‘Angelyne’ First Look Teaser Trailer Released, and Emmy Rossum Is Totally Unrecognizable

The first teaser trailer for Angelyne is here, showcasing Emmy Rossum‘s extreme dexterity as the Los Angeles icon who rose to prominence in the 1980s after commissioning billboards across L.A. that featured just a photo of herself and her name. “Nobody’s ever done it. Why not start now?” Rossum’s Angelyne asks in the first look teaser, attempting to purchase her first billboard.

“So, what are you advertising? asks Martin Freeman, whose character appears to work for a billboard company. “Myself, of course,” she replies. But he’s not convinced, following up with, “You want to put up posters of yourself, just you, around the city?” Complete with a jaw-dropping, sky-high blonde hairdo and showstopping low-cut pink outfit, Rossum is completely transformed as Angelyne in the teaser, where she tells a reporter she’s “famous for being on billboards.”

Later, she says, “You want to grab people’s attention? You have to tease.” One character guesses that “people will talk about this 100 years from now,” while an onscreen reporter remarks about Angelyne becoming “a media obsession.”

The teaser also includes some archival footage of the model — who went on to star in a number of shows and films, as well as release four albums — that was recreated for the show. Many consider Angelyne to have paved the way for the “influencers” of today’s pop culture, like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian. Angelyne could be seen around L.A. at times too, usually riding in fancy cars or attending celebrity parties. She was known for driving a pink Corvette, making a few film appearances and even running for governor in 2003, when she finished 28th out of 135 candidates.

Rossum’s husband, Sam Esmail, executive produced and co-wrote the series, which is based on a Hollywood Reporter feature from 2017 about Angelyne, whose real name is Renee Goldberg. Born in Poland in 1950 to parents who survived concentration camps during the Holocaust, Angelyne’s family moved to California, where she was raised and reinvented herself.

In 2015, Angelyne told THR that the first of the billboards was entrepreneur Hugo Maisnik’s idea, and that after that, her manager financed many of her larger-than-life billboards. Her first billboard went up over Sunset Boulevard in 1982, followed by an 85-foot tall painted mural of her on Hollywood and Vine in 1987. Over the years, she appeared on more than 200 billboards around the city.

Girls alum Alex Karpovsky stars alongside Rossum. The Shameless alum is also an executive producer on Angelyne, which is set to debut later this year on NBCUniversal’s upcoming streaming platform Peacock. Peacock is set to launch on July 15.