‘The Bear’ Breakout Lionel Boyce Had ‘Much More Respect’ for Main Cast After Marcus-Centered Episode
variety.comSelena Kuznikov When “The Bear” actor Lionel Boyce found out about his first-ever Emmy nomination, he was mid-REM cycle on an early flight. “I was asleep, and I woke up to a text,” Boyce tells Variety. “I didn’t buy Wi-Fi, and I forgot to put my phone on airplane mode, so I got a random text saying, ‘Hot damn!’ I woke up all confused, and there were a couple of people on the plane who knew, so they said, ‘Congrats’ and stuff.” While he was still groggy, one of the flight attendants asked him how he felt: “I was just like, ‘I don’t know, I’m gonna take this piss because I still don’t really know what’s going on, and I’ll tell you later.’” Boyce, who plays pastry chef Marcus in FX’s “The Bear” and also goes by L-Boy, says it was “weird, but sick” discovering that he had received a nomination for best supporting actor in the series, one of the show’s 23 total Emmy noms, breaking the record for the most nods for a comedy, previously set by “30 Rock.” He’s up against “The Bear” co-star Ebon Moss-Bachrach (who plays Richie), Tyler James Williams (“Abbott Elementary”), Paul W.
Downs (“Hacks”), Paul Rudd (“Only Murders in the Building”) and Bowen Yang (“Saturday Night Live”) in the category. “It’s been a really cool thing, where you reach something that you thought [only] lived within an imagination,” Boyce says of the nomination. “And you get there, and it becomes real.
It makes you say, ‘Anything that I think I can do, I can.’” The Season 2 “The Bear” episode titled “Honeydew,” which showcased Boyce, mostly focused on Marcus’ personal and professional growth.
In it, Marcus is tasked with creating three desserts for the in-the-works Chicago restaurant run by Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and Sydney (Ayo Edebiri).
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