Emmy Rossum defends playing Tom Holland's mom while being just 10 years older than him

Emmy Rossum defends playing Tom Holland's mom while being just 10 years older than him
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Hollywood has certainly delivered its share of questionable pairings when it comes to age differences between actors, but Emmy Rossum is defending the one she finds herself in with The Crowded Room.

The upcoming Apple TV+ miniseries features Rossum as Candy, the mother of suspected criminal Danny Sullivan, played by Tom Holland. Rossum, 36, is only 10 years older than Holland, but she isn't irked by that, reasoning that Candy is meant to be a young mother.

"It makes sense when I read the script," the Shameless and Angelyne alum told Entertainment Tonight. "Candy's a super young mom, she's almost a child in her own right when she becomes pregnant at age 16. You watch as I age from 25 to 35, which is actually younger than I am now."

Emmy Rossum in 'The Crowded Room'
Emmy Rossum in 'The Crowded Room'

Apple TV+ Emmy Rossum in 'The Crowded Room'

Noting that she "fell in love with the relationship between mother and son and the closeness and everything that they're grieving in later episodes," Rossum explained, "I was so taken with the series and really just loved all my scenes, especially with young Danny [played by Zachary Golinger]. Our relationship was so beautiful and so I knew everything that we had that I had lost in the scenes with Tom. [It] was really fun."

Premiering June 9 and inspired by a true story, The Crowded Room is a psychological thriller set in New York City in the summer of 1979. It follows Holland's antisocial teen as he's arrested after a shooting at the Rockefeller Center. Through a series of discussions with investigator Rya Goodwin (Amanda Seyfried), Danny comes to better understand his own mental health, the people in his life, and the tragic events that led up to the incident.

"It's a show that will take you on twists and turns — you'll never know where you are or what's going on — and then it will all come to a miraculous conclusion toward the end," Holland told EW recently. "It's a story about heartbreak. It's a story about love. It's a story about betrayal. And, most of all, it's a story about a young kid's determination to survive."

Tom Holland and Emmy Rossum
Tom Holland and Emmy Rossum

ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Tom Holland and Emmy Rossum

The show delves into mental health and psychological trauma, which Rossum said spoke to her as a mother herself. "Finding out during our last couple episodes that I was pregnant with my son, who was born eight weeks ago, it brings up a lot about our imperfections as people, the unrealistic expectations that we place on ourselves, and how we are really just a product of our own upbringings," she told ET. "I think the show has a lot to say about love and empathy and understanding of those who are different than we are."

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