Charly Clive looks back on this past season of ‘Rooster’ as a collaborative experience that pushed her toward greater confidence and creative flexibility on set.
“I came to ‘Rooster’ and felt a little bit like the new kid at school, and I was really daunted by the prospect of doing the show,” Clive said of working with Steve Carell and Connie Britton. “Both of them—really, like parents—made me feel like I was definitely in the right place and I could do it.”
Clive discussed joining ‘Rooster’ and adapting to its improvisational, ensemble-driven environment alongside Steve Carell and Connie Britton. She describes initial nerves that gave way to confidence as the cast encouraged experimentation and comedic risk-taking, helping her discover new dimensions in her character Katie. Clive also touches on key storylines—including Katie’s marital separation and a chaotic house-fire sequence—while framing the character as someone driven by a need for independence and respect. She adds that working across stage and screen continues to shape how she approaches roles and expresses excitement about returning for a second season.
Set on the New England campus of Ludlow College, ‘Rooster’ follows novelist Greg Russo (Steve Carell) and his strained, complicated relationship with his daughter, Katie (Charly Clive). Katie, an art history instructor at the college, is navigating both campus life and a separation from her husband, Archie (Phil Dunster), who also teaches at Ludlow and has become involved with a graduate student, Sunny (Lauren Tsai). Against this backdrop, the show also explores the broader politics and pressures of academic and administrative life.
Created by Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses, ‘Rooster’ stars Steve Carell, Danielle Deadwyler, Phil Dunster, Charly Clive, Lauren Tsai, and John C. McGinley. Guest stars include
Annie Mumolo, Connie Britton, Rory Scovel, Alan Ruck, Robby Hoffman, Madison Hu, Rick Glassman, and Scott MacArthur.
All episodes of ‘Rooster’ are currently streaming on HBO Max. The series has been renewed for a second season.
Awards Focus: It’s so nice to meet you today. How are you doing?
Charly Clive: I’m doing really good. How are you?
AF: I’m doing well. I enjoyed watching the first season of ‘Rooster.’ How did you first become attached to the series?
Charly Clive: I auditioned initially via self-tape, and then we moved into Zooms. I did Zooms for a couple of months, and then I found out I got the job, but I didn’t meet anybody in person until the first read-through in LA.
AF: When you were auditioning, did you know that Steve Carell was part of the series at the time?
Charly Clive: I did, yes. When I got the first audition email through, it was called Untitled Steve Carell Project, and that was very exciting. I didn’t really know much else about it until I got further along in the audition process and it was very exciting.
AF: What went through your head when you learned that Steve Carell and Connie Britton were playing your TV parents?
Charly Clive: Well, it’s a huge compliment first and foremost because they’re both brilliantly talented and very gorgeous, so I felt thrilled. I couldn’t believe it. I’m a huge fan of both of them and grew up watching their shows, so I was very excited to meet them both, and they’re both fabulous.
AF: What are some of the biggest things you’ve learned from having the opportunity to work alongside them this past year?
Charly Clive: Big thing I learned was confidence, I think. Both of them were really, really encouraging and empowering. I came to ‘Rooster’ and felt a little bit like the new kid at school, and I was really daunted by the prospect of doing the show. Both of them—really, like parents—made me feel like I was definitely in the right place and I could do it.
I think I also learned just watching those two working. You do learn that every take can be a new thing. You don’t have to get stuck in one way. They’re always looking for new ways to play and make something feel fresh and fun. That was really exciting to see them kind of break the rules a little bit.
AF: Steve comes from an improv background. How challenging was it to keep up with him?
Charly Clive: It was challenging. It was really fun and very exciting. But when I found out that it was going to be kind of an improvy set and we got to play around a lot, I was initially very nervous because you really want to be able to make Steve Carell laugh. That’s the goal of the day is to make Steve laugh. Thankfully, he’s a very generous laugher so whenever that happens, you feel better.
But for the first couple of days on set, I was really nervous and I didn’t really know how to try anything and then Steve made it very possible for everybody to have a go. He was very clear that everybody is there to make everyone laugh. He’s not the only guy that can take some wild swings. The first time you make Steve laugh, everything kind of clicks into place.
AF: Did you do anything in particular to prep for the role?
Charly Clive: The biggest thing I did to prep was just reading the script as many times as I could in an American accent and making sure that when I got to set, I could get into it seamlessly. It was that and I had to give myself a few pep talks about what it would be like to be working with these people because they’re people I really have admired for a long time, and I didn’t want to just fangirl. I had to keep cool and do an American accent.
AF: In playing an art history instructor, do you think you’re proficient enough to teach such a class in real life?
