These are photos of Emmy Rossum on the LA set of Shameless (with snow!) as her Fiona character searches for drugs as she wears a house-arrest ankle bracelet. Fiona is on one amazing downward spiral this season. I am not up to speed on episodes (I only watched the first season so far), but Dustin at Pajiba has been discussing Fiona’s fate in detail.
Emmy Rossum visited CBS This Morning to promote the show. This girl (thankfully) is so drastically different from her character. She’s already talked once about how she does not share Fiona’s quality of promiscuity. Fiona’s also gotten herself into serious legal trouble involving her character’s occasional cocaine use. Emmy says she’s never done drugs. Ever. Here are some excerpts from the interview:
On fan reactions: Rossum, said that she used to get “a lot of love” from fans of the show, but since her character has been in “such a downward spiral” it’s been different. “I was at Carnegie Deli and a guy came up to me and was like, ‘Coke whore!’ And kept walking, so it’s definitely intense.”
Fiona’s plight: “She’s been kind of the core of this lower-income family from Chicago for a long time. Parents are M.I.A. She’s kind of trying to raise all of her siblings by herself and this year she’s kind of struggling with some substance abuse problems that … she’s kind of genetically predisposed to having.”
Emmy’s snorting scenes: “(The milk powder is) going somewhere into your brain cavity. It’s not good. I told them they could have two takes per nostril and that was it. I was putting a limit on it.”
The show’s success: “It’s dark, but there’s a lot of humor to it. I think we deal with things in a kind of very brazen way. There’s nothing we’re scared of. We kind of push the limits. At the core it’s really about a family and loyalty. And that’s why people actually care about the characters and invest in them the way they do.”
On William H. Macy: “He’s a wonderful actor. It’s really fun to work with him.”
[From CBS This Morning
I have no trouble believing that Emmy’s never done drugs. Not everyone in Hollywood attends all-night ragers and acts like Lindsay Lohan. I suspect most actors are trying to do their jobs, and drugs interfere with that. It really is terrible that a guy walked up to Emmy and called her a “coke wh-re.” Can’t people separate actors from their characters? I guess not.
Here’s a weird selfie from Emmy’s Instagram page. She attended the White Glove Gone Wild gala and endured an unexpected guest down the front of her dress.
Photos courtesy of Emmy Rossum on Instagram & WENN
Emmy, say “kind of” one more freakin time!
Absolutely ridiculous when people are soooooo into a show they cannot distinguish between real life and fiction. That is when you know it is time to get out from your parents basement, get some fresh air and look for a job.
Ha! Funny but true!
I’ve read a few stories, where grannies have whacked baddies from soaps with their brollys
Didn’t that happen with Vanessa Marcil? That someone started yelling at her because of something with General Hospital?
I can’t stand her since her Phantom’s days…. She seems one of those people who keep being pushed in our faces but we couldn’t care less…
Very bad someone got confused and treated her as her character though, some people are really nuts.
I agree, though my ire is mostly due to an annoying Cotton: The Fabric of Our Lives that played incessantly when I was trying to stream TV episodes. She comes across as very grating, and she doesn’t seem to have the talent of someone like Anne Hathaway who gives off a similar try-hard vibe but has more to offer.
Totally agree! The cheapo version of Anne Hathaway is definitively a good description of her!
I feel that way about the credit card commercials where Nobu goes to the BBQ joint. I cringe just hearing the music.
I guess I don’t watch as much tv as you guys to see these commercials. I like her acting just fine.
The guy probably thought it was funny, and thought that she would think it’s funny. That’s the sort of thing that you say only to your oldest, and best friend–who you know won’t be offended.
You summed it up well, Hiddles forever. There is just something about her that irritates me. She seems a bit smug to me.
I feel like Selma Blair was always pushed in our faces too and I’ve never understood her appeal either.
Putting on skinny jeans when wearing a scram bracelet must be a pain in the *ss. #Sacarsm
Damn. Good eye….
IMO, it’s the little details like that make the difference between a good show and a great show.
That is a good point! I have to say, I think it is a really great show regardless of that. The acting is fantastic, and I think it offers a unique and raw perspective on what it means to live in poverty in the US.
She’s really really pretty. Is Shameless any good? Almost caught up with The Good Wife and need something new to watch.
You should watch the show it’s really good! William H Macy and Joan Cusack are the best, the whole cast is amazing.
Agree, I love this show but what they are doing to Fiona this season is killing me! Emmy R was on the cover of my natural health mag this month, I totally believe she doesn’t do any drugs.
I got hooked on it. Binged watched it in a matter of a few weeks.
Me too. And I never thought much of her, but after seeing the show I’m impressed, she’s done it well.
Am I missing something though – I feel like we’ve only seen her do coke that one time, not that Fiona has an ongoing issue or anything that would warrant calling her character (or the actress for heaven’s sake) a “coke whore”.
I think we only did see her do coke once. Maybe people are flipping out because of what happened as a result of her having coke in the house?
I really like the show. There was an article I read that I think really pinpoints why the perspective is so unique.
http://www.pajiba.com/think_pieces/the-only-show-on-television-that-honestly-understands-what-its-like-to-be-sht-poor-in-america.php
If you have 15 minutes to waste, I highly advise this old interview with her.
http://nylover.blogspot.com/2005/06/elle-january-05-emmy-rossum.html
Oh my god, she seems just insufferable.
