Spoiler alert: This story contains details and scene descriptions about the new crime series Fast and Furious. The first three episodes will be available to stream on Hulu.
Emmy Rossum was filming Shameless on her birthday a few years ago when she received a phone call from her estranged father.
“He would call me every once in a while, but I’d only seen him a few times, and he said his mother, who I’d never met, was nearing the end of her life, and I wanted to meet her,” Rossum says. “I said a resounding yes. Saturday morning I hopped on a plane and flew to Oklahoma to meet her. It was a life-changing experience because I didn’t know or had ever met anyone related to my father or on his side.”
Rossum begins to cry. She took a few breaths before continuing. “She had seen some of my work and we had a nice, slightly bittersweet conversation about those days when we would never be together,” Rossum says. “I was so grateful to be able to hold her hand at that time. I flew back to Los Angeles for work on Monday, and a few days later she passed away. When I was asked if I wanted to be in the obituary, I was so grateful, because I had never been mentioned as a family member.”
It was that brief encounter with her grandmother that she had in mind while filming a scene in Fast and Furious. Rossum stars in Hulu’s new crime thriller series as Alice Black, a rookie FBI agent on the trail of a female serial killer (Laura Petticrew) who targets New York City’s rich and powerful predators like Jeffrey Epstein. The eight-episode series also stars Scoot McNairy, Jake Lacey, and Quincy Tyler Bernstein.
In one scene, Alice visits the dying mother of her abusive ex-boyfriend (Lacey). The actress who plays the mother has painted nails on both the top and bottom, a detail inspired by Rossum’s grandmother.
“The scene becomes particularly brutal. Alice confesses that she still cares and misses the man she loved who ultimately hurt her and was violent to her. I had requested a rolling take and we did it over and over again. At one point I really forgot myself and didn’t really know that it wasn’t me. They cut the camera and I had to take a seat.”
Director Karina Evans and other cast members gathered around her, and “they hugged me and somehow brought me down to Earth.”
“Fast and Furious” is a dark and intense thriller with a storyline that mirrors today’s news headlines, particularly stories about Epstein and the sex trafficking of teenage girls and young women.
“Unfortunately, over the last 10 years of what we’ve been looking at and excavating, you can throw a dart and hit any number of animals, from the smallest to the largest predators,” Rossum said.
Rossum first brought the idea for “Fast and Furious” to Hulu after watching the 1987 film “Black Widow,” starring Debra Winger, in which she plays a federal agent who tracks down a woman who murders multiple husbands in order to inherit their wealth. Elizabeth Meriwether (“Dying for Sex,” “The Dropout”) serves as the series creator and showrunner.
Scoot McNairy and Emmy Rossum from Fast and Furious.
Provided by Hulu
“I think our show ultimately is more interested in survivors of violence and how it affects people,” Rossum says. “I think we’re more interested in what makes a woman a murderer. If you look at all the female serial killers, we don’t know that many, but I think the main line is that they’re all victims of violence. That’s where Liz’s real starting point was.
“There are a lot of women, a lot of people who are traumatized,” she added. “You and I are people who have survived with a lot of things that we don’t know about. People move through the world with historical violence against them, and even memories of their ancestors…I think it makes sense to see female survivors at the center of the story. They’re really fun and delicious to watch. I think they’re acting very questionably and exist in this realm where you don’t want to root for[a murderer]and yet she probably does.”I think there’s a lot of anger at letting so many people down and not giving them the justice they deserve. ”
Alice comes face to face with her own trauma while investigating a murder case. She hasn’t bathed in days because it brings up horrifying memories of her ex-boyfriend’s violence. “She smells awful,” Rossum says. “I think she’s subconsciously trying to push people away from her.”
She also looks for men on dating apps who are willing to physically fight with her before having sex. “The idea that a victim of violence could invite violence into their home and recognize it as a riot is a very complex and combustible idea that we felt had to be unearthed for us,” Rossum says. “Certainly, in my case, I had to work with a psychologist to understand all the emotions and fear I brought to the scene.”
The program title comes from Greek mythology. “The Furies (Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphon) are three female goddesses who fly through the night sky seeking revenge,” says Rossum. “I think everyone knows there are a lot of people out there who want justice.”
