Whatever you do, do not ask The Bear cast about Jeremy Allen White’s underwear shoot for Calvin Klein. Seriously! They’re going to giggle with each other about you, then make some totally hilarious joke about their co-star’s tighty-whities, and by the end of the conversation, they’re all going to look 500 times funnier than you are. It’s just not worth it.
This is, unfortunately, exactly what happened at Sunday night’s Golden Globe Awards, which saw big wins from FX on Hulu series, including Best Comedy Series, Best Leading Actor in a Comedy for White, and Best Leading Actress in a Comedy for Ayo Edebiri. After a handful of reporters covering the Globes on the red carpet and behind the scenes asked White’s co-stars about his underwear shoot, his castmates fired back with a handful of sarcastic answers.
It makes sense that everyone wanted to know about the Calvin Klein shoot. The stripped-down video was released just a few days prior to the awards show—could anyone watching say, in full earnest, that they weren’t thinking about White’s abs as he accepted his statuette?
Maybe Edebiri, who stars opposite White as Sydney in The Bear. The actress spent almost her entire night dodging questions about the photo shoot. The evening began with a vague question about skivvies from Entertainment Tonight: “Did you guys get underwear or anything because of the ad?”
Edebiri, alongside one of The Bear’s directors, Ramy Youssef, gave a confused stare in response to this question. The ad? What ad? Be more specific. The interviewer turned to the camera and made clear that he was talking about White’s Calvin Klein pics while Edebiri and Youssef had a laugh behind them.
“Oh, you’re speaking about brother Jeremy,” Youssef said. “I found it to be chilling. I found it to be uncomfortable, to me. I haven’t eaten since I’ve seen it. I don’t know if you have.”
“I’m bulking up!” Edebiri said, ready to compete with her buff co-star. “I’m on the protein, I’m on the creatine. I’m bulking. And I’m getting fit.”
So, basically, Edebiri totally evaded the question.
It happened again when Edebiri spoke with Access Hollywood. While chatting with a reporter alongside Abbott Elementary’s Quinta Brunson, Mr. Klein was name dropped. Here, Edebiri addressed the situation with White—although she couldn’t do so without a huge wince. “I’m happy for him. That’s my boy! I do feel like I want people to understand that he’s my coworker,” Edebiri said.
But the night was far from over, and after The Bear swept a handful of TV awards, the entire cast met with Extra TV for another chat. This time, the interviewer had brought an entire posterboard of White’s nearly nude campaign photos, ready to present The Bear cast with a…gift?...to celebrate their big wins.
Edebiri wasn’t having it. Right after the reporter brought the poster out, she grabbed it and tucked it right back into the corner it came from.
“I’m putting it away for my boy. That’s my boy!” Edebiri said. “This is a work function.”
“But this was work too!” the interviewer fired back.
“That’s his other job,” Edebiri said.
Ebon Moss-Bachrach interjected with perhaps the best response of the evening: “I don’t know. We’re not at the underwear awards, you know what I mean?” After that, the entire team—including co-stars Lionel Boyce and Liza Colón-Zayas—agreed that, if they were ever all together at these “underwear awards” (do those exist?), then they would talk about it.
We’ve all learned a valuable lesson: You can talk about food, cousins, and Chicago with The Bear cast, but for the love of the Berzatto family, steer clear of underwear. While the stars proved why they’re the best in the comedy game with these responses, it’s fair to say they’d rather keep the conversation brief. (Pun intended.)
