All 12 Stuntcast Guest Stars in Season Four of ‘The Bear,’ Ranked

12 Brie Larson

Look, we’re all responsible for this. Had there been a public outcry against John Cena being cast as Sammy Fak in Season Three, perhaps Storer wouldn’t have gotten the idea that he could throw anyone into the Fak bucket. That’s what he’s done here with Oscar winner Brie Larson, cast as the previously unseen (and, I’m pretty sure, unmentioned) Francie Fak, sister to Neil (Matty Matheson) and Ted (Ricky Staffieri). In the lead-up to the wedding of Richie’s ex-wife Tiff (Gillian Jacobs) to her fiancé Frank (Josh Hartnett), we learn that Natalie (Abby Elliott) has written Francie off as a “Bitchfuck Betrayer” and she’s irate to hear Neil has invited her to the event. Though we find out that Francie feels Natalie betrayed her, exactly what either of them thinks happened is still a mystery by the end of “Bears,” the wedding episode. 

Perhaps we can “look forward” to watching it in another Berzatto family flashback episode, where we also meet heretofore unknown Faks played by, hmmm, maybe Alex Borstein, Patton Oswalt and Cecily Strong?

(Oh: and Francie and Natalie hooked up at some point? Do we think Larson pitched this to try to out-goof Jennifer Lawrence?) 

11 Sarah Paulson

Paulson plays Michelle, one of the characters introduced in “Fishes.” In Season Four, she’s mentioned before the wedding as only being able to spend a matter of hours in Chicago before heading home to New York for rehearsals of a play she’s been cast in. Thus, we only see her having a brief and very stiff interaction with Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis), and reassuring Tiff that it’s fine her unreliable and stress-inducing mother took the out Tiff gave her not to travel from Boulder for the wedding. What she brings is, typically of Paulson, enjoyably natural; there’s just not much of it. Notably, Paulson doesn’t have any screen time with Stevie (John Mulaney), Michelle’s live-in partner. 

Do Paulson and Mulaney… get along??? Fire up the rumor mill!

10 Molly Gordon

In Season Two, Gordon’s character Claire was introduced as a long-ago love interest for Carmy (Jeremy Allen White). Her demanding career as a medical resident didn’t seem to limit the mental energy required to remember Carmy’s many dreams and aspirations. Somehow, paying this much attention to Carmy didn’t result in her deciding his many emotional problems made him a bad option as a boyfriend, and he did end up breaking her heart in a very dramatic way. 

I guess we’re supposed to root for these people who’ve known each other since they were children, even though they’re often thrown back in each other’s paths at events where everyone considers themselves “cousins”? I’ve been charmed by Gordon elsewhere (in Theater Camp, for example), but Claire has to eat a lot of shit in this role, and for a guy who is not worth it; there’s only so much Gordon can do to sell the illusion that he is.  

9 Jamie Lee Curtis

I know Curtis won an Emmy last year for her performance as Carmy’s mother Donna. I appreciate that she attacks the role of a malignant, alcoholic narcissist without vanity; our understanding of how Carmy got where he is now rests largely on our understanding of the emotionally draining environment he couldn’t wait to leave. I get that being a big personality, and sucking up the air in every room she’s in, aligns with the reality for many real-life Donnas. Even so: Curtis is overacting so hard that I’m sometimes concerned for her cardiovascular stamina. Her big scene this season comes in the penultimate episode, and includes her telling Carmy she’s working on herself and has been sober for almost a year. I would love to think that means a hypothetical Season Five might let her dial it down a notch or 40, but I don’t.

8 Kate Berlant

Whenever we see Carmy in an Al-Anon meeting, he could be listening to a share from some fame-o or other; it’s a little surprising that it’s taken Storer until now to do it with Kate Berlant, a comic and actor you may have seen in Prime Video’s A League of Their Own, Fantasmas or The Other Two. Here she plays Georgie, who tells Carmy’s meeting about letting her six months’ sober brother stay in her apartment while she’s away, only to find out when she returns that he was not able to live up to her expectations. Berlant nicely captures the mix of disappointment, grief, ruefulness and dark humor that such a story requires.

7 Josh Hartnett

Pop culture’s divorced dads are beset by a plague: the beta guys their exes take up with after they break up. The examples are numerous, but the one I always remember is Moneyball, in which Sharon (Robin Wright) goes from her ex Billy (Brad Pitt) to a guy so wuss-coded that he can’t just be Alan — he’s Alán (Spike Jonze). 

The Bear doesn’t live down to the cliché: Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) must reluctantly admit that Tiff’s now-husband Frank (Hartnett) is a kind, well-meaning, generous man who might care more about winning over Tiff and Richie’s daughter Eva (Annabelle Toomey) than he does Tiff. A scene in which half the wedding ends up under a table reassuring Eva that she doesn’t have to do a stepdad-daughter dance at the reception if she doesn’t want to is about five times as long as it needs to be…

…but look how cute he is! 

6 Rob Reiner

Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson) isn’t content just knowing his part of The Bear’s business — the window that still serves sandwiches in the style that its predecessor The Beef used to sell — is turning a healthy profit while the fine dining part is steadily losing thousands: he wants to find “opportunities” to build on his strengths. Enter Albert (Reiner), who agrees to mentor Ebraheim with meetings every day for three weeks and pass on everything he knows. Albert is kind of a blowhard at first, but quickly realizes Ebraheim doesn’t need entry-level platitudes about finding his passion: He needs concrete advice on how to grow the sandwich business in a way that’s steady and smart. Even if Albert had been a total dud in all his other scenes — and he’s not — it would still be worth creating the character for the moment he meets Computer (Brian Koppelman) in the season’s penultimate episode.

