Shameless season 8: Emmy Rossum talks signing on, pay negotiations

For one of the first times since the deal was first signed on the bottom line, Emmy Rossum is speaking out about her Shameless season 8 negotiations and subsequent pay raise — which were certainly well-deserved, and something that effectively should have happened without much in the way of drama.

Yet, the negotiations did go public over time, with Rossum requesting a pay raise that put her on par with her co-star William H. Macy. It was a move that felt like a no-brainer given Fiona’s role on the show, and luckily it is something that came to fruition — though Rossum herself told Variety that it did take a little bit of encouragement in order for the powers that be behind the scenes in order to get the deal done:

“When we started the show, obviously Bill Macy was the green light for the show. He’s Bill Macy. He’s an Oscar nominee. I was 22 years old. And then 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.

“To have the man counterpart on my show be like, ‘Yes, she does deserve this and more,’ was so validating and after that, after it became public, was a very quick resolution.”

Sometimes when the negotiating gets tough, you need to do whatever you can in order to ensure that the deal gets done. In this instance, we’re ultimately rather thrilled to see this happen for Rossum, much in the way that we were thrilled to see pay raises for two of the female stars of Criminal Minds recently. When you consider everything from star power to longevity on the show, all they were asking for was something fair and worthy of their talent. To have the studio / the network respond to that proves they have faith in you. This can help to create a positive environment on set, and ensure that your show sticks around even longer — though to be fair, it’s not clear if Shameless season 8 will be the last for the show just yet. Fingers crossed that there is a little something more still in the Tank.

New episodes of Shameless will hopefully premiere this fall on Showtime. For some further news on the show, be sure to head over to the link here. (Photo: Showtime.)