Photo Credit: Vernon François
Emmy Rossum became a household name from her starring role as the resilient but flawed Fiona Gallagher on Showtime’s Shameless. But she made her professional performing debut as a mere seven-year-old, appearing with the Metropolitan Opera at New York’s Lincoln Center; shortly after she landed a lead role on As the World Turns. She was then nominated for a Golden Globe for The Phantom of the Opera at just 17.
Today, Emmy Rossum is on the cusp of turning 40, a mom of two and after taking a step away from acting to be with her young children, is stepping back onto the small screen with her new project Furious, to premiere on Hulu.
Emmy stars as Alice, an FBI agent tracking down a serial killer in the thriller series, which she also executive produced. In this week’s Meet a Mom profile we asked Emmy about her pause for motherhood, her iconic mama bear role on Shameless, and more.
Furious looks fascinating. What drew you to this role?
After watching the 1987 movie Black Widow a couple of summers ago, I knew it could inspire a great show. I was thrilled when one of my favorite writers Liz Meriwether wanted to write it! Liz has created some of the most dynamic, fascinating female characters on TV. From The Dropout to Dying for Sex to The New Girl, Liz has a voice and an opinion and she’s brilliant.
In Furious, my character Alice is a former NYPD detective who starts over as a new FBI agent when she stumbles upon a female serial killer. The audience may start out thinking there is a “good guy and a bad guy” but by the end we realize the women are more similar than they are different.
Alice and our killer are both victims of violence, both underestimated, both deeply frustrated they have not been able to get justice in traditional ways and both prone to risky behaviors which makes them so fun to watch.
Photo Credit: Photo Credit: Disney/Sarah Shatz
Is it challenging dealing with such an intense role and coming home to parent?
It is hard to not bring it home! But I’ve been trying to develop little rituals that signal I’m leaving work at the studio. Showers really help, scrubbing the character and the day away! I like to do hot-cold-hot-cold-hot-cold to shock me back into myself. Sometimes my kids do catch me practicing a new voice. My daughter just asked me to read Green Eggs and Ham in a Rhode Island accent, which had us all almost peeing laughing. But I try to leave it at the set. I want them to know mom is mom.
How has motherhood inspired your career?
My ambition is no less, but the role has to be worth me missing even the smallest chunks of their lives. Also, my kids force me to be really playful. Like all families, we play ridiculous made up games at home. There’s “Splash Pad,” where they bury me under pillows and then cannonball from an ottoman onto me. We play echo games using empty OXO containers, a version of “telephone.” We’ve spent snowy afternoons seeing how many plums we can balance on a long piece of blue tape stretched between the kitchen countertops. (We ended up with a lot of bruised plums.) They’ve helped me reconnect with silliness and joy, which influences the kinds of projects I’m drawn to now.
You took several years off to focus on your family. Why was that important to you?
It was important for me to be with my kids when they were little—not just for them, but for me. I really wanted to know them deeply and be present for those early years. I went back to set six weeks postpartum to finish a pre-Covid job after my daughter was born but my work is freelance, so I work in very intense bursts and then have longer stretches at home between projects.
I’ve intentionally chosen jobs in New York the last five years during the school year so that I can give them stability. I want to do drop-off and pick-up as much as possible, even if it means I go right to set from drop off. During the actors’ strike, I even volunteered as a substitute teacher at my daughter’s preschool. I got called in a lot during flu season! Being somewhat removed from Hollywood is really good for me. It keeps me connected to what matters and to who I was before any of this.
Photo Credit: Disney
Love that. Your role as Fiona on Shameless was such an iconic role as a woman playing the role of surrogate mom for her own siblings. What did you take from her as a mom, if anything?
I admire Fiona’s loyalty, her ride-or-die devotion to those kids, that don’t mess with my cubs attitude. Fiona had so much responsibility on her shoulders but she also had a village helping out in V and Kev, her neighbors. And now I do too! My best friend since kindergarten moved into the same building as me—three floors below – so we could raise our kids side by side. Our kids go up and down the back stairs between apartments and it’s a dream. That’s something Fiona taught me, too: family isn’t always just the one you’re born into. It’s also the one you build.
So true. You were performing from a young age. How are your kids being raised similarly, or different from your own childhood?
Our family values are rooted in kindness, respect across cultures, creativity, and love. It’s important to us to carry on traditions, both big and small. Just this weekend we did watercolors in Central Park, just like I used to with my own mom. [My husband] Sam grew up loving amusement parks, Trampoline Ninja Parks, and going to the movies so we do the high key stuff that he loves too! Getting to revisit those memories through their eyes has been incredibly special. Also, I only grew up with my mom and never knew my dad so getting to watch my husband be such a devoted girl-dad has been especially healing.
What’s your mom mantra — anything that gets you through hard days?
A big mantra for me is “fuck perfect.” I was taught at age 7 in the Children’s Chorus at the Met Opera that it was crucial to get it right every time. And this is not unique to me. So many women have internalized this belief and somehow connected it to our worthiness. I believed it all the way through my teens, 20s and most of my 30s… but honestly, at 39, I’m done with that! I want to show my kids it’s okay to mess up. (Wait, it is, right?!) Mistakes are okay. It’s good to mess up and know I’m okay afterward. And of course I’m not perfect at being imperfect either. I guess that’s the point!
What’s next for you?
I just wrapped RUBBER HUT, an indie feature from first-time director Hanna Gray Organschi, who also wrote the film. The entire team was made up of badass women. I play sisters-in-law with Grace Van Patten, who is an absolute dream to work with. I loved spending June in Rhode Island with my kids. They especially loved the zoo, the zipline (I was more scared than my daughter who held my hand lol) and, of course, we love the Del’s (frozen) Lemonade truck.
