How ‘Furious’ enters the world of sex and violence without being exploitative

Angry hit Hulu with three jaw-dropping episodes. A new series from creator Elizabeth Meriwether (New Girl, Dying for Sex) centers on FBI agent Alice Black (Emmy Rossum, who also produces) as she hunts down a female assassin (Lola Petticrew) who kills a series of curious men.

In the first three episodes, Angry He points out that this mysterious killer seems to be directing a child trafficking ring. However, even though this crime drama deals with child exploitation and sexual abuse, Meriwether and his directing team will not use gruesome images to tell their story. Instead, he entrusts Rossum, Petticrew, and the rest of the top-notch ensemble to sell stakes without turning the rap into a problematic spectacle.

Over three in-person interviews, Entertainment Editor Kristy Puchko sat down with Meriwether, Rossum, and Petticrew to get the scoop. Angrydesirable originality, intelligent exploration of difficult topics and complex characters, and the “superpower” of its central killer.

Look for more throughout the season, as Mashable got more from all three Angry participants.

Angry it started as a habit Black Widow.

No, not the MCU. In 1987, director Bob Rafelson debuted a strange neo-noir, in which Debra Winger played the main role as an analyst of the US Department of Justice who is on the tail of a suspected black widow – that is, a hot female killer who kills her husbands, apparently wanting to collect their wealth. But despite the cat-and-mouse dynamic, the two women discover they have something in common.

Outside the gate, Angry changes the details, including the murderer MO Meriwether talking about his motivation point, “My friend told me to watch. Black Widow. I did. It’s an interesting film. You know, it feels like in that world of 1970s and 1980s movies, where there isn’t that pressure to explain everything a character does – in a very good way. In fact, there’s a scene with Debra Winger where she’s almost comically giving a monologue explaining who she is. And then there’s this weird part of the movie where, after watching this female cat-and-mouse killer and female FBI agent dance around the whole movie, they just start hanging out in the ocean together.

“It’s really strange,” she smiled, “but also, I found it really moving. Because I see these two women are so desperate to connect. And in some ways, they’re the only ones who can see the real person underneath. [their façades]. And I wanted to take that into this game.”

He continued, “I think that when you turn a movie into a TV show, there needs to be a reason. Why did you do that? Like, you have to bring something to the project. So, I knew that I needed to dive into the psychological parts and try to find out why these two women became the women they were. That led me, inevitably, to the idea of being a victim of violence, which I was really doing female researchers. scary and interesting The common theme – not surprisingly – is that they are victims become violent, and become perpetrators of violence.

“I was happy that I could complicate all of that and show how the experience of violence can get into your bones and come out in strange, self-destructive ways,” he explained. “And it can come out in violent ways for some people.”

Why Angry don’t you have flashbacks?

Emmy Rossum in “Furious.”
Credit: Disney / Sarah Shatz

In the dialogue, the audience learns that Alice and the mysterious killer were victims of violence. The former was beaten by her ex-boyfriend, a Brooklyn detective (Jake Lacy); the latter was trafficked as a teenager.

Meriwether said about the lack of action in the show, “I think it was important for me to focus on these two women now, in this moment, and not go back and show everything, you know, that happened to them.

Rossum elaborated on this, saying, “Liz was emphasizing in her descent that she didn’t care about the past. She was more interested in the effects of violence on both of our female characters and how that affects how they behave now.”

Emmy Rossum talks about Alice’s trauma in Angry.

Scoot McNairy and Emmy Rossum in “Furious.”
Credit: Disney / Sarah Shatz

“For Alice,” Rossum continued, “she’s very far from herself. She doesn’t believe she can get justice for herself. So she’s really concerned about getting justice for others — even at the expense of taking care of herself.”

The actor went on to talk about Alice’s trauma, saying, “[She’s] can’t wash. We know you stink, which I think is brave enough for anyone to put anything on, because people who stink in our culture really [representative of] a sense of shame. And it’s something we see that is there in Alice. “

About how her trauma affects Alice’s work and sex life, Rossum said, “She’s become such a big machine in this work that she invites these strangers into her house to fight. Which, when you read it for the first time, you know we like victims of violence to fit into a certain box? I was afraid to do that situation.

“I didn’t understand,” he continued. “I really had to work with a psychologist to understand the parts of me that were against it, the parts of me that were compatible with the character … how to understand the separation between me and the character, the ways in which we were different, to remember those, and to understand that in this character, love and sex, violence and control existed within the same relationship. [for her]. So I think we were really interested in a timeless look and a new look at what a victim of violence might look like, both for my character, the agent, the ‘good guy,’ and the ‘bad guy,’ the serial killer. Who do I think in this crash course – we will see them [they] they are very similar, and there is, as it were, an invisible thread of sisterhood that binds them together.”

Lola Petticrew in understanding Angry‘mysterious killer.

Lola Petticrew in “Furious.”
Credit: Disney / Sarah Shatz

One of the main attractions of the Angry It’s Meriwether approaching his killer. Instead of the gold-digging black widow who was the focal point, Petticrew’s character is a changeling with a girly streak as she intoxicates the men on her kill list. Even her name is a mystery as she goes from Jinny to Vanessa and finally Catherine.

Asked about understanding their role in AngryPetticrew said, “Even when I read the first two scripts, it’s very early on, you get an idea of ​​who she is. And then, as I signed off, Liz revealed a lot more. So, we really knew the heart and the crux of Catherine before we started shooting, and her motivation.”

During the first three episodes, viewers saw Catherine change personalities several times. For a moment, he was skipping the streets of New York City with the abandon of girls. Next, she seems afraid to reach a domestic violence shelter, or seduce an expensive lawyer with a vixen act, or rush to a cozy house where she will work as a nurse’s aide.

“That’s Catherine’s greatest strength,” Petticrew said. “For anyone who is a woman – or mixed as a woman – as a child, you learn early to read the emotional temperature of rooms. It’s a social thing, because you have to, whether that’s for safety or to not be looked down upon. And I think about Catherine and Alice, in particular, it’s a response to trauma. And so I think that everything she does, is guided by what she really does. It’s dark and bad. But she can use it and use it to achieve her goals.”

The first three episodes of Angry now streaming on Hulu, with new episodes every Monday through Aug. 31.