Shameless Attention Seeking

"Fiona, is that you?" I say yeah. "How do we know? Take your shirt off!"

The big, barely functioning family of Shameless stomped back into the house this month. Viewership for the season-three premiere hit a high for the Showtime dramedy, and leapt 26% over last year’s premiere. For Emmy Rossum, who plays the Gallagher family’s unsteady anchor, Fiona, the ratings capped a gratifying growth for a show that doesn’t get as much limelight as some others on premium cable. Now, in typical candid fashion, she tells Speakeasy how her show may soon be garnering more attention when it dares to broach a sexual taboo later in the season...

Where do things stand for her in season three?

Fiona’s trying to figure out where she fits in the world, after doing so much to take care of everybody else. I think she’s a little more desperate this year to get ahead, to find a sense of stability. Lip is, at the end of the day, just smarter than she is and she makes a couple decisions that are kind of Frank-like. And that leaves her and Lip struggling for power in the house. That’s interesting because they’ve always been like mom and dad running the family, and now they’re at each other’s throats.


How has the show changed the perception of you as an actor?

People who watch the show think you must be like that character. A lot of people probably think I’m a dirty ho, but I’m not. The show has done only great things for me and my career.

Are there any running jokes behind the scenes about the amount of sex on the show?

I’ve had less to do in that respect as the years have gone on than I did initially, probably because I did so many interviews where I was like, "Ugh, again with the question?" It’s just not that big of a deal.

I’m not saying it’s a big deal. But as a viewer, I sometimes find myself counting the sex scenes in each episode. It almost seems like there’s a quota the show has to hit.

There is a story line this year that does not involve my character that is sexually related. Nothing like this has ever been shown on television. It’s a storyline over three or four episodes. In the room when we were reading it aloud, I couldn’t believe that they were going to shoot it. It involves incest. And it’s a comedic storyline. It’s very funny and outrageous and all amongst adults.

Does it involve the Gallaghers?

No. It’s incest for a good cause. Weirdly, even though it’s so vile, it also shows the characters’ desperation and the lengths people will go to achieve whatever it is they need. The question reignites the frustration within me that our show gets recognition for nudity and sex, while I feel that our show is an incredible feat of entertainment about family and poverty and addiction. I don’t feel that that is properly recognized.

I suppose the grass is always greener, because many people on broadcast television would say they’re at a disadvantage because they can’t show explicit sex.

There are shows like Boardwalk Empire that shows secondary characters having sex all the time, and nobody talks about how naked that show is. Our show if really funny and dark and weird, but thank God we found an audience. When I read the script at first, I wondered if anybody was going to watch this. When they first made the show, a network that [writer/producer] John Wells pitched it to wanted to set it in the South. He said absolutely not. That would be stereotypical white trash. The Gallaghers are not. They’re in any metropolitan city.

Do the people living in the neighborhood where you shoot watch the show?

Yeah. The kids watch the show, 12- and 13-year-olds, which is so troubling. Dude, you need to be turning off your TV. You’re not supposed to be asking me to take my top off.

They do?

They say, "Fiona, is that you?" I say yeah. "How do we know? Take your shirt off!"