Emmy Rossum says 'Shameless' equal pay battle was 'stressful and embarrassing'
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Emmy Rossum is proud she was able to negotiate equal pay on her Showtime series "Shameless," but she called the way the back-and-forth with her network played out in the media "stressful and embarrassing."
Rossum stars as the feisty Fiona Gallagher in Showtime's longest-running series alongside William H. Macy, who plays her father Frank Gallagher.
The 31-year-old actress revealed in a new interview that she did not mean for her salary negotiations in 2016 to make its way into the press.
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"It was a very private thing for a long time that I had been campaigning for and I didn't think it was going to happen," Rossum told the New York Daily News. "And then eventually it kind of leaked."
Rossum had asked Showtime for the same salary her co-star Macy was receiving.
Rossum said that even though she knew "what we were asking for" was "the right thing," she found the media coverage to be "stressful and embarrassing."
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Rossum's exact salary has not been revealed but the actress said she got the deal she wanted.
"That's not to say that there weren't moments along the very, very lengthy year-long discussion of the negotiation, that I didn't waver, but I had people on my team, both men and women, who supported and reinforced that conviction and we held out," she said.
Her co-star Macy told TMZ at the time, "She works as hard as I do. She deserves everything."
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Rossum said despite the tough battle, "in the end we got what was right and I was incredibly overjoyed to return to an environment where I feel creatively inspired and where I feel other aspects of my talent are being nurtured."
She added, "Also it feels really good to be monetarily compensated in the way that is fair and right."