For Emmy Rossum, growing up in the entertainment industry has meant dodging a particularly creepy kind of bullet.
The star and executive producer of Furious, the Hulu series created by Elizabeth Meriwether about an FBI agent tracking a female serial killer (Lola Petticrew), revealed at an FYC panel on Thursday night that she could relate to some traumatic aspects of the series, which shines a spotlight on sexual predators.
“I started in this business when I was 7 years old, and I’ve been dodging predators — the biggest and the smallest — since I was a child,” Rossum said during a panel discussion at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles, “so for me the opportunity to make this show was a full-body experience.”
Rossum joined showrunner and executive producer Meriwether, along with co-stars Scoot McNairy and Quincy Tyler Bernstine, for the event. Co-star Steve Way joined virtually.
The Emmy-nominated Meriwether, creator and executive producer of The Dropout, Dying for Sex, and New Girl, called the response to the show “amazing” and “surprising.”
“I knew how I felt about the world, and I just really didn’t know how this was going to go,” said Meriwether. “I mean I think what I love is that people seem really passionate about it, which I think is so exciting.”
Inspired by the 1987 film Black Widow starring Debra Winger, the idea for Furious came to Rossum during down time from COVID-19 and the 2023 Hollywood labor strikes.
“I was fascinated by the skeleton of this movie, and specifically by the last half of this movie, which are these two women, this FBI agent and this serial killer, who meet on this beach,” she explained, describing a scuba-diving sequence, where “you’re not sure if they’re going to kill each other or kiss.”
Rossum, whose FBI agent character is a survivor of abuse, brought the idea to Hulu, which had recently finished The Dropout with Meriwether.
“We asked Liz if she’d watch the movie, and she did,” Rossum added, “and a day later, we were a duo.”
Meriwether began her career as a comedy writer, and the showrunner noted she has grown more comfortable blending humor into dark storylines.
“I would come home from a comedy writer’s room and turn on the darkest crime thriller. Crime thrillers are what I would watch to relax,” she explained.
Having never run a drama room before, Meriwether said she was “lucky enough to have great writers that sort of helped me through it.”
“The thing that kept me going and relaxed me was just that I was like, this is a story about these two women,” she added. “And any time I felt like we were kind of going off in a different direction, I just was like, no, I need to bring it back to this is a character’s story. This is a story about these women.”
As Danny, the NYPD detective partner of Alice (Rossum), McNairy plays the father of a special-needs son, highlighting his role as a caregiver.
“One of the things that I loved, that [Meriwether does] so well, is taking societal norms and flipping them on their head,” the Argo star said. “I think subconsciously, Danny for me was always somebody who acted like he didn’t care about anything because he cared so much about everything. And so, that was a facade. Liz puts it in there.”
Adding comedic balance to the dark drama is Nora Washington (Bernstine), director of the FBI’s sex crimes/crimes against children unit who copes with work stress through alcohol.
Bernstine spoke with real-life sex crimes investigators to accurately portray how they handle the job.
“All of them talked about how important it is to be healthy, and exercise, and eat well, and spend time with family, and in some cases, religion was important,” she explained. “And I was just struck that Nora, she has none of that.”
In portraying a high-functioning alcoholic, Bernstine added that she navigated the “gray area” between wasted and sober.
“That was my challenge, and that was my biggest fear,” she said. “I just wanted to make sure it was done as truthfully as possible.”
Way, who has muscular dystrophy, stars as Alden, the love interest of abuse survivor and serial killer Catherine (Petticrew). He expressed eagerness to showcase a rarely seen perspective on disability.
“My last scene with Danny, where I basically begged him to protect Catherine, I had to bring myself to this place of fear. This fear of losing someone,” he said. “Someone who knows your body and your needs better than anyone else. And I’m so, so grateful that I was able to portray this side of disability that I don’t think we’ve ever seen before.”
Though the season finale streams Aug. 31, Hulu announced Thursday that Furious has been renewed for Season 2.
What can Meriwether and Rossum reveal about what’s next?
“I can tell you that I have sent Liz a lot of text messages with pitches, some of which get thumbs up and some of which get no response,” Rossum said. “I can take a hint.”
“Some of them get [the] dancing girl [emoji],” Meriwether countered.
“I guess I haven’t learned my lessons about being a drama writer because I don’t have a plan,” the showrunner added. “I’m actively trying to come up with a plan.”
