‘She knew what she did’: Jeremy Allen White reveals why an incompetent dance teacher is basically the reason he’s an Emmy winner

White shared with Colbert that his path to becoming the incredible actor he is today all started with a dance teacher, who, it turns out, wasn’t all that good at her job.

White shared that he spent his childhood and teen years in Brooklyn and that his school was on 48th Avenue. However, prior to attending a performing arts high school, he was a ionate ballet and tap dancer. Unfortunately (or fortunately), when he was 12 years old, he attended middle school with a teacher who just didn’t take dance seriously like he did.

As it turns out, we can all be super grateful to this dance teacher for making The Bear star so bored and frustrated that he decided to act instead. As White told Colbert “I didn’t think this dance teacher took dance seriously enough.” Showing the kind of confidence that we wish Carmy had more of (maybe in season 3?), the actor said he actually let the teacher know what he thought. White laughed and said the teacher “knew what she did” and didn’t even seem shocked at his comments. He added, “They weren’t taking it seriously enough and that’s how I found acting.”

While we take another minute to be impressed that White stood up to this teacher at such a young age, we can also praise White’s next teacher, who he calls John. After he began taking a drama class, White says John “took things very seriously” (phew) and that he and his class were made to perform back-to-back performances of Twelfth Night and Macbeth (wow). We can only imagine what that dance teacher is thinking now, considering that White won the 2023 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.

The interview also featured an adorable moment between Jeremy Allen White and Stephen Colbert when Colbert said it must be “surreal” to win awards for The Bear while looking at all the other actors who are so legendary. White agreed, proving he’s just as humble and sweet as his character.

In a 2023 interview with GQ, White’s co-star Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who plays Richie/Cousin on The Bear — aka one of the greatest TV characters ever written — shared that he believed White had a professional dancing background. While White was definitely into dance, he shifted to acting early on in his young career, as he told Colbert. Moss-Bachrach said, “I actually thought that Jeremy had a ballet background for a while. I used to tell people that he was a ballet dancer as a kid. One day he came up to me and he was like, ‘What the f**k are you talking about, man? I’m not a dancer!’”

Elsewhere in the interview, White shared that while he normally prefers to steer clear of watching himself on screen, upon receiving a screener, he watched all seven episodes of The Bear season 3 in one sitting because it was that good. Between his endorsement and the dramatic season 3 trailer, we’re growing less patient by the day. Nevertheless, we know it’ll be worth it.

The Bear season 3 will be available to stream on Wednesday, June 26 at 9pm ET/6pm PT on Hulu. All 10 episodes will drop at once.