Charly Clive makes comic partnerships feel easy and affection believable. We rate her warmth and timing, though Rooster shows how much even a good scene partner needs a character worth getting to know.
Fi1m perspective
In Rooster (2026), Charly Clive and Steve Carell make a father and daughter seem fond of each other before the writing has made the daughter particularly interesting. As Katie Russo, Clive helps give the campus comedy a reason to return to its central pair when the other stories wander. We warmed to them because their affection felt convincing, despite how little the series had told us about Katie. Clive can make an encounter enjoyable before the writing has given us much reason to care about the people having it. That does not make Rooster a programme we can readily recommend.
Her comedy work with Ellen Robertson offers some context for that ease with another performer. They co-created and performed the stage show Britney (2016), and have continued working together in sketches and double acts. Her first major screen role, Marnie MacCauley in Pure (2019), brought humour and vulnerability to social awkwardness. That is the sort of comedy we want to see her pursue: funny without making the person having a bad time seem negligible.
All My Friends Hate Me (2022), in which she plays Sonia, takes that comedy background into a black comedy feature. In The Lazarus Project (2022), she plays Sarah Leigh across two seasons of a science-fiction thriller. Those parts are useful reminders not to judge her solely as Carell's screen daughter, though Rooster makes her strengths as a scene partner particularly clear. Danielle Deadwyler, Phil Dunster and John C. McGinley also help make its encounters pleasurable; Clive contributes to that ensemble rather than merely giving its leading man someone to talk to.
The limitation of Rooster is also the caveat we would bring to her next role. Katie's relationship with her father gives the series somewhere to return to, but Katie herself remains underwritten. Enjoyable exchanges can only do so much when a programme has not given us enough reason to be interested in the people speaking. We would gladly watch Clive opposite a strong comic partner again, provided the script gives us a reason to follow her when that partner leaves the scene.
