While most TV-hungry millennials are at least somewhat familiar with seeing his face on the screen, Ebon Moss-Bachrach has undoubtedly reached a new career peak with The Bear. He won an Emmy for stealing the show in the FX dramedy's acclaimed second season, and with the third set to premiere later this month, Richie Jerimovich could have more incredibly poignant Taylor Swift car singalongs on the horizon.
This newfound level of fame hasn't been entirely glamorous for Moss-Bachrach, though; in a new interview with the Guardian, the actor revealed that strangers won't stop yelling "Cousin!" at him — the way his character and Jeremy Allen White's Carmy Berzatto most commonly address each other despite not being related (and despite the fact that some Chicagoans have criticized it as inauthentic).
"I get a lot of comments," he said, telling journalist Chris Godrey about the time he was on a little mountain outside of Kyoto, Japan, and a Korean couple approached him to tell him how much they liked the show. "People yell 'Cousin!' at me all day."
Moss-Bachrach has spoken with reverence in previous interviews about the interactions he's gotten to have with fans thanks to The Bear: "I've had so many beautiful interactions with people that have been really moved in a way that it sort of inspired me about the power of telling a story or the power of making a show or making a piece of art," he told Vanity Fair last year. But now, he's admitted, "Sometimes, you know, you're just not having a great day. And it's just like: I'm sorry, man, I don't have much for you."
Of course — we're all human! And, in that way, aren't we all kind of "Cousin"? If we need to just start yelling it at each other in the street to make Moss-Bachrach feel more comfortable, I'm not opposed.
