‘Jamie Tartt had redemption – my new dastardly role is reprehensible’

Phil Dunster made his name on the football pitch… sort of.

The 33-year-old actor became a global star thanks to the hit show Ted Lasso, where he played Jamie Tartt.

Jamie was a talented but arrogant footballer who initially antagonised Ted, but eventually saw the error of his ways and came to respect his coach’s folksy wisdom.

However, fans shouldn’t expect Phil’s latest TV role to find redemption quite as quickly as Jamie did.

Phil plays Archie in the new Bill Lawrence comedy Rooster.

This darkly funny show follows Greg Russo (Steve Carell), a successful author who takes a job at a prestigious university to support his daughter Katie (Charly Clive), after she splits from her husband, Archie.

Why did Katie and Archie split up?

Well, because Archie had an affair with a student.

Yeah, Archie is a bit of a dastardly character.

Not my words, the words of the series co-creator Matt Tarses, who wanted Phil for the role supposedly because he’s ‘someone who the audience could still love when he was doing really dastardly things’
‘I love the word dastardly,’ joked Phil when Metro asked what his trick was to make the dastardly so delightful.

‘Honestly, the boring but true answer is it’s all there in the writing.

I think that one of the things that Matt and Bill, when we first spoke about Archie, were keen to put across was that Archie is affable in that sort of public school boy way, and he doesn’t see himself as the bad guy ever.’
As modest as Phil is, it’s clear that he was on Matt and Bill’s minds when they wrote the character.

‘The writers and creators Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarsus wrote a part, and originally, he was not called Archie,’ he told me.

‘He was called Phil, and they said, “He’s a real a***hole.

He’s a British guy.

We thought of you.

Would you like to play him?”
While fans might draw parallels between Jamie and Archie’s character traits, there is a significant difference between them, he pointed out.

‘I think that Jamie probably knows that whilst he’s incredibly talented, he’s had to work his entire life to get to where he is.

Whilst Archie’s incredibly talented, he probably also feels entitled to be where he is.

‘I think it’s a great compare and contrast.

In episode two, he’s not yet willing to do the work to try to become psychologically healthy.

I think that he is purely relying on the adoration that he’s enjoyed for most of his life.

So yeah, he’s reprehensible.

But I think that it’s more fun for us as audience members to go, “My god, this person’s got a long way to go.

Can he really become a decent person?”‘

Rooster Key Details

Created by: Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses
What’s it about? Rooster follows Greg Russo (Steve Carell), a successful author who takes a job at a prestigious university to support his daughter Katie (Charly Clive), after she splits from her husband, Archie whe he has an affair with a student.

Starring: Steve Carell, Danielle Deadwyler, Phil Dunster
Charly Clive, Lauren Tsai, John C.

McGinley
Runtime: 10 episodes
Where can I watch it? HBO Max

For Phil, he was excited to play another complicated character, adding that, like a lot of Bill’s characters, he seems extreme, but is really just a normal person in extreme circumstances.’
As much as Phil enjoys Bill and Matt’s writing, however, he was very honest and admitted he wanted to work with Steve Carell, a man he described as ‘the king’.

One of the funniest moments in the first few episodes involves a fight between Archie and Greg involving a ladle, a bed, and Phil Dunster in his boxers.

‘It was such a fever dream,’ Phil laughed when we asked him how he felt filming that scene with a comedy icon.

‘When I first read it, I was like, “Is this right?” I’m in pants, and Steve’s going to be hitting me on the bottom with a ladle?’
Apparently, though, once they mapped out the corephgraphy of being spanked by a ladle (words you never think you’ll type|), Steve and Phil then started watching back and improvising.

‘It really was incredibly bizarre,’ Phil continued.

‘We watched it back a couple of times, which I think most people wouldn’t normally do, but it was so joyful to be working with this person who’s such an icon, and he’s the person who’s so giddily going, “Can we watch it again?”’
If you want to see Steve and Phil’s bonkers fight scene, you can watch Rooster on HBO Max now.

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