Emmy Rossum Recalls Being Shot by a BB Gun While Training to Play an FBI Agent in “Furious” (Exclusive)

Brianne TracyThu, July 23, 2026 at 6:52 PM UTC

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Emmy Rossum in ‘Furious’Credit: Disney -

Emmy Rossum spent a year and a half training for her role in Hulu’s new crime drama Furious

Her preparation included firearms training, gaining 10 lbs. of muscle and researching the mental toll of law enforcement work

Rossum used rituals to transition in and out of character while filming the series

Emmy Rossum is opening up about the year and a half she spent preparing to play FBI agent Alice in her new Hulu crime drama Furious.

In this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, the actress, 39, recalls her experience training with retired FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer in Texas.

“After the first day of all of my target practice and drills, I really thought that I had it all figured out,” she says. “I was feeling very strong. So I went into the second day and she moved me to a BB gun. I thought, ‘Girl, I’ve got this.’”

On that second day, Coffindaffer gave Rossum a drill in which she’d have to reach the top of the hill on the driving range. Rossum says she told her to run to “the safe house, use the hideaways and duck and make sure you get to the top.”

When she reached the top of the hill, Rossum was surprised by someone “who had a BB gun and immediately started popping out and shooting at me.”

“I started screaming, ‘Jen, there’s somebody shooting at me!’” she says. “She said, ‘I said take the hill!’”

As someone who doesn’t “like any kind of cardio,” Rossum said the drill exercise made her realize “maybe I’m not so cut out for the job” in the FBI. Still, she “really loved” getting to spend that time in training.

Emmy Rossum and Scoot McNairy in ‘Furious’Credit: Sarah Shatz/Disney

To play Alice, Rossum also gained 10 lbs. of muscle through “lots of weights and lots of meat.”

“It involved eating a lot of beef sticks,” she says. “I had weights everywhere. I had weights in the dressing room, weights in the trailer, weights under the bed. Sometimes [my costar] Jake Lacy and I would pump a little iron right before we had to do a scene. If not for the cyclospora outbreak, I would have transitioned completely to fruit by now. I guess I’m back on the meat until this is over.”

Beyond the physical, the Shameless alum — who shares a daughter, 5, and son, 3, with her husband, Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail — spent time researching the mental toll of law enforcement.

“I wanted to understand what the job does to you physically and mentally,” she says. “For a lot of law enforcement, I think the training and the job shapes your identity in a way. It’s not like other jobs where you put the hat on and take the hat off. I think the vigilance that they bring to their work is something that comes home with them. I met with a mom in law enforcement who teaches her kids to memorize license plates. As a mom, I was struck by that.”

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Emmy Rossum at the ‘Furious’ premiere on July 16Credit: Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock

To help her get into character, Rossum would use a roll-on perfume she picked for Alice scented like coffee and croissant.

“It kind of sets me up right in the morning to go, ‘Okay, I am becoming this person now. It’s not me,’” she says. “Because there will be things in scenes that are stirring in a real way. There will be things that inadvertently remind you of things in your life that feel tender and sensitive. It’s important to remember that it is just a job.”

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When she’d get home, she’d wash off the scent and take a shower or eat crunchy pretzels to help her get back into her body.

“I think having those rituals that create the transitions are really helpful,” she says. “Those kinds of things bring you back to yourself.”

Emmy Rossum and Quincy Tyler Bernstine in ‘Furious’Credit: Sarah Shatz/Disney

As an executive producer and developer of the series, Rossum is thankful she “got such a long runway to develop this character.”

“When I did the first episode of Shameless, I only had a couple of weeks with the script,” she says. This time, “I had a year and a half from the time that we had the idea to the time that we stepped on set. So that gift of getting to embed that deeply in the character and have the research and training live within your body it really is such a gift.”

Throughout her career, Rossum has always gravitated toward imperfect heroines.

“I’m interested in people that exist in a moral gray area,” she says. “I’m interested in things that make me uncomfortable or scared because it says that there’s something about me or society that I need to think more deeply about.”

Furious premieres July 27 on Hulu.

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