{"id":458786,"date":"2026-02-09T20:24:52","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T20:24:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/458786\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T20:24:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T20:24:52","slug":"steve-carell-goes-inside-new-hbo-show-rooster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/458786\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Carell Goes Inside New HBO Show \u2018Rooster\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAs one of TV comedy\u2019s most established stars, Steve Carell<\/a> gets sent a fair amount of scripts. Few have spurred him to an instant \u201cyes\u201d like Rooster, written by Bill Lawrence<\/a> and his frequent collaborator Matt Tarses. \u201cI read the script and it was one of the best comedy pilots I\u2019ve read \u2014 period,\u201d Carell tells The Hollywood Reporter in his first interview about the show. \u201cPilots are the hardest to write. You\u2019re creating a world, you\u2019re introducing it to an audience and you have to do it quickly, efficiently, without feeling like it\u2019s all backstory \u2014 and be funny at the same time.\u201d When he finished the first episode, he turned to his wife, Nancy Carell (who also guests in the show), and said, \u201cI\u2019m in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLawrence has had this effect lately, fashioning signature mid-career roles for the likes of Jason Sudeikis (Ted Lasso<\/a>), Jason Segel (Shrinking<\/a>) <\/a>and Vince Vaughn (Bad Monkey<\/a>). When I observe that the creator is on a bit of a hot streak, the Office alum quips back: \u201cWell now you\u2019ve jinxed it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tLawrence too is feeling the pressure on this one: \u201cWe\u2019re all doing this about our relationship with our daughters \u2014 and so if it sucked, on some level it might mean I\u2019m a bad dad,\u201d he says with a laugh.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSteve Carell and Danielle Deadwyler<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt least HBO, which will launch the half-hour show on March 8, felt pretty confident from the jump. \u201cIt came at a time when we were rebuilding our slate \u2014 right as Curb [Your Enthusiasm] was ending, just after Barry and [The Righteous] Gemstones and Somebody Somewhere were about to wrap up \u2014 and it felt like it sat right in the space that we needed it to,\u201d says HBO EVP Amy Gravitt, who heads up comedy for the network. \u201cIt gave us, finally, the chance to work with Bill, who we admired for some time, and the same goes with Steve. It was really a no-brainer as soon as we heard it was on the horizon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRooster stars Carell as Greg Russo, a best-selling writer of popular, if hardly lauded, novels featuring a character who goes by, you guessed it, Rooster \u2014 and is the kind of guy his author wishes he could be more like, heroic and authoritative and less mired in the afterburn of divorce. He is based on Carl Hiaasen, with whom Lawrence and Tarses became friendly after adapting his book Bad Monkey for TV. \u201cEven though he writes these great funny books, he has this little bit of an inferiority complex about it, when you start to talk about him in the same breath as \u2018real\u2019 authors,\u201d Tarses says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tGreg is brought in to speak at the liberal arts college where his professor daughter, Katie (Charly Clive), is in the midst of a personal crisis: Her husband and colleague at the school, Archie (Phil Dunster<\/a>), has been cheating on her with a grad student named Sunny (Lauren Tsai), and she, uh, burns his house down in retaliation. So Greg comes to an arrangement with the department\u2019s eager dean (John C. McGinley): He\u2019ll stick around as a guest lecturer if his daughter can stick around, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe show itself is at least loosely based on the fact that Matt, Steve and I all have very tight relationships with our daughters who are young adults. That relationship\u2019s complicated because you want to protect them, when the truth is that you\u2019re just kind of protecting yourself,\u201d Lawrence says. \u201cWe wanted to imagine what it would be like to drop a man-of-the-people author into his daughter\u2019s claustrophobic life at a small liberal arts college in the East.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCharly Clive and Phil Dunster.<\/p>\n

