Peacock’s new limited series Angelyne explores the truly wild and over-the-top life of the Hollywood billboard queen. Emmy Rossum undergoes a shocking transformation to play the pop culture icon of the LA scene. Stars Martin Freeman, Lukas Gage, and Alex Karpovksy spoke EXCLUSIVELY with HollywoodLife about Emmy’s metamorphosis into the character.
“Well, for me, it was fantastic because you were just presented with a thing that is as close to the character as humanly possible, I think, visually and performance-wise,” Martin said. “So for me, it was like doing scenes with Angelyne. Maybe it was a bit more organized than doing scenes with Angelyne, I don’t know, but it was like being just presented with this fantastic character because it felt to me like it is so close.”
Lukas admitted that he looks up to Emmy after watching Shameless and said “it was really easy for me to differentiate Emmy from Angelyne because she was truly a completely different person. It felt very separate.”
Alex raved that Emmy’s transformation was “mind-blowing.” He noted that “for an actor to be able to perform and emote through a really big, thick layer of latex or rubber or whatever and not overheat is also really, really, really hard to do. I feel you have to over-express yourself just to express yourself. To do that on a level that’s intuitive and reactionary and in the moment is extraordinarily challenging. Not to mention sitting in the makeup chair for 5 hours just to start your day, which would drive me crazy. So for all of those reasons, I think it’s truly spectacular.”
Martin, Lukas, and Alex play men Angelyne encounters throughout her life. Their characters become transfixed by Angelyne in their own way. Martin plays a billboard printer named Harold who helps Angelyne “get her image out there. I think he’s beguiled by her self-confidence. Also, she has this way of speaking and this way of engaging with you and probably more particularly with men maybe because she knows how to play that game of just drawing you in.”
Alex stars as Jeff Glasner, a reporter looking to profile the mysterious woman who has captivated LA. Alex said that Jeff is intrigued “by the fact that she’s able to maintain a sense of mystery about her.” Lukas plays Max Allen, a young filmmaker who wants to make a documentary about Angelyne. For Max, Angelyne is somewhat of an inspiration to him.
“He’s not comfortable or confident in his skills yet. She says something in the series I think to him, ‘Shyness equals fear, and fear is just false evidence appearing real.’ So for him, it’s getting over his timid ways and stepping out of his box in his comfort zone and to shine like Angelyne,” Lukas told HollywoodLife.
All three actors didn’t know too much about Angelyne prior to signing on for the series. “I wasn’t really familiar with her at all,” Martin admitted. Alex grew up on the east coast, but he revealed that Angelyne started to “seep into my awareness” when he spent time in LA. “And the more that I knew about her, the more I wanted to know about her,” Alex said.
Lukas is from Southern California, so he had the most familiarity with Angelyne. However, he “never really got to know her story” until the Peacock series. Stream Angelyne on Peacock starting May 19.