Nearly a decade on, Shameless star Emmy Rossum has spoken about her behind-the-scenes fight for equal pay on the Showtime drama, describing how she "was shook" when her 2016 salary negotiations became public. Speaking on the Call Her Daddy podcast, the Golden Globe nominee said she never expected the private talks to be reported, and worried about the impact on cast and crew who were conducting their own negotiations at the time. The account offers a first-person look at one of the era's more prominent examples of the Hollywood gender pay gap.

Rossum explained that early pay differences with co-star William H. Macy made sense, given his greater experience and top billing, but by the show's later seasons she felt she and Macy were equally central to the series. An earlier bid for parity around season three was rejected, and when she revisited talks with Warner Bros. TV in 2016 ahead of season eight, the discussions stalled. She discovered the impasse via a headline on Twitter while on a writer's retreat. Public sympathy quickly shifted in her favour, and the matter was resolved within a day, securing her return. Rossum, who said her focus was on being fairly valued for equal work rather than money, played Fiona Gallagher through season nine before departing. The series, adapted from Paul Abbott's UK original, ran for 11 seasons from 2011 to 2021.