Edebiri says a friend noticed that she seemed a little tired doing red carpets and suggested she take a break from her many commitments. (Edebiri notoriously likes to stay busy; In addition to writing, directing, and acting on The Bear, she’s starring in the next Luca Guadagnino movie, After The Hunt.) Her friend was right: “I went on a trip to Asia for a month. I felt like that girl who takes a gap year. That’s where I ended up coming up with the idea for Barney that I ended up pitching to Daniel [Kaluuya].”
Early reporting seemed to suggest Kaluuya was going to direct the Barney movie if not write it himself (he, like Edebiri, is a triple threat), but with this latest version his only role is as lead producer under his 59% Productions banner. As for Edebiri, she found herself in Asia “thinking of, what are the movies that I want to make? What are the things that I want to do? What are the things that make me excited? So I just had this idea, and then we started building it out together. And then it becomes what it’s going to be, which I don’t want to say too much about.”
Who knew Barney would be this damn mysterious? But given Ayo Edebiri’s writing bona fides (The Bear, What We Do In The Shadows, Big Mouth) we know at least we’re in good hands. She told WSJ that her creative center of gravity is “somewhere between writing and comedy,” adding, “The first thing that I did was acting, but where I first found strength and first found autonomy was writing, comedy, stand-up and improv. I view those in the same breath. I think that the most free for me is writing. I feel completely uninhibited.” Noting that she co-wrote on the upcoming Bear season with co-star Lionel Boyce, she said, “It’s been very fun feeling that other part of my brain turning on again and knowing that all the cogs are still in working order.”
