Emmy Rossum stopped by Live with Kelly and Mark to talk about the off-Broadway play Walden, now in previews at the Tony Kiser Theater. Set in the future, Rossum plays a twin sister in the show, which she describes as “grounded sci-fi,” with a script that’s “incredibly human (and) really moving.”

Rossum says her preparation was quite a complicated role: “We interviewed a space architect… who literally developed two potential habitats for life on Mars,” she explained. “We interviewed several sets of twins. We met a climate scientist… There’s so much learning behind this.”

She then described the intimacy of the Tony Kiser Theater, where the company performs, and said she sometimes accidentally makes eye contact with audience members. “You don’t want to be taken out of it, but at the same time it’s like an energetic circle: you get to share it with them.” Amy Berryman’s Walden at Second Stage Theater officially opens on November 7.

Theatrical rising star and O’Neill finalist Amy Berryman brings us a drama about how vast the space between two people can be. In the near future, Stella (Rossum) and her fiancé Bryan wait in their remote cabin for Stella’s estranged twin sister, Cassie (Zoe Winters). Raised as NASA scientists by their astronaut father, the twins have taken different paths: Cassie has just returned from a successful moon mission, while Stella has left NASA behind. When they reunite, old conflicts reignite, forcing the sisters to choose between staying on Earth or pursuing a future in space as the fate of humanity hangs in the balance. Directed by Tony Award nominee Whitney White (Jaja’s African Hair Braiding), WALDEN is an exciting and compelling new play that wrestles between the pull of duty and desire.