel like you got it.’ I was like, ‘What? Now I’m even more scared.'” He also joked that Ayo Edebiri would make him say his lines “randomly” so he could remember them.
While the cast helped Matheson brush up on his acting skills, he has also played a big role in teaching his co-stars how to seamlessly move around a kitchen, including instructing them on how their hands should move during takes. As he explained to Kimmel, “A kitchen is a very busy place and people are constantly moving. Finding the movement cadence constantly while doing lines is really difficult, I feel.”
The Bear has won big at awards shows over the past two months, taking home six Emmys, three Golden Globes and three SAG awards. While fans have been waiting for a premiere date for the third season, Matheson confirmed to Kimmel that season three is currently in production, so it won’t be much longer.
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