It wasn’t as if Oliver Platt needed the work. He had already been starring for eight seasons on the NBC medical drama “Chicago Med” when the call came from creator-showrunner Christopher Storer about guesting on a couple of episodes his new FX half-hour “The Bear.” As Platt recalls it, “All of a sudden, I was sent this script that shot in Chicago. Chris claims he didn’t know I was already in Chicago and ‘Chicago Med’ shoots on the same freaking lot.” What he couldn’t ignore was the writing in the script he received, which Platt dubs “flat-out astonishing. (Storer) is like a warlock. I don’t know how he does it.”
Storer’s show would wind up winning 10 Emmys in its first season, including Best Comedy Series, while Platt earned a guest actor nomination (his fifth Emmy bid). And he would be invited back for Season 2, cast in six episodes. While he can’t talk about it yet, he’s also returning for Season 3 that drops June 27 on Hulu. And he’s thrilled to be a part of it. “You don’t often see writing this muscular and efficient,” he notes. Watch the exclusive video interview above.
The fact that Platt was already working on the same Chicago production lot as “The Bear” in “Chicago Med,” which he’s returning to this coming fall as head of psychiatry Dr. Daniel Charles, made his wanting to participate in “The Bear” again as Uncle Jimmy “Cicero” Kalinowski a no-brainer. “Here’s the thing,” Platt offers. “I’m actually not there a whole heckuva lot. And yet, I was as surprised as anybody when I finally saw the season. There’s definitely a beginning, a middle and an end to Cicero’s arc. I can only credit Chris, again. There are no insignificant characters to a great writer. He’s able to dimensional-ize all of his people, so to speak.”
Uncle Jimmy is the money man in “The Bear.” It was his $300,000 that he lent to Carmy’s (Jeremy Allen White) late brother Mikey (Jon Bernthal) that funded the original sandwich restaurant, and it’s his $500,000 that will fund its transition into a fine-dining establishment. “Carmy floats me this amazing deal,” Platt observes. “He asks me for $500,000 more, and if it doesn’t work, he gives me the lot (the land on which the restaurant is housed) back. As a businessman, how can he refuse? And yet, what’s so wonderful about the character is he actually really wants Carmy and the restaurant to succeed. He wants this thing to work because they’re his kids.”
The truth is that while Jimmy is treated as a family member, his “Uncle” title is merely honorary. But we’re never sure what his true motives are, or if he’s a mobster or how he got his money or what. Is he sinister? Is he loving and genuine? “We don’t know,” Platt agrees, “and that’s why it’s so much fun. With great writing, you’re just doing it. You just get on the horsey and you ride.” The only caveat in his case is that being on two shows that shoot on the same lot, sometimes at the same time, can challenge a guy’s acting muscles. “A couple of times during Season 2, I would start the day as a kindly psychiatrist and then step down out of the trailer, walk about 200 yards, and become a sketchy, mysterious neighborhood character with a heart of gold. I’m the luckiest guy in showbiz.”
Along those same lines, Platt is over the moon to be working on a television series that’s so captured the zeitgeist as “The Bear” has. The only time he’s previously experienced anything close, he believes, was his eight-episode arc on “The West Wing” at the height of the NBC political drama’s popularity. “It was the end of the second season and beginning of the third,” he says, “which a lot of people think was a really amazing run on the show. That was the only other time. That was a time when broadcast television was still actually a going thing. There were millions and millions of people tuning in. By comparison, the most remarkable thing about ‘The Bear’ is that it, for all intents and purposes, came out of nowhere. Obviously, FX has really talented programmers. But honestly, if you asked them, I think they’d tell you they were shocked. I know they loved it, but there was no guarantee other people would.”
The first two seasons of “The Bear” are streaming over Hulu. Season 3 drops in its entirety on June 27.
PREDICT the 2024 Emmy nominees through July 17
Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?
SIGN UP for Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions
