‘I Never Thought They’d Make It This Far’: The Bear Star Abby Elliott Breaks Down Natalie’s Emotional Ending and the Berzatto Family’s Hopeful Future
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The Bear star Abby Elliott breaks down Natalie’s ending and teases where she’d be now.
Plus, she discusses the hopeful conclusion for the Berzatto family unit.
The Bear‘s final season delivered numerous full-circle conclusions for the characters we’ve followed since the very beginning of the FX dramedy’s run, one of whom happens to be the Berzatto family’s daughter, Natalie (Abby Elliott). Warning: Spoilers for The Bear Season 5 ahead.
As viewers will recall, she’d wanted nothing to do with the restaurant when The Bear originally debuted, and Season 5 saw her engaged in a tearful conversation with Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas) about the challenges of balancing her role as a new mom and wife with her responsibility to the business, which she’s grown to love. Natalie had come so far as to even allow her mom, Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis), to babysit her daughter, Sophie.
While the restaurant faced a tense service, viewers witnessed Natalie embrace a sweet and steamy moment with her husband Pete (Chris Witaske) amidst the chaos, hinting at her ability to release some of the control she’s been gripping since the beginning of the show. Reassuring that she has faith in Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) to lead the ship moving forward with Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) in Carmy’s (Jeremy Allen White) absence. Natalie concluded the show on a hopeful note, promising to bring the warmth and familial feelings into the business for the foreseeable future. Below, Elliott opens up about bringing Natalie’s story full circle and reveals whether she’d return to her role in the future.
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It’s such a beautiful arc to see Natalie embrace the restaurant when she wanted nothing to do with it in the first season. How did you feel about that full-circle conclusion that she really does love this?
Abby Elliott: I am so thrilled for Natalie, honestly. There was so much hesitance and resistance, and her heart was just so broken in Season 1 that she couldn’t ever picture this terrible thing that’s been in her life turning into something good for anybody. It’s for Carmy, but also for Mikey, and I think there were little glimpses throughout each season of this may be a good place for her, especially at the end of Season 1 when they’re at family dinner, and she’s looking around, and then there’s a smile when Carmy smiles and laughs at Ebraheim. So, I think the breadcrumbs have been there the whole time, and to see her embrace it and give her this purpose outside of her maternal purpose, I’m so happy for her. I love her and care about her deeply.
Natalie tries to maintain control over her mom, Donna, while watching baby Sophie. Why is it important for Natalie to let Donn have that chance to prove she’s capable of caring for her grandchild?
That’s a huge moment for her, and I think for any new mom to give your baby up to anybody is just the most stressful thing in the world. And it so happens that it’s Donna whom she needs to call, and I think they’re at this place where she can trust her. She’s feeling stable. She knows that the restaurant really needs her, and so she’s torn between these two places, and feels like that’s the best place for baby Sophie is with somebody that loves her… there’s nothing like a grandparent’s love, and Natalie sees that Donna’s capable of that kind for the first time in a long time. It’s a beautiful moment.
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‘The Bear’ Stars Break Down Sydney and Tina’s Full-Circle Moment
I love when she calls Donna, and she’s sitting in the house with a bunch of candles.
There’s so much of Donna that is like old-school parenting in a way that you’re like, no, it works… eighties parenting, they were onto something.
Natalie and her husband Pete have a surprising hookup in the alley behind The Bear. Was it fun leaning into her spontaneity and embracing that joy?
Yes, again, there are so many stressors for Natalie. [There are] bills, and you see her, always in real time, trying to figure things out for the restaurant. To have that breath of fresh air for her literally when she’s outside and taking a quiet moment for herself and her husband’s there, and it gets romantic… to be able to do that and have it be joyful, that’s so much of what the show is, the beauty of this very stressful, real world of a restaurant and then the human side.
Is Natalie a character you’d ever consider revisiting if the opportunity arose?
I love where the characters are. I text with Jamie a lot; like, this is where Donna and Natalie are right now. They’re cooking chicken piccata together, and we will fantasize about this kind of alternate life that we’ve had and we’ve shared together.
