Steve Carell Shares Why Wrestling Phil Dunster Is a Career Highlight for Him
SPOILER ALERT: This report contains spoilers for Episode 2 of Rooster on HBO Max.
In the latest episode of Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses’ comedy series Rooster, Steve Carell finds himself in an unexpected wrestling match, a scenario that seemed far from Phil Dunster’s expectations. The episode builds tension between Carell’s character, Greg Russo, and Dunster’s Archie Bates, who is entangled in an affair with Greg’s daughter, Katie, portrayed by Charly Clive.
The confrontation escalates when Greg learns that Archie’s grad student mistress, Sunny (played by Lauren Tsai), is pregnant. Fueled by anger, Greg storms into Archie’s hotel room, where chaos soon ensues. This intense moment follows Katie accidentally burning down Archie’s house, which started with the destruction of a first edition copy of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace.
“I think wrestling Phil Dunster in his underwear will be one of the highlights of my career,” Carell remarked. He acknowledged the chaotic nature of the scene, stating, “It was choreographed, and it quickly deteriorated into mayhem.” Carell expressed his usual reluctance to watch playback, noting that it can lead to overthinking; however, the wrestling scene required exception.
As fate would have it, Archie was in the midst of a live TV interview discussing Russia—his area of expertise—when the fracas unfolded. Strikingly, he was dressed appropriately for the camera above the waist but was nearly unprepared below.
Carell recounted, “When we did that first take, we watched it two or three times because it made everybody laugh so hard. It was a really quite an experience.”
Dunster echoed Carell’s enthusiasm about the unusual scene, describing it as akin to a “fever dream.” He praised Carell’s playful approach to the sequence. “He turned up to it with such a sense of play… He just naturally knows what will work, and what’s funny,” he noted. The pair inadvertently broke the bed during filming, a moment of unexpected humor that required them to press on despite the mishap.
Co-creator Bill Lawrence enjoyed watching the scene evolve, affirming Dunster’s account of the bed breaking, which added to the comedic chaos of the episode.
