Molly Gordon’s So Much More Than The Bear’s Dream Girl

“I’ve never been in something that people watch,” says Molly Gordon, “which is a very different experience.” She’s talking about her breakout turn in the bittersweet Emmy favorite The Bear and underselling her résumé a little: Gordon has been on Ramy and Animal Kingdom, as well as indie movies like Booksmart. But it’s true that playing the woman trying to get into the locked freezer of Carmy’s heart has put a more intense spotlight on Gordon. Jeremy Allen White’s protagonist “is a character that people feel so protective over, and it’s been kind of controversial to bring a romantic element into the show,” she says. “That’s been at times annoying, fascinating, and interesting—just to be a part of something that people have opinions on.”

She’ll have to get used to it, because it’s going to be a very Molly Gordon summer. The Bear’s fourth season will debut on June 25, and her Sundance road trip movie Oh, Hi! hits theaters on July 25. In Oh, Hi! she plays a woman who goes on a romantic weekend getaway with her boyfriend (Logan Lerman) but soon discovers that he isn’t as stern about the relationship as she is. Instead of moving on from that ego hit, she decides she’s going to hold him captive and convince him that she’s actually the right girl for him.

Gordon worked with writer-director Sophie Brooks on the story for the charmingly odd murky comedy, which takes a long, painful look at the newfangled dating landscape. “With apps, it’s just such a hard time to date in our modern age, and we’ve had a communication breakdown between sexes,” Gordon says. “We just wanted to make something that is about how hard it is to just be honest about how you feel about someone.”

Gordon says the role of Iris is based on herself if she were just “five percent crazier.” But she also grounds the character enough that the audience can still root for her, even when she’s making some pretty lamentable choices. It was an opportunity to portray the sort of intense character Gordon is always hunting around for. “We don’t really get to be crazy,” she says. “There’s just still not that many great female characters out there—the kind of wild characters usually played by men.”

Dress and gloves by Valentino; shoes by Christian Louboutin; earrings by Jessica McCormack.Photograph by Nick Riley Bentham; styled by Nicole Chapoteau.

Before The Bear, Gordon was probably best known for cowriting, codirecting, and starring in Theater Camp, a critically acclaimed 2023 comedy that won a Special Jury Award at Sundance. She wrote the script with her friends Ben Platt, Noah Galvin, and Nick Lieberman (she and Platt have known each other since they were three years ancient); it’s set at the titular location and inspired by their own experiences as theater nerds.

Gordon surprised even herself when raised her hand to codirect the film with Lieberman. She’d always wanted to direct but wasn’t sure it was in the cards for her. “It was something I had quieted for so many years, because the statistics are so insane for women,” she says. Indeed, it’s bleak: As of 2024, women accounted for just 16 percent of directors working on the US’s 250 highest-grossing domestic releases.