Ebon Moss-Bachrach lives for the chaos on The Bear. “For me personally, it’s more fun to shoot the stuff where everyone’s together—under the gun, yelling, sweating on each other with things sizzling all around,” he tells Vanity Fair.

His character, Richie Jerimovich, is often at the center of that chaos. The loud and passionate manager of the eatery can be quick to anger, often leading to heated arguments with every other member of the staff.

But as we chat the day before the second season of the hit series debuts, Moss-Bachrach describes this new chapter as “a departure” from what they did in season one. “This is deeper. This is getting into some of the more true stuff,” he says.

So yes, there will be chaotic scenes in the kitchen as the staff of The Beef—played by Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri, Lionel Boyce, Liza Colón-Zayas, and Abby Elliott—guts and attempts to relaunch the restaurant as The Bear. But the season will also dive deeper into each character’s own journeys and backstories in a way that expands on the first season.

We’ll learn more about Richie’s life outside of the restaurant, including his living situation and his strained relationship with ex-wife and young daughter. And while Moss-Bachrach may not love when his character is on his own, the actor gets a showcase in the seventh episode when Richie goes off on a solo adventure—and performs a scene opposite a surprise Oscar-winning guest actor that is sure to get viewers talking. [Spoiler alert: The actor is named below].

Though he’s careful not to spoil anything—even though the show premieres in just one day—Moss-Bachrach reveals the pressure that comes with following up a hit season, what surprised him about Richie, and what it was like to do a scene opposite a very famous guest star.

Vanity Fair: The second season drops tomorrow. Does this feel different than it did the day before the first season was unveiled?

Ebon Moss-Bachrach: It feels so different from last season. Last time, nobody had heard of anything. We were just this little show that we kind of made in this COVID bubble. And it went out there with very little publicity or fanfare, and through word of mouth and goodwill it became this beautiful, really loved show. And now, obviously, everyone likes it and I'm freaked out.

Second seasons are scary when the first one was such a giant hit.

I think so. I've seen some nice reviews, so that gives me confidence. But the season is a departure from last season, and I think it's really good. I think it grows a lot, but you also don't want to be all of a sudden on a different show.

Tell me about it being a departure. When you first started reading the scripts, how did it feel different to you?

To me, it's a softer season. Whereas the first season was an introduction to this restaurant and this place of work, and all the components that are there, the second season—I don't think it's a spoiler to say we're creating something new to do that everyone needs to look within a little bit and see what it is they want to make new and where they fit in. You're delving a bit deeper into everybody. Just in a very practical way, everyone is spending less time together.

In the first episode, Richie is already having this crisis about what his purpose is. What's your take on why he's feeling that way?

We see him and he's in the basement — that's no accident. He's looking at old pictures and he's digging through the detritus and the memories of this old institution. Richie fought very hard in the first season to preserve something, and I think he lost. And so when we find him, he needs The Beef, and he needs The Bear, and he needs these people because he doesn't really have anywhere else to be. But he doesn't know how he fits in.

He also seems to be working on himself. You can see him trying. How did you approach that change he seems to be trying to make?

I don't think he's inherently a bad person or anything like that. I think he recognizes, when he stops shouting for a second, he can actually hear what people are saying. He recognizes a need for him to maybe change a little bit, or a big bit. And he's reading books. Richie's a reader, which is kind of surprising to some people. But he’s a very loyal person. I think he's willing to do anything—whether it be sell coke or put a gun to somebody's head, or read a self-help book—for the restaurant.

Did you notice anything different about the way you approached playing this character now that you’ve lived with him for a longer time?

It's hard for me to quantify that and say this specifically, but like anything else, the more you do it, the more intimate you are with it, and you build a historical place from where you're coming from and it can really inform what you're doing.

Did that allow you to weigh in more on what your character would or wouldn’t do in certain situations?

I think at a certain point the actor becomes the expert on their person. And when there's a good work environment, there's respect for the instincts of the actor to say, "Okay, you know what? This feels a little bit, I don't think he's quite there." A few times I would say this season, “I don't think he's quite there. He's willing to work on himself, but I'm not sure he's able to take care of somebody else right now.” And so we examine that. And sometimes I'm wrong and they say, "No, no, really stick with it." And I work through, and it's like I get through that wall. But often it's the other way around where I say, "I think we're not quite there." And sometimes we agree.

Olivia Colman drops in for your stand-alone episode, episode seven. What was that like, for you to do that scene opposite her?

She is an actor who I've admired for a long time. I was deeply moved by her commitment and willingness to jump into this world that was very new to her.

You’ve had that experience of stepping into a show as a guest before, on other shows like Girls.

That's the hardest job is to jump in, and everyone's family, and everyone has a shorthand. You come in and it's the first day of school for you, but everyone's been together for many, many months. And it's not easy to handle that with grace, and intelligence, and so much dignity. And it was such a rare pleasure to get to make this little scene with her.

Have you realized anything new about Richie after completing this part of the story?

I thought a lot more about his home life, and his time away from the restaurant. I had built a story about what his life was like outside of the restaurant for the first season, and that's not really the reality of it from the second season. So I had to sort of rejigger my thoughts about it a little bit. And I do think he is willing to do some work, and is a reader. I'm not sure I realized that at the beginning. I think it's just revelatory to see somebody in their space at home. And so I go and I see what the set is like for where Richie lives, and that is incredibly insightful. The things he hangs up on his wall, and what's in his refrigerator, and what are the books on his bedside table like, and what condition his sheets are in. I welcome all that stuff.

Were there any reactions to Richie that surprised you after the first season debuted?

I think he's complicated. He's a good person that's in a bad situation. I personally get a little frustrated when people just write him off as an ass. I'm unimpressed with that kind of simple viewing of something, but I'm not surprised by it. The most moving experiences I've had in terms of talking with people and getting feedback are people that are in mourning, or in grieving it to some degree and latch onto that because I do think that in the first season, and even a lot in the second season, that's really one of the driving forces of Richie is that he's someone who's trying to grapple with this massive, massive loss.