Ayo Edebiri’s Latest Cover Story Begs the Question: Is It Normal to Like Your Co-Worker This Much?
Strap in, SydCarmy shippers. There's new Ayo Edebiri and Jeremy Allen White fodder to digest.
Photo: Shutterstock CelebritiesMisc. GossIn a little over a month, the third season of The Bear will premiere and you know what that means…a fresh Ayo Edebiri cover story to dig into, baby!
On Tuesday, Vanity Fair unveiled the Emmy-winning actress as its June cover star, and while the spread definitely did not disappoint (that bubblegum pink Marc Jacobs set…), the interview provided a lot to chew on–especially for shippers of the SydCarmy slow-burn showmance such as myself.
As in every celebrity profile, Vanity Fair’s Leah Faye Cooper called Edebiri’s co-star, Jeremy Allen White, to offer a few flattering comments about Edebiri. Only, he didn’t just issue a “she’s a joy to work alongside” or some unspecific platitude. The man practically gushed.
“We really enjoy each other in life, on camera and off camera. I have a tremendous amount of respect for her as a person, but also as an artist. And so I hope that sort of that kind of thing shines through on camera between Carm and Syd,” White told the publication. Cooper was then kind enough to include a detail that quite literally gave me pause. Apparently, White was “so eager” to testify on behalf of Edebiri’s brilliance that he arranged a time to chat with Cooper within a day of her reaching out, an eagerness that she emphasizes “never happens.” It’s giving if he wanted to, he would!
“Syd is always able to…I don’t know, to deliver something different to Carmy, and she’s usually right,” he adds. “And I guess I think Ayo is also usually right.” Spoken like a true simp, no?
White also revealed to Cooper that when Bottoms opened during the strike, he and some other cast members and friends went with Edebiri to see it in the theater. “It was wonderful,” White said, and as Cooper noted: “meaning both the film and that experience.”
Now, if you’re starting to suspect something that supersedes water cooler chats—innocent or impure—is happening on set, behold Edebiri’s response: “Work can be a very intimate thing and a very personal thing and a very emotional thing, and I think when you’re also in industries that are creative or creative adjacent, I think there’s something that also invokes feelings of passion,” Edebiri said. “Also, boy’s got some beautiful blue eyes. You know what I mean? Those are eyes you want to project onto.” What happened to “he’s my co-worker”???
Speaking of project, I’m currently projecting every last one of my SydCarmy hopes and dreams onto these two—onscreen and off. And, we, the terminally online, might get what we want for once. These very suspect sentiments arrive mere days after the cast of The Bear was spotted taking in a Cubs game at Wrigley Field where fans recorded Edebiri and White looking like, well, they have more than “tremendous respect” for each other. In one clip posted to X, White is actually…rubbing Edebiri’s back. Before you consider something ridiculous like, maybe she just had acid reflux from the hot dogs, you should note that his body is almost entirely trained in her direction as if half their co-workers aren’t present. If I’m Ebon Moss-Bachrach (who was seated beside them), I probably would’ve just got up and…oh, hell. Who am I kidding? I’d be breaking my neck to look down that row.
Truly, I’m trying not to get ahead of myself here. All of this could very well be an ultra-coordinated PR play ahead of season three’s premiere. As we’ve learned—as recently as Anything But You, for instance—Hollywood’s most tried and true marketing ploy is making its leads appear as if they’re actually fucking. Sydney Sweeney gave that game away in an interview with the New York Times last month. Even still, one would think The Bear—which touts the most wins at this year’s Emmys, a devoted fan base, and an already highly publicized cast—hardly needs more PR…
While Edebiri and White (and the show’s creators) have already adamantly insisted that the SydCarmy shippers will not be satiated, I am taking their comments (and gentle petting) to mean that either they’ve been misdirecting us this whole time and their characters will, in fact, fuck in the walk-in during this season and they’re just having a little method act-off after hours. Or, these two are collecting overtime checks to create suspicion (and headlines like this) that they’re the ones fucking in the walk-in. Either way, we might be getting duped here. Guess what? I’m eating it up regardless.
Of course, it’s also quite possible that they are actually fucking in the walk-in and in that case, well, I am now reconsidering Edebiri’s reaction to White’s Calvin Klein advertisement.