The latest season of “The Bear” has dropped, and like its predecessors, it’s riddled with highs, lows and plenty of heartbreak.
“The clock is ticking. Every second counts,” Liza Colón-Zayas tells TODAY.com of Season 4, quoting the show’s often-repeated mantra.
Colón-Zayas plays Tina Marrero on the hit Hulu series, who takes a line cook job at Chicago’s Original Beef after being laid off from her longtime office job. When Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) takes over the restaurant, Tina is forced to either evolve or leave. She chooses the former, eventually becoming a sous chef at The Bear, finding a home in the found family that includes Carmy, Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and Natalie (Abby Elliott).
Much like her character, Colón-Zayas, too, has undergone her own transformation.
“The struggles to get through the day has been really profoundly anxiety-producing for me as an actor,” she explains. “And I look at Tina’s journey and I just get it.”
Born and raised in New York City, Colón-Zayas pursued a stage career and found modest success in theater before transitioning to television, where she’s played a variety of parts over a span of three decades, doggedly pursuing the break “The Bear” eventually delivered.
The struggles to get through the day has been really profoundly anxiety-producing for me as an actor. And I look at Tina’s journey and I just get it.”
Liza Colón-Zayas
“It’s been a long struggle. It’s been a lot of rejection. Hundreds of rejections. So, I understand Tina’s resentment for these millennials that she feels are pushing her out. And she has very little to begin with and she’s just trying to take care of her family,” she says. “I get it.”
Tina’s combination of grit, independence and raw vulnerability has made her a fan-favorite character on the show. In 2024, Colón-Zayas’ performance won her an Emmy for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy, adding to the impressive collection of awards the show has picked up since premiering in 2022.
“It’s the writing, but it’s also that vulnerability of opening up and saying, ‘Here’s all of this mess, all of this stuff that we have been programmed to hide and not express. Yet, we all work walking around with this stuff,’” Colón-Zayas says.
While the show has historically competed in the comedy category, “The Bear” is known for its emotional resonance with audiences, which Colón-Zayas credits to the show’s exploration of family.
“That is such a huge part of why The Bear family is together and is protecting each other. We all have these demons. I think this show resonates with so many people because they’re like, ‘Yeah, that was my family on Christmas. Yeah, that’s me trying to find a job,'” says Colón-Zayas. “So I’m grateful that these stories have been told because I think, I’m not the only one.”
Unpacking That ‘Terrifying’ Scene from Season 2
Fans of “The Bear” will likely remember Colón-Zayas singing karaoke in a bar full of people, most of them half her age, in Episode 5 of Season 2. Her emotional rendition of “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” was one of Tina’s turning points in the series and something Colón-Zayas says was completely “terrifying.”
“I’m from theater. I’m not from musical theater, so I don’t sing,” she explains, adding that the daunting scene was also filmed live.
“There’s no auto-tuning going on. This sound is coming through these bar speakers. Like, it wasn’t a pretty sound. There was no going back and redoing those scenes, singing in a smoother, prettier way,” she says.
The performance was not only a win for Colón-Zayas, but also for her character, who, despite insecurity, stands up and allows herself to truly be seen. Colón-Zayas says it represented her character “pushing through that fear … rather than just assuming that these people are going to shut me out.”
It’s also a moment that marks Tina’s willingness to be vulnerable, take risks and accept her place in The Bear’s family.
“Those are the very same people who are embracing me and giving me a second chance,” she says of her character’s coworkers.
It’s not much different off screen, with Colón-Zayas calling “The Bear” cast her “kids,” adding, “They’re so talented and fun.”
Paralleling Tina’s journey, Colón-Zayas says she’s found her own second chance through the success of “The Bear.”
“Coming out on this side, I’m a work in progress, but I am accepting that as long as I am proud of the work and doing the best I can, and protect my integrity, there are others around me that are noticing, who are respecting that, and who want that in the world,” she says. “And so I’m just learning to rewire my brain.”
‘Doomsday Could be Coming’ in Season 4
Colón-Zayas previewed Season 4, which dropped in full June 25, on TODAY with Jenna and Friends, saying, “We go much deeper in our own personal responsibility and reckoning.”
She also promised that “of course,” the season features the show’s signature sense of heightened anxiety that comes from the fast-paced restaurant setting.
“Doomsday could be coming,” she added.
Speaking to TODAY.com, Colón-Zayas, avoiding spoilers for the newly released season, clarifies, “I’m not saying it is (doomsday), because I’m not saying that.”
“But it is nerve-wracking at this point,” she adds. “We all are just looking at what we’re bringing.”
She says the season will force each character to examine what they bring to their found family.
“Like, what are each of us doing, individually and collectively, to this family that we’ve made with the time that we have?” she says.
“It’ll hurt again and it’ll heal again,” she adds.
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