The Topsy-Turvy World of Emmy Rossum

At age 16, beautiful brunette Emmy Rossum was chosen to star as the lead Christine in the film version of The Phantom of the Opera. She co-starred with Jake Gyllenhaal in the disasterfest The Day After Tomorrow where she had to stay soaked all day in several tanks of freezing water. Well, brave Emmy is water-logged again in Poseidon! This time she plays Kurt Russell's newly-engaged daughter who must escape from an overturned ocean liner on New Year's Eve. Her reaction to all this dangerous, soggy swimming, running, holding-your-breath, escapist acting? "At least I didn't have to wear heels!"

Meeting in Beverly Hills with the gorgeous, 19-year-old, porcelain-skinned actress, we heard all about the perils of filming in water, around fire and risking illness and injury at every turn. We also found out that Emmy, of the beautiful voice, is recording an album for Geffen Records, that it's important to her that her family like the guys she dates, she had to eat director Wolfgang Petersen's soup at 11:00 every day on set and that she makes a killer chocolate soufflé! Get ready to risk life and limb with Emmy and her tales from the Poseidon set! She enters our interview room wearing a form-fitting blue denim dress with a flattering cut-out neckline and a flounce on the bottom, classy pearl stud earrings and matching bracelet.

TeenHollywood: Wow, hot dress. What are you wearing?

Emmy: It's Ralph Lauren. He made it for me. Lucky girl.

TeenHollywood: Were you reluctant to take on this role considering the physicalities and water, well I guess there was a bit of water in Phantom of the Opera...

Emmy: And Day After Tomorrow. No not at all. It's funny because obviously I read the script and knew it was going to be difficult but I didn't know how difficult it was going to be. And it's been the hardest thing I've done in my life physically. I had to learn how to scuba dive, free dive and was in some of the scariest situations I had ever been in.

TeenHollywood: Whoa! Describe for us.

Emmy: Our first day of training for preparations to get up to speed physically for the movie, they introduced me to The Cage of Death, some training apparatus. It's a Plexiglas cube that they would sink over my head very slowly, then I would take my last breath and be completely submerged. I was quite claustrophobic; it was a small cage. And then all the safety people would be surrounding the cage and I'd give them the sign after about a minute to say I was out of air. But I got to a minute and a half.

TeenHollywood: Why would they put you through that?

Emmy: Well, we did 90% of our stunts. That's me swimming across that big chasm with the roiling water underneath and us 20 feet under water. But fear is 80% mental and once you can overcome that, you'll be fine. Plus, I had to show the guys that girls aren't wusses.

TeenHollywood: You go, gurl! Who was the biggest chicken on the set then?

Emmy: I can't divulge that, sorry. (laugh). Probably Wolfgang because he didn't get wet once. But don't tell him I said that. But we were in pretty dangerous situations. I mean Kurt [Russell] got pneumonia, Josh [Lucas] broke 10 tendons in his right hand. Mia [Maestro] was hospitalized and got a concussion.

TeenHollywood: And did you get anything?

Emmy: No, but I was pretty much purple from the neck down with bruises because the floors were so slippery and my shoes were so slippery that it was like `Man down, cut!'.

TeenHollywood: That's horrible. Was Kurt kind of fatherly to you during all this?

Emmy: Yeah, in a great way. I feel I got to learn a lot from him. He was really an activist about us taking our characters in our hands and putting our spin on them and also a lot of improvisation. Because when these kinds of scripts are written, they're written by Hollywood writers sitting in a room and they can't really know what it's going to be like on set and the right level to play things at so a lot of the time, in the scenes between Kurt and me, pretty much the last half hour of the film, it's pretty emotionally jarring and scary. A lot of it is improvised.

TeenHollywood: Mike Vogel plays your guy in the movie. Was he kind of protective of you?

Emmy: Definitely. He's definitely, very, very handsome and that doesn't hurt at all! [she grins and rolls her eyes]. I was really impressed with him. He was probably the least fearful of any of us – he was the most courageous – he's a real guys' guy. And Josh too, a good Southern guy. They were probably the most fearless.

TeenHollywood: You just meet the characters and then they are tossed into the action. Was it always that way?

Emmy: In earlier versions of the movie, there was much more back story. Yeah, I came from years of indies although the last few films I've done have been blockbusters. I try to bring the same kind of reality and back story depth to any character I do whether she's in a small character-driven movie where you can't rely on special effects or you're 20 feet under water and Wolfgang Peterson is talking to you from underwater microphones or whatever it may be.

