An actor is opening up about what it took to prepare to play an FBI agent. Emmy Rossum said she was shot by a BB gun while preparing for her crime drama Furious.
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She plays FBI agent Alice in the project. Speaking with People, she says she trained with retired FBI agent Jennifer Coffindaffer.
"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.'"
For one training exercise, Rossum had to reach a hill. She had to run to "the safe house, use the hideaways and duck and make sure you get to the top." But she realized there was someone "who had a BB gun and immediately started popping out and shooting at me."
FBI Training
"I started screaming, 'Jen, there's somebody shooting at me!'" she says. "She said, 'I said take the hill!'"
The actor made her realize that she may not be FBI material. Still, the actor pushed herself for the role.
"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."
It's been a big difference from her other big TV role.
"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."