5 John Mulaney

In “Fishes,” Neil and Ted put on their best matching flannels to pitch the aforementioned Stevie on a thrilling business opportunity. 

Apparently, the weekly updates with the Faks were so rewarding to Stevie that when we find him again in “Bears,” he’s joining them on pitching Natalie’s husband Pete (Chris Witaske) on a scheme to go in together on paintings — not to hang in any of their homes, but as an investment to be kept in a climate-controlled storage facility. It doesn’t seem likely that Pete is going to go for it; it does seem likely that Stevie is only participating in this for sport. 

Stevie ends up staying at the wedding after Michelle has had to leave, and he and Claire agree that they can’t tell Frank exactly what he’s in for as the newest member of the extended Berzatto clan. “There’s no warning that can sum up what this is gonna be,” says Stevie. Claire coos that Frank is such a sweet soul, and Stevie laughs that he was too. “But you’re still here,” Claire points out. “You get a high off it.” 

“If they didn’t bring it,” says Stevie, “I’d be a little heartbroken.” 

Stressful though these gatherings are, Mulaney makes me believe it.

4 Gillian Jacobs

Part of the reason I find Claire so frustrating to watch is that she’s the flatter version of Tiff. It probably helps that by the time the events of the show start, Tiff and Richie have already broken up, so we don’t have to watch her weeping over a man who is often annoying, or worse. (In “Fishes,” we’re seeing them in happier days — there’s plenty to weep about generally, but not for Tiff.) The Tiff of Season Four is stressed about the wedding, and her estranged mother, but to a recognizably human degree; at the event, when Eva has a very orderly meltdown, Tiff can trust that the men she chose to co-parent with will be able to handle it. Her dance with Cicero — in which he assures her that divorcing Richie will never mean she’s divorcing the Berzattos — is one of the season’s sweetest moments.

3 Danielle Deadwyler

Lionel Boyce (who plays Marcus) and Ayo Edebiri (Sydney) co-wrote the season’s fourth episode, “Worms.” An appointment for an off-books hair braiding lets Sydney enlist TJ (Arion King), her 11-year-old first cousin once removed, in helping her decide whether to stay with the crew at The Bear, or pursue the opportunity to build another new restaurant — one that may be characterized less by constant screaming — with Adam (Adam Shapiro). 

Sydney’s chat with TJ wouldn’t be possible if not for the fact that TJ’s mother, Sydney’s cousin Chantel (Deadwyler), hadn’t run out of hair for braiding and left the house for several hours to get more. When we do see Chantel, her constant patter of gossip and shit-talk are clearly soothing to Sydney; Chantel makes Sydney smile almost as much in one episode as we see in the rest of the season combined, and when they close the episode by making plans to go for drinks with the much sloppier Mary, we believe it. Also, a role that brings Deadwyler back to Chicago post-Station Eleven? I couldn’t possibly rank it lower than bronze.

2 Bob Odenkirk

The entire run of Better Call Saul (and most of the run of Breaking Bad) let anyone who doubted it know that Bob Odenkirk is pretty good at acting. He’s also pretty good at having a Chicago accent, too, which only helps on The Bear. Returning as Carmy’s Uncle Lee, Odenkirk only gets one scene in “Bears.” When he comes upon Carmy hiding out in the kitchen, Lee broadly hints that he and Donna are dating, and stops just short of suggesting that Carmy try to visit her. We also find out that Lee was the only person at Michael’s (Jon Bernthal) funeral before slipping out in distress; finding out there was a witness to Carmy’s attempt to be present for the family, and for his late brother’s memory, turns out to be a pivotal moment, and one Carmy wants to keep talking about in an effort to heal. 

Carmy’s attitude toward Lee in this scene ranges from openly hostile to merely wary, but Lee won’t be deterred from his quasi-parental efforts, because he knows Carmy needs them. Odenkirk manages the nearly impossible: portraying a Berzatto in a way that leaves me wanting more. 

1 Robert Townsend

Given how much of The Bear is devoted to the topic of trauma parents inflict on children, one of its most important characters is Emmanuel Adamu (Townsend), Sydney’s father. A gentle, droll, unfailingly kind man, Emmanuel doesn’t give up trying to maintain contact with his very busy daughter, nor hold it against her when she does a poor job holding up her half of the relationship. When he has a mild heart attack halfway through the season, Sydney melts down in the hospital waiting room realizing for the first time that she could lose the most reliable figure of her life — the person whose support and belief in her has made her feel safe to pursue her potentially risky dreams. 

I ended Season Four a little disappointed that the writing has turned Sydney into such a flake (justice for Chef Adam! she jerked him around for months!!!), but if someone like Emmanuel can love her this much, I guess she’s not all bad.  

* For the purposes of this list, I’m not including guest stars who, though they’re very gifted — and, in most cases, deliver more elegantly subtle performances than some Oscar winners in the mix here — are less examples of stuntcasting than they are working character actors who managed to book parts Debra Messing** and Topher Grace** could have lobbied for. Adam Shapiro, Rene Gube (Rene), Mitra Jouhari (Kelly), Andrew Lopez (Garrett), Sarah Ramos (Jessica) and David Zayas (David): we love you! Be glad you’re not on a list with some of these people!

** Entirely hypothetical examples! I don’t know anything!