Jeremy Allen White Talks Friendship With, Respect for Ayo Edebiri

Ayo Edebiri and Jeremy Allen White both say mutual respect is what grounds their friendship, onscreen and off.

“Work can be a very intimate thing and a very personal thing and a very emotional thing,” Edebiri said in Tuesday’s new cover story for Vanity Fair. “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 and White co-star as chefs Sydney and Carmy in FX’s The Bear, which will release its third season next month. Both actors won Emmys, Golden Globes and SAG Awards in their respective categories for the performance in season one (season two will be awards eligible next year).

White added that he has “a tremendous amount of respect for [Edebiri] 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.”

The profile also noted that White was so eager to speak about his friendship with Edebiri, he called the reporter “within a day of being asked — which never, ever happens.”

The offscreen friendship lends itself to great onscree dynamics (and some parallels in between). “Syd is always able to… I don’t know, to deliver something different to Carmy, and she’s usually right,” White said. “And I guess I think Ayo is also usually right.”

Plus, Edebiri playfully added, “boy’s got some beautiful blue eyes. You know what I mean? Those are eyes you want to project onto.”

Elsewhere in the profile, Edebiri also spoke about her Saturday Night Live hosting gig, which she shared with musical guest Jennifer Lopez. Days before the episode’s air, a 2020 podcast clip surfaced in which Edebiri compared Lopez’s career to a scam. Headlines at the time suggested tension between the two artists, which Edebiri says was absurd. “That would be like Mr. Bean and Mick Jagger beefing,” she said. “I’m obviously Mr. Bean. She’s J.Lo!”

She also noted that Lopez quickly accepted her apology for the comments. “She was very chill and nice about it,” she said.