Robby Hoffman reflected on being "starstruck" by Steve Carell on the set of 'Rooster' while speaking with PEOPLE at the show's New York City premiere in early March
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NEED TO KNOW
- Robby Hoffman tells PEOPLE she was “starstruck” meeting Steve Carell while working on the new HBO show Rooster
- Joking that she “botched” all of their interactions, Hoffman says she and her family are big fans of The Office
- Hoffman also opens up about starring in the comedy as the roommate of Lauren Tsai’s character
Appearing on Rooster was exciting for Robby Hoffman for more reasons than one.
The comedian, 36, caught up with PEOPLE at the New York City premiere of the HBO show earlier this month, where she spoke about working alongside the star-studded cast. Most of all, Hoffman reveals she was looking forward to meeting Steve Carell.
“I've botched it every time that I said hi to him, because it's impossible not to be starstruck with him, and he's such a classy man,” she says. “I have my brother going, ‘Did you ask about The Office? Did you ask?’ And it's like, I can't really just be asking about The Office. But finally, I asked about The Office.”
“I just literally had to say, ‘Hey, my brother loved you in The Office,’” she adds, joking, “It's insane. It's so bad.”
Credit: Marion Curtis/StarPix for HBO/Shutterstock
Hoffman appears in the 10-episode series as Mo, the roommate of Lauren Tsai’s character, Sunny. She says it was “amazing” to take on the role, noting that she wasn’t originally intended to be in multiple episodes.
“I was supposed to be in for one day, and then they wrote a bunch more for me,” Hoffman says. “So really, really by the grace of God I'm on the carpet tonight.”
Rooster stars Carell, 63, as Greg Russo, a fiction author who turns his life around to become a writer-in-residence at the same New England college his daughter Katie (Charly Clive) works at as a professor.
While he initially came with the intention of supporting his daughter, Greg starts to realize new things about himself while living out the college lifestyle.
Credit: Katrina Marcinowski/HBO
The show was created by Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses and also stars Danielle Deadwyler, Phil Dunster, John C. McGinley and Tsai, along with appearances from Hoffman and Connie Britton.
"It just felt like a true ensemble," Carell said of his costars at a press conference on March 3. "You don’t know what the energy’s going to be like, you don’t know what each of them are going to be like as people. But there was just such a pervasive kindness and generosity. And honestly, it reminds me of my experience on The Office in terms of that.”
Carell also highlighted the immediate connection he had with Clive, which proved to be true for the cast as a whole.
"When Charly and I first met, I mean, it was our first table read — it was the first time that we met in person. And I just knew instantly — well, I knew instantly on Zoom — that she was the one to play my daughter,” he said. "All of the actors turned out to be the same way."
New episodes of Rooster air Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on HBO.
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