Ebon Moss-Bachrach had a big year in 2023 with the release of the second season of The Bear and his role in Andor. What was even better, though, was seeing him take home the Emmy award for Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his work on season 1 of The Bear.
Playing Richie “Cousin” Jerimovich has made Moss-Bachrach a household name. Previously, we knew him from the Netflix Marvel era, where he starred in The Punisher as David Lieberman, a.k.a Micro, but to see him shine as he does in The Bear is truly one of the best parts of the show. He is Cousin! Which is exactly what I started yelling the minute they announced his win. In his speech, he thanked those he works with and everyone who makes The Bear possible.
“This job is such a gift. It’s such a privilege to work with these wonderful actors. We have the best crew. We have this incredible Chicago crew,” he said. Moss-Bachrach’s win marked the second time that night that an actor from The Bear won (Jeremy Allen White took home Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series earlier during the ceremony). What makes this exciting, though, is knowing that season 2 of The Bear had the episode “Forks,” one of the most human, gut-punching, and emotionally satisfying episodes of the entire show, focused solely on Richie—and that means that this should be the first of many awards for Moss-Bachrach.
Cousin, who struggles in the first season of The Bear after the death of his best friend Mike (Jon Bernthal), is a character that so many of us have connected with and fallen in love with. It also just shows how great Moss-Bachrach is in the show that he is already being recognized by the Emmys for his work in season 1.
It’s just nice to see Cousin winning
Richie is one of the best characters in the show as a whole. If you take out the “Cousin” of it all, we still have a brilliant performance from Moss-Bachrach to love. Everything about Cousin works because we get to see a man struggling with his own feeling of being left behind and alone. In season 1, we saw how much he loved Mike and missed him, even when Carmy included him in The Real Beef of Chicagoland, which used to be Mike’s restaurant.
What I’m excited about is for more people to watch The Bear and watch as Moss-Bachrach shines not only in that first season but especially in season 2. Hopefully, this is just the start of the praise that he rightfully deserves because if he doesn’t get nominated for “Forks” alone in season 2? I’m going to fight.
(featured image: Monica Schipper/WireImage)