TeenHollywood: How did you get the role?

Emmy: Wolfgang sent me the script right after the tsunami. I personally found it so effective and wanted to be a part of it. As well as the fact that I've admired so many of his films. I mean if you're going to get wet in a boat, do it with Wolfgang (laugh). [Poseidon] is Like 'Das Big Boot'. It was a fascinating experience especially because I got to do a lot of research. I went back and went to the Museum of TV and Radio and I'm a New Yorker so I listened to the 9/11 tapes and I heard this girl calling from inside the tower. I could hear her tone of voice and the courage and strength she had at that time and that's what I responded to.

TeenHollywood: Oh, Katrina was going on then?

Emmy: I remember we were watching news in the hair and makeup trailer and it was really scary to us. I felt a great responsibility going into this especially with so many natural disasters that had happened and the hurricanes that happened down South while we were shooting really effected us.

TeenHollywood: Are you returning to your musical roots and do you constantly go back and work on your singing and music or is movie acting now your focus?

Emmy: Well, it has been for a while. After 'Phantom' I was approached by a lot of record companies to do a classical record and that wasn't that interesting to me because I felt I had kind of done it in the Opera and done the 'popera' thing with 'Phantom' and what I really wanted to do was my own solo record and that's what I'm doing right now. It's pop music, but not bubble gum. It's kind of David Gray, Sarah McLachlan, Annie Lennox and I'm writing a lot of it. I think it's going to be all original stuff.

TeenHollywood: When is it coming out?

Emmy: Probably top of next year. We're working on writing it right now.

TeenHollywood: Are you interested in doing other musical films?

Emmy: Not especially right now. It would have to be something so different from 'Phantom'. And I'm really happy with my own music right now because it's really an opportunity for me to do something that I totally create. With film, you're just a piece of the puzzle but here I get to write it and sing it and produce it and play some instruments some time so it's a lot of fun.

TeenHollywood: Are you still going to Columbia University?

Emmy: Well, I'm playing hooky right now. I'm not currently enrolled [but I still want to graduate].

TeenHollywood: You said hair and makeup earlier – you're doing this movie under water so how much hair and makeup can they do?

Emmy: [laughs] You show up and they throw you in the pool. So it's just for the beginning of the movie. They put dirt on you and this fake sweat on us, this gloppy glycerine stuff.

TeenHollywood: Do you have any regimens now to stay in shape?

Emmy: Yeah, but I try not to make myself too crazy. I'm not going after that skinny, skinny fad right now. I hike or I do dance classes or kickboxing.

TeenHollywood: What do you listen to when you exercise?

Emmy: Evanescence. And I like David Gray and old '80's Madonna.

TeenHollywood: Are you signed to do another movie now?

Emmy: Not right now. I'm working on the album. That's coming out beginning of next year. I got really good advice from people like Clint [Eastwood] and Sean Penn who told me 'don't rush it. Your career is going to be about your longevity and you don't need to take every movie that comes along'. I try to only work on things with people who I'm going to learn from or things that really touch me.

TeenHollywood: Richard Dreyfuss is in Poseidon. I remember him from American Graffiti way back in the day. What did you learn from him?

Emmy: Just about history. That guy is like a fountain of knowledge. He's just so smart about characters. I really admire him. He's a really big risk taker in terms of his character and I think that really worked well.

TeenHollywood: Did you learn any German from Wolfgang your director?

Emmy: (She says something in German) 'There's no speed limit on the freeway'. And I know that Wolfgang has this soup thing. Every day at 11 AM, he served three different kinds of soups and every soup has sausage in it. It's like clam chowder with sausage, chicken noodle with chicken sausage...

TeenHollywood: Weird. Are you vegetarian?

Emmy: No, but I'm not a big meat eater. He rates the soups before everyone tastes them and based on like Monday, the chicken noodle got a 5, don't touch it. But the sausage soup got a 10!

TeenHollywood: Hilarious. Your character has a hard time getting her dad to approve of her boyfriend. When you bring somebody home, is it important that your relatives like him?

Emmy: Definitely. I tend not to date celebrities or other actors. Everything about my life is rather unconventional except my personal life which is pretty normal. The kind of friends I have are ones I had before I was an actress. The kind of guys I like to date are ones that can teach me about something I don't know so they're generally not in the film business.

TeenHollywood: So where do you meet them?

Emmy: Through friends, students or otherwise.

TeenHollywood: Does acting ever get in the way? Here you are in films and you're dating a normal person?