\n\tAdds Carell, \u201cI grew up on the east coast and I went to a college not unlike this, and the whole world felt very comfortable, just to me as a person.\u201d It\u2019s the kind of lived-in comic turn that Carell excels at, and that should put him in the conversation for his long overdue first Emmy win. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe father-daughter bond anchors Rooster, but it\u2019s got its own workplace-sitcom vibes too \u2014 modern academia proves an expansive sandbox to play in. \u201cThings have really changed in terms of the state of academia since we started writing in 2020,\u201d says Tarses. \u201cWe wanted to play around a little bit with all these ideas of \u2018woke\u2019 and that stuff, just without a point of view. We all have kids in college and they\u2019re all talking about this, yelling at us all the time about ways in which we are not aware of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLike any Lawrence joint, Rooster also very quickly establishes itself as a robust, layered ensemble comedy. \u201cBill told all the actors at the first table read, \u2018Within a couple of weeks, I want you all to have an exponentially greater percentage of ownership of your character,\u2019\u201d Carell says. \u201cHe invited people in to make the characters their own, to make them feel lived in and really breathe life into them\u2026and each week the show changes and it gets a little more complex and a little more nuanced and the relationships become deeper and richer and funnier.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s an art in casting, and Greg Daniels had the same knack on The Office as Bill,\u201d Carell says. \u201cHe cast a bunch of people that just genuinely cared about each other and really enjoyed seeing each other every day and became real friends \u2014 not just work friends, but lifelong friends. That\u2019s the same sense I got with this group.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs ever, there\u2019s a fascinating mix of Lawrence returnees (Dunster, McGinley) with newbies. Take Danielle Deadwyler, known as a dramatic heavyweight in award-winning projects like Till and The Piano Lesson, who gets to show off her goofier side here as Dylan, a poetry professor who becomes a wary confidante of Greg\u2019s \u2014 and often steals the show. \u201cThat is an actor who can do anything,\u201d Carell says. \u201cShe brings such a different energy to the show, a gravitas almost, while at the same time crushing every comedic moment she has. It\u2019s pretty amazing.\u201d Lawrence adds, \u201cShe\u2019s reached a point in her career that she gets offers to do things, but she came in and read with Steve. It\u2019s cool also when you find people that might not have done this before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLauren Tsai and Robby Hoffman.<\/p>\n

\n\tDeadwyler loves comedy and leapt at the chance to prove herself in the format, having established herself in a very different lane. \u201cI just remained patient and here it came,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was the most fluid thing. It was so comfortable. It is a room of people who want you to excel from top to bottom, from audition to last day of shooting.\u201d This went particularly for her juicy dynamic with Carell, which ranges from flirty to friendly to ever-so-slightly tense: \u201cSteve has lived in a certain world and realm of projects and I\u2019ve lived in a certain realm of projects. We came in together and as two people literally just trying to figure each other out. That helped when that was the impetus for these folks to come together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDeadwyler also comes from an academic background, so brought fresh insights into the world to the set each day: \u201cI was like, \u2018Yes, an institution, let\u2019s go, I\u2019m there!\u2019 Then: \u2018Oh, poetry professor, are you really talking to me? That\u2019s me!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen it came to Dunster, similarly, he fit the role of Archie Bates like a glove \u2014 at least, as Lawrence saw it. \u201cBill said, \u2018I\u2019ve written a part, he\u2019s an English guy, he was originally called Phil \u2014 and he\u2019s an asshole, so I thought of you,\u2019\u201d Dunster says. Lawrence does not exactly counter this recollection: \u201cPhil is very good at being a pretentious British antagonist,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThough the creator was surprised to hear Dunster\u2019s dialectical take on the role. \u201cHe was like, \u2018Hey, you okay if I speak in my normal voice?\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018Yeah, but isn\u2019t that your Ted Lasso voice?\u2019\u201d Lawrence says, referring to his breakout character Jamie Tartt. \u201cHe\u2019s like, \u2018No, man. That was me doing a Manchester accent.\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh, okay, got it.