Sometimes the best bargaining chip is public opinion.
Emmy Rossum has revealed that after fighting for equal pay on Shameless for more than five years, the thing that finally changed everything wasn’t another contract negotiation, it was the internet.
Speaking on the Call Her Daddy podcast, Rossum said her long-running salary dispute with Showtime came to an abrupt end after details of the negotiations leaked in 2016, triggering widespread public support.
“I was shook,” she recalled after discovering headlines about the private negotiations while scrolling Twitter. “It’s a private business negotiation, and I never imagined it would become public.”
Rossum played Fiona Gallagher opposite William H. Macy’s Frank Gallagher throughout the hit series.
She said it made perfect sense that Macy earned more when the show began, given his established career, but as Fiona became one of television’s standout characters, she believed equal pay was only fair.
Her team first pushed for a raise during season three but was denied. Years later, ahead of season eight, negotiations stalled again…until the story made headlines.
“The tide really shifted,” Rossum said. “People were quite surprised that I wasn’t already being paid equal. And it was resolved within a day.”
Rossum stressed the fight was never about earning more than anyone else.
“It was really about being valued equally when I was doing equal work.”
She also dismissed the long-standing rumour that she left Shameless because of the pay dispute, explaining she departed after season nine to focus on producing her own projects and taking greater control of her career.
Throughout the negotiations, Macy publicly backed his co-star, calling equal pay for Rossum “a no-brainer.”
“Who’s the center of the show?” he said at the time. “It’s Fiona. Of course she should get paid.”