Charly Clive: (Laughs) I feel like I’m definitely proficient enough in confidently reading from a textbook. I think I could get away with it for a little bit, but then it’s the pronunciation of some of those French and Italian names I think I’d really get caught on. But because art is so subjective, I think I could probably wing it for a bit before I got found out as a fraud.
AF: In one of the episodes, you accidentally burn a house down. How did you first react when you were reading the script?
Charly Clive: It really made me laugh. It really made me proud of Katie. Obviously, she does it by accident, but her initial impulse is to burn that book, ‘War and Peace,’ which is Archie’s favorite thing in the world, his most prized possession. I was proud of her for having that vengeful impulse and then I thought how much fun it would be to play the panic of being in a house that you’ve accidentally set on fire. It was great, and it was a lot of physical comedy moving around the room and trying to put out the fire, which I really love doing.
AF: Katie and her husband Archie are estranged at the start of the season and right when it looks like they might be getting back together, she comes to her senses and decides to pull the plug and ask for a divorce. How did you respond when you first read the script for the finale?
Charly Clive: I was so happy. I was so happy for Katie because it was the right thing to do and she should have done it a while ago. But as the actor playing Katie, I was a bit sad because I was worried it would mean that I wouldn’t get to do so much stuff with Phil Dunster, who I love.
AF: Did your understanding of Katie change between reading the scripts and actually filming the season?
Charly Clive: Yeah, it really did. That’s such a good question, actually. I think I didn’t realize how funny Katie could be. I saw her as the straight character. I saw her as the character that was there to absorb everybody else being funny. But in playing Katie, I saw how much opportunity there was to have a more playful relationship with Steve’s character, Greg, and that yin-yang thing with Phil playing Archie. There was lots of fun to be had.
The nice thing about Katie is she’s so intimidated by people. She’s intimidated by her mother, and that was really fun because Connie’s so funny and she’s really intimidated by President Mann, John C. McGinley. That was fun because John is so funny. You can’t help but laugh being in a scene with him anyway. It was nice to be able to feel like I could keep toe to toe with these great comedy legends. It was wonderful.
AF: Looking back on the season, what do you think Katie is ultimately searching for?
Charly Clive: Whoa. Respect. I think she really wants respect. I think she wants to be seen as her own person, separate from the legacy of her mum, separate from her dad being this cool guy on campus, and separate from the scandal that she’s been embroiled with her ex-husband. I think Katie wants to be seen as her own person who’s worth a lot without everybody else around her.
AF: Family dynamics can be complicated, and ‘Rooster’ explores that in a very honest way. What do you hope viewers take away from Katie’s journey?
Charly Clive: I really hope that people see how important it is to make a few mistakes before you get things right, and that being a perfectionist sometimes is not the right way to handle things. I hope that people feel that she’s relatable. I hope that people are a bit more forgiving of their friends when they burn their exes’ houses down.
AF: I meant to ask this earlier, but what do you typically look for in a character when you’re reading a script?
Charly Clive: I always look for relatability to see if it’s a character either I relate to or I know somebody a bit like them, or I think I can bring something special to it. I always look for a choice that the character has made that I would also make. And Katie, I found a lot of those.
AF: With being a series regular, how do you decide what projects to tackle during the hiatus?
Charly Clive: That’s a really good question. I think basically I try to look for things that are different so I can get excited about going back to doing comedy. At the moment I’m doing a play, which is not at all like ‘Rooster,’ which is nice. I get to do that for a bit and then I get to go back and enter back into that world. I try to look for a bit of variation, but honestly, I just try to get as much work as I can.
AF: How different is it having the audience energy to bounce off of when doing a play compared to filming on set without live studio audiences?
Charly Clive: It’s totally different. In a play, you know if you’re winning people round or not, and if you’re not, you know where to go in order to try and find them. In film and TV, it’s the editor’s job to do that. You do as much as you can on any given day, but it comes down to the alchemy of the actors’ performances, the writing, the directing, the sound mix, the color grading, all of it. It takes so much more work than I realized for television.
Theater takes a huge amount of work as well, but if you forget your line in theater, you can’t cut and go again. You’ve got to really be on it. It’s a different part of the brain that you exercise, which is nice.
AF: When it comes to getting back for season 2, how quickly are you going to be able to get back into character, accent and all?
Charly Clive: I think I’m going to be able to do it really quickly because I’ve been so excited. As soon as we found out that we were renewing, I was like, great, I’m ready. Put me in, coach. I can’t wait. I’m very excited.
AF: Thank you so much and best of luck.
Charly Clive: Thank you, nice to meet you. Take care.