After 30 Years on Screen, Liza Colón-Zayas Found Her Breakout in ‘The Bear’

Liza Colón-Zayas racked up her first screen credit exactly 30 years ago, in an episode of New York Undercover. She went on to appear in dozens of TV series, from Law & Order and Sex and the City to House and Dexter. She was one of the passengers in Paul Greengrass’s Oscar-nominated United 93. She starred in a widely acclaimed production of Othello with the late Philip Seymour Hoffman and, about a decade later, swept the off-Broadway awards circuit for her tour-de-force performance in the ensemble piece Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven.

Yet, unless you were particularly tapped into the world of New York theater, Colón-Zayas’s name is one you likely became familiar with only recently, thanks to The Bear. Colón-Zayas stars as Tina Marrero, the veteran line cook who—if a bit reluctantly—finds new purpose in life as her new boss, Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), institutes major changes to her workplace.

Settling in for a chat on this week’s Little Gold Men (listen or read below), Colón-Zayas is in Chicago filming The Bear’s third (and, reportedly, fourth) season, fresh off of her first-ever SAG Award win as part of the FX series’ ensemble and eager for what’s ahead. Even if she can’t share much in that department just yet, the smile she wears from beginning to end suggests that like her character, Colón-Zayas will continue to blossom.

Vanity Fair: We’re talking to you from Chicago, is that right? Give me a day in the life when you’re in production on The Bear.

Liza Colón-Zayas: A day in the life in Chicago. Normally when I’m working, I am up and on set while it’s still dark outside, and then we shoot really quickly. Chris Storer and the whole crew are just the most amazing, kind, supportive crew you can ask for. It’s a joy. And then I’m a bit of a hermit, so after I’m done, I like to just come home and disconnect—get ready for the next thing.

You’re filming seasons three and four at the same time. Am I right about that?

[Pause] Three.

Got it, got it. What can you tell me about what you’re excited about, where Tina is going next?

Without giving a whole lot away, we’re going to see more of what we love and what stresses us out about The Bear. We’re going to see more of the backstories and the secret life and the challenges connected to keeping this family together.

I wanted to ask you about the experience this past winter of going from ceremony to ceremony. At the Critics’ Choice Awards, you actually spoke on behalf of the cast when it won best comedy. What did it feel like to be a part of that?

It was surreal, like a roller coaster. Even though I had gone to a couple of the awards during season one, other people were winning most of them. So to be able to win these, like best ensemble—that moment of being on that stage after spending most of my adult life watching others, and rarely others who look like me or look like us, I just wanted to take all of it in. And then to go backstage and be ushered through this avalanche of press and interviews and celebration was so trippy. Because we’d just won our SAG award, I didn’t get to see my idol Barbra Streisand come up [to accept the Lifetime Achievement Award]. I was telling my agent, “I feel like my life has come full circle. I’ve been singing along to Barbra since I was a child, and here I am, backstage and I don’t get to see her.”

Because you won an award!

That’s right. It could often feel like an out of body experience. In the moment, I’m so busy trying to process what’s taking place that it’s hard to just be present and experience all of the details. I’m working on that now.

Can you take me back to when this role first came your way? What were your hopes for Tina as a character? I’m sure you couldn’t have imagined this career impact.

I auditioned in a self-tape because we were deep in the pandemic. I hadn’t read the script, I didn’t know anything about it. It was simply reading one or two scenes. We came to Chicago in the summer, and it was just so much fun. It seemed like it was all too much fun to go further. I’m always waiting for the other shoe to drop. When we saw the first rough cut of the pilot, I was like, “Wow, this is really stressful,” and that’s not what we were feeling, or at least what I was feeling, while we were shooting. I thought, “Oh, maybe this is too specific.” I did not expect to be where we are now where people of all walks of life feel connected and seen through it. I’m so proud of it.