Emmy Rossum
- Actress
- Producer
- Composer
It would seem that 2004, the year of her 18th birthday, will be
remembered as pivotal for Emmy Rossum due to her appearance in two very
different films,
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
and
The Phantom of the Opera (2004).
Emmy's performance in the latter film gained her a Golden Globe
nomination.
Emmanuelle Grey Rossum was born in New York City, where she was raised
by her single mother, Cheryl Rossum, a corporate photographer (she has
only met her father a few times). Her mother is of Russian Jewish
descent and her father has English and Dutch ancestry. After passing an
audition at the Metropolitan Opera when she was 7 years old, Rossum
performed in more than 20 operas in six different languages at Lincoln
Center, alongside such figures as
Plácido Domingo and
Luciano Pavarotti. She was directed by
Franco Zeffirelli in "Carmen." She
left the opera when she entered her teenage years, as she had grown too
tall to perform as a child. Emmy also appeared in a Carnegie Hall
presentation of "The Damnation of Faust." She graduated from the Spence
School, a private institution in Manhattan, in 1996 and then earned a
high school diploma when 15 years old by taking online extension
courses offered by Stanford University (Education Program for Gifted
Youth). She later enrolled at Columbia University and studied art
history and French.
In a change of venue, Emmy created the role of Abigail Williams in the
daytime soap opera
As the World Turns (1956)
in 1997 and branched out in performances in the made-for-television
movies Genius (1999) and
The Audrey Hepburn Story (2000),
in which she played the title character as a young teenager. Other
television work included
Snoops (1999),
Law & Order (1990), and
The Practice (1997).
Emmy made her theatrical feature debut in the indie film
Songcatcher (2000), with her good
friend Rhoda Griffis, which won the
Special Jury Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance at the Sundance
Film Festival in January 2000. Rossum received an Independent Spirit
Award nomination in the category of Best Debut Performance for her
performance as an Appalachian orphan. She played an aspiring songwriter
(the title character) in the romantic comedy
Nola (2003). Cast as the ill-fated daughter
of a small-business owner in
Clint Eastwood's
Mystic River (2003), she projected
an aura of innocence that made her character's tragic death memorable
and heartbreaking. This was her first major studio film.
After six months of filming her role as the fresh-faced but highly
intelligent teenage damsel in distress
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
in Montreal, she returned to New York and screen-tested for the role of
Christine in
The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
in full costume and makeup, and was finally selected for the part by
Andrew Lloyd Webber after singing
for him at his home. Although she was surprised to be chosen ahead of
many better-known and older actresses considered for the part, the
combination of her vulnerable, fragile beauty and fine, classically
trained singing voice ultimately proved that she was perfectly cast. In
preparation for the role, she took ballet classes for two months and
started polishing her singing. Emmy has commented that, in her approach
to acting, she draws heavily upon her own experiences, so she visited
locations in Paris and conjured up what she terms "past memories" to
draw upon in making her performance emotionally realistic. She stood on
the roof of the Opéra Garnier, where Christine sings "All I Ask of
You," and went underneath the opera house, where there is actually a
gloomy, dark lake. She studied Degas's paintings of ballerinas in the
Musée d'Orsay to learn how to stand like one.
Her next project Poseidon (2006) was a
mainstream effort, but since its release, she has been more true to
advice she obtained from Sean Penn
when making Mystic River (2003),
that she should be picky and only accept roles that are fun to do, such
as
Dragonball Evolution (2009).
remembered as pivotal for Emmy Rossum due to her appearance in two very
different films,
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
and
The Phantom of the Opera (2004).
Emmy's performance in the latter film gained her a Golden Globe
nomination.
Emmanuelle Grey Rossum was born in New York City, where she was raised
by her single mother, Cheryl Rossum, a corporate photographer (she has
only met her father a few times). Her mother is of Russian Jewish
descent and her father has English and Dutch ancestry. After passing an
audition at the Metropolitan Opera when she was 7 years old, Rossum
performed in more than 20 operas in six different languages at Lincoln
Center, alongside such figures as
Plácido Domingo and
Luciano Pavarotti. She was directed by
Franco Zeffirelli in "Carmen." She
left the opera when she entered her teenage years, as she had grown too
tall to perform as a child. Emmy also appeared in a Carnegie Hall
presentation of "The Damnation of Faust." She graduated from the Spence
School, a private institution in Manhattan, in 1996 and then earned a
high school diploma when 15 years old by taking online extension
courses offered by Stanford University (Education Program for Gifted
Youth). She later enrolled at Columbia University and studied art
history and French.
In a change of venue, Emmy created the role of Abigail Williams in the
daytime soap opera
As the World Turns (1956)
in 1997 and branched out in performances in the made-for-television
movies Genius (1999) and
The Audrey Hepburn Story (2000),
in which she played the title character as a young teenager. Other
television work included
Snoops (1999),
Law & Order (1990), and
The Practice (1997).
Emmy made her theatrical feature debut in the indie film
Songcatcher (2000), with her good
friend Rhoda Griffis, which won the
Special Jury Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance at the Sundance
Film Festival in January 2000. Rossum received an Independent Spirit
Award nomination in the category of Best Debut Performance for her
performance as an Appalachian orphan. She played an aspiring songwriter
(the title character) in the romantic comedy
Nola (2003). Cast as the ill-fated daughter
of a small-business owner in
Clint Eastwood's
Mystic River (2003), she projected
an aura of innocence that made her character's tragic death memorable
and heartbreaking. This was her first major studio film.
After six months of filming her role as the fresh-faced but highly
intelligent teenage damsel in distress
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
in Montreal, she returned to New York and screen-tested for the role of
Christine in
The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
in full costume and makeup, and was finally selected for the part by
Andrew Lloyd Webber after singing
for him at his home. Although she was surprised to be chosen ahead of
many better-known and older actresses considered for the part, the
combination of her vulnerable, fragile beauty and fine, classically
trained singing voice ultimately proved that she was perfectly cast. In
preparation for the role, she took ballet classes for two months and
started polishing her singing. Emmy has commented that, in her approach
to acting, she draws heavily upon her own experiences, so she visited
locations in Paris and conjured up what she terms "past memories" to
draw upon in making her performance emotionally realistic. She stood on
the roof of the Opéra Garnier, where Christine sings "All I Ask of
You," and went underneath the opera house, where there is actually a
gloomy, dark lake. She studied Degas's paintings of ballerinas in the
Musée d'Orsay to learn how to stand like one.
Her next project Poseidon (2006) was a
mainstream effort, but since its release, she has been more true to
advice she obtained from Sean Penn
when making Mystic River (2003),
that she should be picky and only accept roles that are fun to do, such
as
Dragonball Evolution (2009).