Emmy Rossum: Shameless, Motherhood & Knowing Your Worth

Emmy Rossum opens the interview sharing her deep passion for basketball and the New York Knicks, explaining that she watches sports for the emotional narrative and ability to see players' faces. She recounts laboring during a Knicks playoff game while pregnant with her daughter, eventually taking an Uber to the hospital where she was eight centimeters dilated.

Rossum reflects on her childhood with her single mother, Cheryl, a photographer and adventurous woman who worked for companies like Mobil Oil and was Steve Jobs' personal photographer. Her mother taught her survival through dramatic lessons, such as throwing her bedding out a fourth-floor window to illustrate what happens without income. Despite limited money, her mother prioritized Emmy's private school education and never made her feel financially insecure.

She traces her career from age seven singing at the Metropolitan Opera's Children's Chorus, to landing her first TV role at eleven, to starring in 'The Phantom of the Opera' at seventeen. Emmy was initially told by Shameless casting that she seemed "too princessy" based on her previous film roles, but she knew the character of Fiona Gallagher was hers. Playing Fiona for nearly a decade on a grueling set without sides (full scripts) or last looks created intense camaraderie with her castmates, particularly Jeremy Allen White.

A major focus of the interview is Emmy's fight for pay equity on Shameless. When contract renegotiations began in season three and later seasons, she and her team requested equal pay to male leads. After being denied, the negotiation leaked on Twitter, sparking public discussion that shifted the tide, and she secured equal pay within a day. Emmy reflects that this experience taught her the importance of taking up space and advocating for her worth, though she notes the double standard where men advocating for themselves are seen as strong while women are labeled difficult.

Regarding relationships, Emmy discusses a pattern of intensity in her early dating life. Her first serious relationship at eighteen involved a man who shut down the Palace of Versailles for a second date. After two consecutive painful breakups, she impulsively married Justin at twenty-one after knowing him only a couple months when he presented it as marry-or-break-up before she left for six months to film in Mexico. She realized the marriage was a mistake and eventually divorced.

She spent nearly a decade searching for the right partner before meeting her now-husband Sam Esmail on the set of a film he wrote and directed. His letter introducing the project impressed her with its honesty about his insecurities, therapy, and passion for filmmaking. They developed feelings over a year of collaboration, and after he confessed his love before filming began, they eventually kissed and have been together for fourteen years. Emmy notes that watching Sam be an exceptional father to their daughters has been deeply healing given her complicated relationship with her own father, whom she met only once as a child (the "we don't cut our spaghetti guy").

On motherhood, Emmy shares the "pancake problem"—a story where she broke her foot trying to shower, make pancakes, and get to a 16-hour shoot day to prove her love to her ten-month-old daughter. This experience taught her to do less in order to avoid total depletion, though she continues balancing ambitious work with parenting her three and five-year-old children.

Finally, Emmy discusses her new show 'Furious,' produced by her production company, which she both stars in and executive produces. The show follows Alice, a former NYPD detective turned FBI agent investigating a serial killer, exploring themes of female rage, moral gray areas, and the complications women in law enforcement face when reporting abuse from partners in the same system. Emmy explains she was drawn to exploring uncomfortable themes and characters that don't fit neatly into hero or villain categories.