Emmy Rossum has explained why it “makes sense” for her to play Tom Holland’s mum, despite being just nine years older than him.
The actor plays the Spider-Man star’s mother in new Apple TV+ series The Crowded Room, a psychological thriller adapted from Daniel Keyes’ 1981 novel The Minds of Billy Milligan.
Holland plays Danny Sullivan, a man who is arrested for his involvement in a shooting in 1979. Through a series of interviewers with his interrogator, played by Amanda Seyfried, Danny unveils a mystery surrounding his life.
Sign up to a seven-day free trial of Apple TV+
New subscribers only. £6.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.
When the casting for the series was announced, it was noted that Rossum, who is 36, would be playing 27-year-old Holland’s mother, with many expressing confusion over the casting.
According to Rossum, however, it “makes sense” for the show.
She 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.”
Rossum said that she “fell in love with the relationship between mother and son and the closeness and everything that they’re grieving in later episodes”.
In the show, a younger version of Holland is played by Zachary Golinger, and Rossum said she “especially” loved her scenes with him.
“Our relationship was so beautiful and so I knew everything that we had that I had lost in the scenes with Tom,” she said.
She described the show as “really shocking”, adding: “It really has a lot of pieces of the puzzle to put together.”
The Crowded Room will premiere on Apple TV+ on Friday 9 June.