Oscar winning actor Jamie Lee Curtis shared how her guest-starring role in the 2022 Emmy-winning series, The Bear starring Jeremy Allen White was kept secret, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Curtis appeared as Donna Berzatto in the episode titled Fishes in June 2023.
“None of us said a word to anyone — not our families, not our friends, no one,” said the actor of joining Christopher Storer’s Emmy-winning FX series for two episodes.
Curtis plays combustible matriarch Donna Berzatto, mother to Jeremy Allen White’s Carmy, Jon Bernthal’s Mikey and Abby Elliott’s Natalie.
“They changed the name on the buses, the vans — the call sheets didn’t have our names on them. We flew to Chicago. There was no connection back to the show. There was no word ‘Bear’ anywhere near me. I stayed at a hotel, the hotel didn’t know who was paying for my room. It was a secret until the day it dropped,” she added.
The show’s fans were taken aback when it began on June 22, 2023, as nothing was known about the narrative and there was no prior press coverage.
It also surprised people who had been keeping an eye on Curtis to see what she would do next after winning Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards in March 2023. She has previously recorded sequences in The Bear with guest performers Sarah Paulson, John Mulaney, Bob Odenkirk, Gillian Jacobs, and Matty Matheson.
“I am a weapon of mass promotion, someone who is really good at getting the word out,” Curtis added. “I kept my mouth shut correctly, as did everyone. That’s the power of this. I’m all for promoting, but if something needs to be kept a secret to let people find out on their own, I will turn that phone off for the rest of my life.”
As for what the experience was like filming the show, it was a brief and solitary one, says Curtis. “To be asked to come was so beautiful. I showed up, did the work, went back to my hotel room, went to bed, woke up, went to work, did my work, went back to my hotel room and went to bed. I was there only four days, and then I flew back to LA. I was sitting on that plane thinking, ‘Whoa, that was intense.’ “
She credited Storer and the cast for making it unforgettable as well. “I couldn’t believe how great that show is. The writing, the storytelling — it’s all just incredible. Then bringing in actors and teams who put together something so magical. It’s the beauty of the collaborative art form,” she said, reported The Hollywood Reporter.