Emmy: No because people know me outside of just showing up at a [press day]. You know, I'm a pretty normal, cool girl who likes to go to concerts, see movies and I love to cook.

TeenHollywood: What do you cook?

Emmy: Normally every Saturday or Sunday, I have this big thing at my house where I invite my friends and cook for them. I have a big sweet tooth so I do an excellent chocolate soufflé and excellent crème brule. Everyone always says that they're delicious.

TeenHollywood: Yum! You're living in New York?

Emmy: Well I'm back and forth now because I'm making my record here in L.A. but my home is New York.

TeenHollywood: As an actress, what is the reward in a big picture like this or Day After Tomorrow? Is this something you do that you apply to smaller films or is it something you do that's fun and you can make a couple of bucks?

Emmy: I think it's both...for me, I like it to be both. I'm not going to sign onto something just because it's a popcorn film. What I get out of these films is a lot of people see them, I bring happiness to people and take their mind off whatever they're going through for two hours and if I can give something back to society or culture, it makes me happy.

TeenHollywood: Was it disorienting that everything on the set was upside down?

Emmy: The first few days, yes. After the first few days you get used to having the lights on the floor although they're really hot. They were really, really hot and sometimes would burn through our shoes. I think one of the actresses got 3rd degree burns on her foot from the light bulbs. But I think that's what makes movie watching such a visceral experience; you really feel that the characters are really part of that experience because the actress really did everything...90%. You really feel underwater with them and you're on the edge of your seat the whole time.

TeenHollywood: Some women were wearing long dresses. Was it uncomfortable doing those physical stunts wearing those clothes?

Emmy: I mean I'm in jeans luckily because I'm in the nightclub to start off. Thank God I wasn't in high heels. I can't even imagine swimming in high heels; I would have totally lost them. The floor was so slippery and had so much debris and the lights that were so hot, it would have been bad to lose your shoes.

TeenHollywood: Some say they wouldn't go on a cruise after doing this...

Emmy: Oh I would. But one of my favorite vacations was going to Alaska with my mom on a cruise and that was sort of unforgettable.

TeenHollywood: Would you look at the map of the ship before taking off?

Emmy: No, I know where the nearest vertical access is (laugh) – it's through the galley!

TeenHollywood: There were a bunch of fake bodies that KNB Effects made. But there were some real people too. Did anybody ever make the mistake and step on a real person?

Emmy: Yes. Sometimes a person will be sitting there still and you'll be looking at them and all of a sudden they move and you go 'AHHH!' It's kind of disorienting because people are laying on the floor and I'll be stepping over them and they ask 'So what time's lunch'? And also standing around craft service and everyone has 3rd degree burns and limbs are missing...

TeenHollywood: Ewww, not very appetizing. Are you claustrophobic in any way? There's a lot of crawling around in small spaces.

Emmy: No. Those scenes didn't bother me...only the drowning scenes did. I think the scariest scene probably to shoot was when they flooded the ballast tank and we're watching and don't know if it's going to open. That's probably the scariest because we were really in that enclosed space and the top was set to open on a pulley system but what if the pulley system failed? And Kurt was like 'Just Don't think about it, just don't think about it, everything will be fine'.

TeenHollywood: Was there any laughing or cutting up on set or was it too strenuous and too horrible to do that?

Emmy: A lot of it, a lot of it.

TeenHollywood: Who was the biggest jokester? Dreyfuss?

Emmy: Yes. Dreyfuss and Josh Lucas. Josh Lucas wanted to play a practical joke on Wolfgang and throw a bucket of water over his head on one day because we were five months in and he had never gotten wet. And he wanted to get me on it – like one of those NFL Gatorade over the head things. But I was totally not going to do it and he didn't do it.

TeenHollywood: Are you reading anything lately?

Emmy: I'm actually reading 'The Sheltering Sky' right now. It's great so far. Especially writing lyrics right now, it's really nice to read things with beautiful prose. I have to read about China because I'm taking a vacation to China this summer. I'm going to Beijing, Hong Kong, Yangtze River and maybe seeing the pandas. I'm going with my mom and all my friends too so I'm very excited.

TeenHollywood: Cool! Well, others have spoken about it so we have to ask... do you think people were peeing in the pool on set after those long hours?

Emmy: I went through that on Day After Tomorrow. Jake was always `Who's peeing in the pool?'. I don't know of anyone peeing in the pool except Richard Dreyfuss (laughs).

***

Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.