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Emmy Rossum takes on a Hollywood icon in Peacock’s ‘Angelyne’

By George Costantino and Jason Nathanson May 19, 2022 | 5:00 AM


Peacock

She’s one of the most famous women in Hollywood, yet no one really knows anything about her. That’s all about to change with Angelyne, the limited series debuting today on Peacock.

Emmy Rossum plays the blonde billboard loving bombshell, who is famous just for being famous and driving around LA in a pink Corvette. Rossum tells ABC Audio she’s been obsessed with Angelyne since she was 13, when she first came to LA for auditions.

“I saw this billboard at a stoplight, and it was this woman and this power and this femininity. And then I started seeing the billboard everywhere,” she says. “And the more I asked people like, who is Angelyne? Everyone would light up and then tell a completely different story.”

“I think that’s what’s so interesting about her. How could you be both so known in LA and yet so unknown?” Rossum recalls thinking. “She’s kind of done the impossible…you know, maintain the mystery and the enigma for decades.”

The actress worked on nailing Angelyne’s look “for months and months,” until they “really kind of got a look we loved.”

“I didn’t recognize myself,” she continues. “And I have never been so able to enter my imagination so easily…there was real freedom and liberation in that.”

Another thrill for Emmy was getting to meet Angelyne and bring her “pink cookies.” In return, she gave Rossum “a magic stone.”

“She granted us her life rights and her trademarks, the ability to recreate all of her songs and billboard poses,” notes Rossum, who adds that it “meant the world to me, especially as somebody who has fought so much for pay equity and fairness. It was incredibly important to me that she was very well compensated for all of her contributions to the story.”

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