'Shameless' Season 8 Spoilers: Emmy Rossum Shares Her Battle on Equal Pay
"Shameless" season 8 star Emmy Rossum shares how she finally got the pay she deserves.
During The Hollywood Reporter's annual Comedy Actress Roandtable, Rossum, who plays the hardworking Fiona Gallagher on the show, talked about her recent fight for equal pay. She sat down together with other actresses like America Ferrera, Pamela Adlon, Minnie Driver, Kathryn Hahn, and Issa Rae, and shared how she won the fight and how William H. Macy helped her get it.
Emmy Rossum shared it was not easy to convince the show to give her a pay raise. The actress explained how she found it obvious that Macy is the star of the show. After all, he plays her father Frank Gallagher who is the center of the story. Besides that, the actor is an Oscar nominee. However, as the story progresses, she felt that Fiona is becoming more important. "As the show started to really get legs, it felt a little bit more weighted in Fiona's direction ... Something that at one time felt OK that it was unbalanced, started to feel not as good."
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Apparently, after long negotiations, the only time her request got the studio's attention was when it became public. The actress then revealed how happy she was when her co-star Macy supported her through the deal. "To have the man counterpart on my show be like, 'Yes, she does deserve this and more,' was so validating," she said during the roundtable. She felt empowered that Macy also felt the same for her from the beginning, and gave her that extra push she needed to continue pursuing her concern. After the issue became public, the studio immediatly responded, finally granting her the payckeck she has been fighting for.
Now that Rossum has resolved her concern, the actress confirmed her return to "Shameless" season 8.