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMost of the cast showed up in some combination of thrilled and nervous to work with Carell. Clive, taking on her first American TV role, admits to feeling a bit jittery at the first table read. Carell immediately broke the ice with his onscreen daughter. \u201cIn a Buggy, he took me around the Warner Bros. studio lot cause I\u2019d never seen it before,\u201d she recalls. \u201cI wasn\u2019t surprised at how kind he was because, you hope when you meet your hero, that they will be. But I was very glad that we were all right about him.\u201d (Carell similarly can\u2019t rave enough about Clive: \u201cI think she\u2019s a real find,\u201d he says.)<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe were around each other all the time \u2014 even if we\u2019re not in scenes together, we are in the makeup trailer together, or on the sort of stoops of our trailers or whatever \u2014 and everybody kept telling me how lucky we were to be able to be filming in LA,\u201d Clive adds of how she felt the cast gel over time. \u201cYou feel like you are on a campus. You are eating your lunch together. It\u2019s a lot less isolating.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCarell and Jim O\u2019Heir.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis might be one reason why the Rooster ensemble so organically broadens \u2014 the students take on larger roles, while everyone from the bumbling local cop (Rory Scovell) to Sunny\u2019s oft-irritated roommate (Robby Hoffman) to the Dean\u2019s perfectionist assistant (Annie Mumolo) starts snagging the spotlight. Many who spoke with THR highlight Mumolo\u2019s scene-stealing work as a prime example of how the show came into its own.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe role that we wrote was much more this classic executive-assistant, super organized and put together and runs her boss\u2019s life, and to [casting director] Allison Jones\u2019s credit, when Annie wasn\u2019t quite that character, she said, \u2018Maybe you rethink that character,\u2019\u201d says Tarses. \u201cWe resisted because we were lazy and we thought we were right \u2014 then we ended up having this character that is really one of my favorites in the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCarell puts it more simply: \u201cJust wait. She\u2019s like a secret weapon. She\u2019s unbelievable on the show.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tRooster feels built to last. Even a seeming villain like Dunster\u2019s Archie gets intriguing shading over the course of the season. \u201cWe were given a lot of agency to take [the pilot script] and use that as a launchpad,\u201d Dunster says. \u201cFor Archie, we could try to find why he is the way he is and not make him arch, as it were or Machiavellian. He\u2019s just a dude with an ego problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLawrence has gotten pretty good at this gig. Scrubs<\/a> launched 25 years ago, and over the eight original seasons, not much changed, exactly. \u201cThey once asked Zach Braff how much his character changed from year one to year eight, and he said, \u2018In the eighth year, I think I had a beard,\u2019\u201d Lawrence recalls with a laugh. (It\u2019s returning in a revival season later this month; expect more changes in that case.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnd now with streaming, the cool thing is when I\u2019ve sold these shows, I\u2019ve pitched a beginning, middle, and end,\u201d Lawrence continues. Which is to say, he tends to work in three-season chunks \u2014 though Ted Lasso is now coming back for a fourth season<\/a>, Shrinking has already been renewed for season 4<\/a> (both are with Apple TV+), and there\u2019s no telling how far Rooster will go. The goal, clearly, is a healthy run.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAsk Gravitt if she sees Rooster as a potential new long-running anchor point for HBO\u2019s comedy slate, she replies quickly and enthusiastically: \u201cOf course, yes, absolutely.\u201d But when posed to Carell, who hasn\u2019t been part of a long-running TV show since The Office \u2014 spoiler alert, both The Four Seasons and The Morning Show killed him off before continuing on without him \u2014 he demurs: \u201cOh my gosh, that I won\u2019t even weigh in on.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut he offers this, at least: \u201cIt was an incredible, wonderful experience. I\u2019d be overjoyed to be able to do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As one of TV comedy\u2019s most established stars, Steve Carell gets sent a fair amount of scripts. Few…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[74540,60738,129163,88,214266,43166,27131,73804,13022,92],"class_list":["post-458786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-bad-monkey","tag-bill-lawrence","tag-danielle-deadwyler","tag-entertainment","tag-phil-dunster","tag-scrubs","tag-shrinking","tag-steve-carell","tag-ted-lasso","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}