‘Shameless’ Star Emmy Rossum Demands Salary Parity With Co-Star William H. Macy

Emmy Rossum is not only demanding equal pay as her co-star William H. Macy for the next season of Shameless, but even more.

EMMY ROSSUM DEMANDING SALARY PARITY

Rossum, 30, stars as Macy’s character Frank’s eldest daughter Fiona, the Gallagher family matriarch. Because Macy has been earning more than her, and more than much of the cast, Rossum is demanding salary parity and an increase to make up for the difference in past seasons.

Macy, 66, came into the show with a much more impressive film resume, including an Oscar nomination for his work on Fargo. Over the course of Shameless, Macy’s Frank has been declining, and at the end of season six, he was almost killed off. So for much of the following season, the show’s focus was Rossum’s Fiona.

Macy renegotiated his pay deal with Warner Bros. TV and raised his salary a considerable amount. Rossum’s demands have put production at a standstill, giving producers the option of either raising her salary and thus renegotiating salaries for the rest of the cast, or shooting season eight without her.

Rossum is the latest female cast member of a show to demand equal pay to her male counterpart. Robin Wright of House of Cards recently threatened to go public if she didn’t get parity with Kevin Spacey. “There are very few films or TV shows where the male, the patriarch, and the matriarch are equal. And they are in House of Cards,” Wright said in May. “I was looking at the statistics and Claire Underwood’s character was more popular than [Frank’s] for a period of time. So I capitalized on it. I was like, ‘You better pay me or I’m going to go public.’ And they did.”

The final episode of Shameless season seven will air Sunday, Dec. 18 at 9 p.m. on Showtime.