“I always say that guest directing on television is like being a stand-in, you know?” Ramy Youssef, co-creator and star of the popular series Ramy, in which he also wrote and directed.
That’s right: Most of the time, when an outside director comes into a show to direct an episode, it’s not their brainchild. They have to blend the current style and feel of the project together, and then move on.[The parents] like, ‘Eat this, do this, but now, as soon as you give birth, give the baby back to me.’ It can’t really be that single creation,” Youssef says.
But he had a very different experience when he stepped into directing. BearThe second season episode “Honeydew”, which focuses in part on Lionel BoyceMarcus when he heading to Copenhagen looking for training and inspiration for the Chicago diner’s dessert menu. This episode takes away the frenetic energy that’s typical of the series and replaces it with a more brooding, somber pace that suits Marcus’s character. It gave Youssef the opportunity to dive in and create something completely unique from the rest of the series.
“The food scene is really interesting—I learned a lot about how people get out there and find their voice,” he says. Vanity Fair. “You have this character who has never really been on a plane, and he’s trying to find himself outside of the context of taking care of his mother, outside of his family. And I think there’s a certain quietness in Copenhagen that allows you to have that empty palette.”
It was also a quieter experience for Youssef, who often takes on multiple roles as Ramyco-creator, writer, director, and star. For the first time, Youssef—now nominated for an Emmy for best director for his work on Bear—shares some photos he took during his two-week stay in Copenhagen in preparation for the photoshoot and reveals how the experience left a lasting impression on him.
Vanity Fair: How would you describe the mood and aesthetic of Copenhagen and how does that influence Marcus’ story?
Ramy Youssef: A lot of what we talked about was the colors of where he goes, those things really influence the colors of the dishes. It’s like inspiration. If you can be open, and be in an open place, you’re constantly inspired. So he’s walking through these trees, this park, these plants. He’s in Noma; he’s looking at these vegetables, he’s looking at all these things, and then all of those things find themselves in the colors of these desserts. I had a really fun time focusing on these nuances from a directing perspective.
Tell me about finding the boathouse Marcus stayed in during his visit.
That comes from a conversation I had with Tyson Contractors, chain manufacturer, who is also our chain manufacturer Ramy. When we were filming in Cairo Ramy, We shot on a houseboat, and then we joked that we would expand on our international houseboat theme.
We had these scenes in an apartment, and then we walked around Copenhagen and realized, Oh, wait, these are actually great places to be and to live in. And again, it creates privacy, intimacy, which can sometimes look like loneliness but it’s not.
This episode is a really fine line between solitude and stillness. And I think the houseboat feels very quiet in this really wonderful way. There’s even an element of floating—being untethered can be scary or it can be liberating.
What did you learn at Poulette restaurant, because Lionel also mentioned Poulette. when i interviewed him?
