Through pictures he took while on location in Denmark, Emmy-nominated director Ramy Youssef reveals how he created a “fine line between loneliness and quiet” for The Bear‘s standout season two episode “Honeydew.”
Photo: Chuck Hodes/FX
“I always say guest-directing on television is like being a surrogate, you know?” says Ramy Youssef, the co-creator and star of the popular series Ramy, on which he also writes and directs.
It’s true: Most of the time, when an outside director steps into a show to helm one episode, it’s not their baby. They have to seamlessly match the project’s existing style and vibe, then be on their way. “[The parents] are like, ‘Eat this, do this, but now, the second you give birth, give me the baby back.’ It can not be really that singularly creative,” says Youssef.
But he had a very different experience when he stepped in to direct The Bear’s season two episode “Honeydew,” an installment centered on Lionel Boyce’s Marcus as he heads to Copenhagen in search of training and inspiration for the Chicago eatery’s dessert menu. The episode sheds the series’ signature frenetic energy and replaces it with a more pensive, moodier pace that matches Marcus’s personality. It gave Youssef an opportunity to embed himself and create something that felt totally unique in comparison to the rest of the series.
“The food scene is really cool—I learned so much about how people kind of go out there and find their voice,” he tells Vanity Fair. “You have this character who had really never been on a plane, and he’s trying to find himself outside of the context of taking care of his mother, outside of his family. And I do think there’s a certain quiet in Copenhagen that allows you to have that empty palette.”
It was also a quieter experience for Youssef, who is usually juggling many hats as Ramy’s cocreator, writer, director, and star. For the first time, Youssef—now nominated for the best-director Emmy for his work on The Bear—shares some of the photos he took while spending two weeks in Copenhagen to prepare for the shoot, and reveals how the experience left a lasting impression on him.
Photo: Courtesy of FX
How would you describe the mood and the aesthetic of Copenhagen and how that influenced Marcus’s story?
A lot of what we talked about was that the colors of where he’s walking, those are also really influencing the colors of the dishes. It’s just kind of how inspiration is. If you are able to be in an open mind, and in an open place, you’re constantly being inspired. So he’s walking through these trees, this park, these plants. He’s at Noma; he’s looking at these vegetables, he’s looking at all these things, and then those things all kind of find themselves in the color of these desserts. I had a fun time getting to really focus on these nuances from a directing point of view.
Tell me about finding the houseboat that Marcus stays on during his visit.
That came out of a conversation that I had with Tyson Bidner, the line producer, who also is our line producer on Ramy. When we shot in Cairo for Ramy, we shot on a houseboat, and then we were kind of joking that we got to extend our international houseboat motif.
We had these scenes in an apartment, and then we’re kind of walking in Copenhagen and realizing, Oh wait, these are really cool places to be and to live. And again, it creates that privacy, that intimacy, that sometimes that can look like loneliness but actually isn’t.
This episode is a real fine line between loneliness and quiet. And I think that the houseboat felt so quiet in this really cool way. There’s even the element of floating—being untethered can either be scary or it can be freeing.
Boyce on the houseboat. “He gets to go back home with this new piece of himself,” says Youssef of Marcus’ journey.
What did you learn at the restaurant Poulette, because Lionel also mentioned Poulette when I interviewed him?[Culinary producer] Courtney Storer—who I think is just a crucial part of why the show is so good—just threw me on a text with a few chefs. And Martin [Ho], who owns Poulette, and I just really got along. He has this amazing bike with a side carriage thing—I’ve never seen these things outside of Europe, but it’s like, I basically was sitting close to the floor and he biked me all around Copenhagen for days. He’d just take me to all these different places. And truthfully, his fried chicken sandwich was just my favorite thing that I had there, and so I kept going back.
It’s a sandwich I think about all the time. So we shot it romantically, like you can see the steam coming out of it. I was looking at [cinematographer] Adam [Newport-Berra] and I was like, This is awesome.
Preparing Poulette’s famous sandwich.
How did you work with Lionel Boyce, who was in a different situation—having to carry the whole episode rather than being a part of the ensemble?
He’s such a natural, and he brings so much of himself into the character. He has this innate sweetness; he has this contemplativeness. I think the thing we probably played with the most was his phone call with Sydney and kind of trying to find those pockets of vulnerability.
And similarly, I think he has really fun stuff to play in his scene with Will Poulter, Luca. He’s so happy to be there, but it’s that thing where you’re trying to play it cool, but then you’re also trying to get some information. That scene with him and Will was some of the most fun I’ve had shooting because it was so subtle, but there was actually a lot to do. Luca has got the doors shut, he’s closed off, and then Lionel just has the softest knock. He keeps opening the door and opening the door and opening the door.
Lionel Boyce captures by Youssef’s lens.
Is there anything you learned from this experience that was new for you compared to the other directing work you’ve done?
I think because I had more time to focus on one thing, one episode, it was like a peak for me of a more expansive directing experience. Sometimes showrunning feels like running a small business. When you’re fully showrunning and in something, the way that we are on Ramy, there’s so many pieces. But for me, I just got this really expansive look at what it could feel like to, hopefully, do a film.
Do you have an eye on a feature you want to direct?
I have a couple of things that feel exciting that I’m kind of chasing. I’m working on this show right now with Will Ferrell, which has been amazing, and then around that corner, especially off this Bear experience—I think, hopefully, I’m ready to jump into figuring that out too.
“I had maybe seven, eight rolls of just Copenhagen stuff and whittled it down, sent it to this location manager who was a wizard because he knew where everything was,” says Youssef. “I had no addresses, I had nothing. I was just like, ‘Hey, I saw this row of trees.’ And he was like, ‘I know where that is.’”
Peering into the houseboat. “I’d asked [The Bear creator] Chris Storer, “Hey, can I watch some of second season and where it’s at?” And he was just like, “No, just make it whatever it is, however you guys want to do it.”
The houseboat where Marcus stays in Copenhagen.
“The writer’s room had not been to Copenhagen but Lionel and I had, and so I think we got this really fun opportunity to be like, ‘Hey, let’s make this a love letter to this city,’” says Youssef.
“I met a location manager in Copenhagen and we scouted stuff for like two days, but then I hung out for like two weeks and I got to shoot a bunch of film photography and find a bunch of locations,” says Youssef of his time exploring the city.
“I really felt like the more I got to talk to the restaurant people there, you realize it is like everyone in food is a transplant from somewhere else,” says Youssef.
Boyce in a kitchen in Copenhagen. “I think the episode is constantly playing with this tension of like, ‘wait, is this lonely and about to get scary or is this quiet and about to be freeing?’” says Youssef. “And it only is quiet and freeing for him.”
Youssef calls Courtney Storer (pictured here with Poulette’s Martin Ho) “a genius on set. She is so good with how the food is being presented and made.”
Originally published on Vanityfair.com
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