By Kelsey Hale.
Behind-the-scenes, Elliott expected her three-year-old daughter, Edith, to be on standby. “She loves the idea of getting dressed up. She loves her jewelry, she loves princess dresses, but I don’t think she knows what I do for a living,” she said. “I try to show her things, and she’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s my mom on TV.’ But it’s really no different than seeing an iPhone photo.” The actor’s parents—including her father, Schitt’s Creek star Chris Elliott—would also be on-hand to babysit. “I really like having people around,” she explains. “I’m not one of those people that needs to be alone. I like that energy. It makes me feel more comfortable to have a big house full of people.”
By Kelsey Hale.
The dysfunctional characters of The Bear, which returns for a third season in 2024, are also no stranger to a full house. Many of Elliott’s most memorable scenes were opposite Jamie Lee Curtis as Carmy and Natalie’s abrasive, alcoholic mother, Donna. “Natalie wants to fix this family dynamic always, and she wants everything to be wrapped up in a neat bow,” said Elliott. “Since the show came out, so many people have come up to me and said, ‘Oh my God, I’m so much your character and my mom was so much like Donna. I totally relate to being the child of an alcoholic parent, and you portrayed that so well.’”
Elliott attributes much of her portrayal to Curtis, who would stay in-character between takes. “She has a moment where she holds my face,” Elliott remembered. “She improvised that, and it was so shocking in the moment [that] I fully went somewhere else. Afterwards [creator and co-showrunner] Chris Storer was like, ‘Oh, that was incredible when she was holding your face.’ And I was like, ‘I blacked out.’ You were just in it with her. But hearing that it really resonated with people, it makes it feel so important that I was able to connect with people.”
As for The Bear’s hotly-anticipated third helping, Elliott said, “We start shooting this year pretty soon, but I’ve seen nothing. I know nothing.” All she can say is that the scripts are, in fact, coming—and typically all in a single serving. “It’s really fun to block out a chunk of time and just dive back into the story every year,” Elliott added. “I’m really looking forward to reading what they came up with.”
And if Natalie were to get a solo episode à la Richie’s (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) season 2 foray into fine dining, Elliott would want to explore new parenthood with Chris Witaske’s character, Pete. “I would love to go deeper into their marriage,” she said. “He is this jolly, funny, sweet guy, and he’s her rock, but she also has these moments of rolling her eyes at him. She might be a little smarter than he is. So it’s interesting why she chose him as a partner after enduring years of her chaotic family.”