Emmy Rossum has addressed the Shameless pay dispute and revealed why she quit the show as Fiona

If you watched the US version of Shameless, you’ll know Fiona Gallagher was basically the heart of the entire show.

Emmy Rossum played the eldest Gallagher sibling for 110 episodes before Fiona left Chicago in season nine after receiving a financial windfall, bringing her story to an emotional end. The rest of the Gallagher family stayed on until the series wrapped after 11 seasons, but Fiona never returned.

At the time, loads of people assumed Rossum’s exit was connected to her very public pay dispute with Showtime, after she reportedly pushed to be paid the same as her co-star William H. Macy, who paid Frank. Now, almost a decade later, Rossum has spoken about what was really going on behind the scenes.

Appearing on the Call Her Daddy podcast, the Golden Globe nominee admitted she “was shook” when details of her contract negotiations became public in 2016. She explained that she “certainly didn’t want” the talks becoming headline news because other cast and crew members were also negotiating their own contracts at the time.

Looking back, Rossum said she completely understood why Macy initially earned more than she did.

“Well, when I started the show, it made a lot of sense that [William H.] Macy made a lot more money than me,” she said. “He was coming in much older, much more accomplished, tons more credits, and number one on the contract.”

But after years of leading the series alongside Macy, Rossum felt her salary no longer reflected the work she was doing. When contract talks began ahead of season eight, she pushed not only for equal pay, but for a higher salary than Macy across seasons eight and nine to make up for the gap she’d experienced during earlier years of the show.

Reflecting on the negotiations, she said: “My focus is never on money. It’s on what’s fair and what’s right. And I believe that people should be paid for their labour. It was really about being valued equally when I was doing equal work.”

Rossum also addressed the long-running speculation over why she ultimately left the series.

“I wanted to stay in the job. I loved the job. I wasn’t walking away from the job,” she explained.

“I loved the job until it felt like there wasn’t enough juice to squeeze out of the lemon. We had made 110 episodes and by the time I left and they offered us two more years I had already started my production company. I had set up my first show (Angelyne) and I was green lit and getting ready to make it.”

Although leaving was the right decision professionally, Rossum admitted it was far from easy emotionally.

“I left with a lot of grief and sorrow because I would I would miss all those people and I couldn’t believe that they were going to go on the journey without me. But I was also really excited. I felt like I was launching and getting ready to start this new chapter.”

She’d fought to be paid fairly, she still loved making Shameless, but after nearly a decade and 110 episodes, she was ready to build something of her own.

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Featured image credit: Showtime