Emmy Rossum — The Bare Magazine

Emmy Rossum got her start on stage at the Metropolitan Opera. (She was part of the children’s chorus at seven years old.) Well known for her TV role as Fiona Gallagher in the series Shameless, she’s recently acted alongside Tom Holland in The Crowded Room on Apple TV+ .She executive produced and starred as pop culture LA icon Angelyne streaming on Peacock, and now returns to her stage roots in Second Stage Theater’s Walden, which just opened off-Broadway. She plays Stella, an estranged twin (her sibling is played by Succession’s Zoë Winters). Both sisters are NASA scientists who have taken divergent paths and are reconnecting after years apart. (Enough said. No spoilers. We won’t ruin this play’s sci-fi futuristic plot for you.) The Bare Mag photographed Emmy at The Tony Kiser Theatre, when the cast was in previews. (The limited engagement runs through November 24th.) I hopped on the phone with Emmy to talk about her backstage rituals, sharing a dressing room with her onstage twin sis, the perfume she wears to get into character, and eating a full-on steak dinner before doing a show.

Gina Way: This is your off-Broadway debut! How do you feel about performing onstage as opposed to acting on-screen?

Emmy Rossum: It feels like coming home, especially in New York City where I was born and still live. I grew up in the theater (working at the Metropolitan Opera) so I’m very comfortable and I feel a great deal of belonging being part of a company. There’s nothing more challenging or invigorating than live theater. It’s a high wire act every time. There’s no editor to save you on stage, and that’s terrifying, and thrilling. Everyone is seeing me warts and all, from every angle at every moment. There is nothing to hide behind, and that’s ultimately what I’m trying to embrace at this moment in life.

GW: What drew you to Walden?

ER: The characters I’m drawn to are incredibly complicated women who are pushed to their limits. I read this Amy Berryman play a couple years ago and it really resonated with me. It’s grounded sci-fi that’s so large in scope, and yet it’s very intimate at the same time. It deals with themes of family, trust, and our responsibility to this earth we live on. I just kept thinking about it for years after I read it, and when the opportunity came up to do it with director Whitney White and this team at Second Stage, it was obvious to me that I had to be part of it.

GW: How did you research this role of a NASA scientist?

ER: My research is always very rigorous. I read the text compulsively and analyze it, and then I figure out what parts I understand instinctively, and what parts need knowledge that I don’t have yet. For this, I interviewed multiple sets of twins alongside (my co-star) Zoë. We also worked with a climate scientist and I talked to Melodie Yashar, a space architect and scientist who designed the Mars X-House and Ice House 3d-printed habitats for NASA. I needed to understand that world, the science, how scientists think and express their ideas.

GW: How do you lock into your character before you go on stage?

ER: I physically and vocally warm up with 15 minutes of yoga and 15 minutes of vocal exercises. I also do this weird exercise where you find your ‘life body,’ which gets you in a physical state where anything can happen and physically wakes up your nervous system before you go on, so you’re not holding anything.

GW: How do you do that?

ER: By rubbing your hands together vigorously, like you’re making a fire, and then physically rubbing up and down your arms, across your chest, and down your legs and feet and knocking on your head, and fucking up your face, and then walking out on stage. Everything in your body is alive and available to you when you are speaking to another human being (on stage). That’s ultimately what it is, right? It is a very alive circle that you’re in with another actor on stage and sharing that with an audience.

GW: You like to choose a fragrance for each of your characters. What perfume does Stella wear?

ER: There’s a holistic oil that I put on. It was given to me by a yoga teacher that I met in an elevator. I was probably having a panic attack before our first preview and hadn’t found the right scent for Stella, and this woman dropped off a calming oil at my apartment, and that’s what I use. Sometimes the universe just gives you what you’ve been looking for when you’re open to it.

GW: What do you do to stay healthy and energized during an 8-show week?

ER: I eat a small steak before almost every show. I’m not kidding. I get my meat from small, sustainable local farms and I cook it myself. So yes, I have a rare steak two to three hours before I go on. With a lot of salted butter. So much butter. I know other actors have light meals, but I’m eating a steak with butternut squash, pretzels, and then chocolate for dessert. I’m not that gluttonous in my normal life, but I guess I need that level of protein and amino acids or something to get juiced to do live performance. I used to be a vegetarian before I had my kids, but I’m a real carnivore now. Other than that, I drink lots of water and add an LMNT drink packet with sodium and electrolytes.

GW: Do you have any backstage rituals?

ER: I share a dressing room with Zoë, so we get ready together, we get our wigs on together, and we take naps between shows together on two-show days. We turn the lights off and one of us sets a timer, we put on our earphones and eye masks, say ‘goodnight, see you in an hour,’ and go to sleep. Then we wake up and get ready for the second performance. And we do our sisters goodbye before I start the show. It’s just a moment where we set an intention for the performance and make a pact to have fun when we see each other out there. It’s very bonded and very sweet.

GW: You started your career at the Met Opera, so you can sing! Do you want to do a Broadway musical someday? A Café Carlyle stint?

ER: I do love the Café Carlyle and when my friend Peter Cincotti does shows there, I often pop in and do a song with him. But I find musicals incredibly intimidating, funny enough. I would do it if it were the right opportunity with the right people surrounding me. There’s still a part of me that feels insecure about it, but I know it will probably be something that I do one day when my cojones are big enough.

GW: What are your 5 Bare Essentials? (Besides farm-raised meat, of course.)

ER:

· Sleep!

· In between shows I take a 20 block walk outside—uptown 10 blocks and then downtown 10 blocks.

· I really like skincare and use a lot of IS Clinicals, including their cleanser to take off my makeup.

· I use a face peel once a week from Shani Darden, who’s my facialist in LA. Otherwise I do my own at-home facials.

· I’m a very DIY gal. I even tint and laminate my own eyebrows. There’s nothing that a little YouTube can’t teach you!