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SPOILER ALERT: This story contains details and scene descriptions about the new crime series “Furious.” The first three episode are available to stream on Hulu.
Emmy
Rossum was shooting “Shameless” several years ago on her birthday when she received a call from her estranged father.
“He called me as he sometimes did — I had only met him a couple times — and he told me that his mother, who I had never met, was at the end of her life, and did I want to meet her,” Rossum says. “I said a resounding yes. I hopped on a plane on a Saturday morning and flew to Oklahoma to meet her. It was a life changing experience because I had never known or met anyone related to my father or related to me on that side.”
Rossum begins to tear up. She takes a few breathes before continuing, “She had seen some of my work, and we had a nice conversation, a bit bittersweet, about the time that we would never get together,” Rossum says. “I was very grateful to get to hold her hand that one time. I flew back to L.A. to be at work on Monday, and she died a few days later. I was very grateful when they asked me if I wanted to be in the obituary because I had never been named as part of their family.”
It was that brief encounter with her grandmother that she had in mind while filming one particular scene in “Furious.” Rossum stars in the new Hulu crime thriller series as Alice Black, a newbie FBI agent on the hunt for a female serial killer (Lola Petticrew) who has been targeting wealthy and powerful Jeffrey Epstein-like predators in New York City. The eight-episode series also stars Scoot McNairy, Jake Lacey and Quincy Tyler Bernstine.
In one scene, Alice visits her abusive ex-boyfriend’s (Lacey) dying mother. The nails of the actress playing the mom were painted on both the tops and undersides of her nails — a detail inspired by Rossum’s grandmother.
“The scene turns particularly brutal, where Alice admits that she still cares for and misses this man that she loved, who ultimately hurt her and was violent toward her,’” Rossum says, adding, “I had requested rolling takes, and we had done it again and again and again. There was a certain point where I really did lose myself in it, really not knowing that it wasn’t me. They cut the camera, and I had to take a seat.”
The director, Karina Evans, and fellow cast members gathered around her: “They hugged me and kind of brought me down to back to Earth.”
“Furious” is a dark and intense thriller with storylines that echo today’s news headlines, particularly stories about Epstein and sex trafficking of teen girls and young women.
“Unfortunately, you can throw a dart and hit any number of predators, from the smallest to the largest, in the last 10 years that we have been thinking about and excavating,” Rossum says.
Rossum first brought the idea of “Furious” to Hulu after she watched “Black Widow,” the 1987 movie starring Debra Winger as a federal agent tracking down a woman who has killed her multiple husbands in order to inherit their wealth. Elizabeth Meriwether (“Dying for Sex,” “The Dropout”) serves as the series creator and showrunner.
“I think our show ultimately is more interested in survivors of violence and what violence does to a person,” Rossum says. “I think we’re more interested in what would make a woman kill. When you look at all of the female serial killers — and there are have not been that many that we know of — I think the main through line is that they’re all victims of violence. That’s really where Liz started from.
“There are a lot of women and a lot of people who have trauma,” she adds. “You, me, people who have survived a lot of things that they’re carrying that we don’t know about. People move through the world carrying the historical violence against them, and even potentially that of the memories of their ancestors, too…I think it is meaningful to see women survivors are at the center of the story, who are, I think, really fun and delicious to watch, who are making very questionable moves and existing in this area of you don’t want to root for [the killer], and yet maybe she’s got a point. I think there is a lot of rage at the system having let so many people down and not getting the justice that they deserve.”
As Alice investigates the murders, she confronts her own trauma. She doesn’t bathe for days because showers trigger horrific memories of her ex-boyfriend’s violence. “She smells badly,” Rossum says. “I think she subconsciously is trying to keep people away from her.”
She also seeks out men on dating apps to physically fight with her before having sex. “The idea that somebody who’s been a victim of violence could be inviting violence into their own home and admitting that it’s a turn on is highly complicated, and it’s a flammable idea, and one that I felt had to be excavated for us,” Rossum says. “Certainly, with me, I had to work with a psychologist to understand all of the feelings that I was bringing to that, and my fear of that scene.”
The show’s title comes from Greek mythology. “The Furies [Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone] are three female goddesses who fly through the night sky looking for vengeance,” Rossum says. “I think we all know there are a lot of people out there who are looking for justice.”