I could get to ‘Gwineth’s alma mater’ and then I stopped reading. Another Goop in the making, like we didn’t have enough of the original one…
Pfft… Vapid woman.
“She has a very keen sense of her own worth, and that might not be a quality that’s universally admired,” points out Alan Hruska, who directed Rossum when she was 16 in the 2003 indie Nola. “But she really came through for me.”
I read the article and I was impressed with her. I’m proud of her for having high self-esteem and for doing what she wants to do instead of letting others control her. She has a lot of talent. Seems like she is getting a bad rap. I like her.
I like her. Always have. She’s gorgeous and talented, and seems pretty low-key in her off time.
Does she really think that when you snort something it goes into your brain cavity? I’m pretty sure that’s not how sinuses work.
I will always have a soft spot for Emmy because of Phantom of the Opera. She sang the hell of out that role. She did have that weird quickie marriage that she ended, but that seems to be the extent of her bad decisions (at least the ones that are known).
My friend worked in LA for a while and used to say that the vast majority of working actors don’t do drugs. They realize how dumb that stuff is. The problem is that if you’re not partying and carrying on, you get no press. Nobody pays attention to you. If you only go by the press, you’d think everyone does it.
And BTW, you may want to – for laughs – Google the reaction to Anna Gunn. She has talked a lot about how people can’t separate her from Skyler White. She’s gotten verbally berated and all kinds of things for stuff the character does. No lie.
Of all Christines I have seen she was the worst one, in voice and acting. A pretty face doesn’t make a singer or actress, not always at least. FYI her voice was altered during the re-recording of the soundtrack. They were not actually singing ‘that’ soundtrack whilst filming.
Have you watched her singing “All I ask of You” live with Patrick Wilson at GMA?
She isn’t among the worst. She actually did the character far more truthfully then a lot of others. The character is actually, if you read the novel, not supposed to sound flawless. That’s the whole point; the Phantom is the only one who truly appreciates how she sounds. Rossum’s singing actually changes throughout the movie, getting heavier and more aggressive – which is how the actual novel and musical intended for her to sound.
She wasn’t cast because she had a pretty face, I think she was cast because she had both movie AND opera experience.
From her IMDB:
“After passing an audition at the Metropolitan Opera when she was 7 years old, she performed in more than 20 operas in six different languages at Lincoln Center, alongside such figures as Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti. She was directed by Franco Zeffirelli in “Carmen.” “
You do know that she’s a classically trained opera singer who has sung in the Met’s children’s choir, right?
I’m a classical opera trained singer, however I guess you never saw me singing POTO on screen?
She was chosen for the right face/body shape/age. Powerful voice and acting had nothing to do with that. There are hundreds of classical good singers out there who don’t make it because they’re not pretty enough or in good shape.
She also re-recorded some of her part in studio and the main duet with the Phantom has all the high notes badly cut at the end.
Sorry but I don’t buy it…. Or did we forget people laughing at Susan Boyle at the UK XFactor?
@Sam
“The character is actually, if you read the novel, not supposed to sound flawless.”
The musical is based on the novel but it has a life on its own. Musically speaking, Christine’s role is not supposed to be flawless, it is actually one of the most demanding roles in Webber’s musicals. And might I add that she sounded the same throughout the movie?
“I’m a classical opera trained singer, however I guess you never saw me singing POTO on screen?”
That isn’t the point. She wasn’t hired to JUST sing Opera. She was hired to sing opera in a MOVIE. You put a regular opera singer, with their facial expressions meant to hit the back row, and it would look horrible. They needed someone who could sing relatively well, was age appropriate for the part, and who also had experience with acting on camera.
@Tiffany
“She wasn’t hired to JUST sing Opera.”
That was my point too 😉 She was hired for a combination of things. Saying that she was one of the best Christines is not correct (as someone said above), because the others couldn’t bring the character to life on screen, mainly due to the visual part. I find Emmy pretty but that is it. Talented and big voice I’d say NO, especially if compared to the stage ones. In the end, her co-stars were Gerard Butler (who’s not an opera/musical singer at all) and P. Wilson (who sings in musicals but that is it… and to be honest he was the best of all three!).
Poor Anna Gunn. Even if people do separate character from actor, I’ve always thought that Skyler was unfairly demonized. She’s far from perfect, but in the moral universe of that show, she’s pretty benign compared to the people around her.
Anna Gunn is exactly the person I thought of while reading this. Frankly, I thought Skyler was the most compelling character on “Breaking Bad.”
God, I miss Breaking Bad. Skyler was a great character. For that matter, so was every other character on that show.
“She did have that weird quickie marriage that she ended…” I think HE ended…
Shameless is one of my favorite shows right now. A lot of talent in that cast.
Agree. I think it’s one of the best shows on TV. The writing is flawless and the acting, right down to the younger kids, is stellar. It’s also funny as hell.
one of the best shows on TV today.
and she’s great in that role…I feel SO bad for Fiona and what she’s going through right now, all of her own doing.
and William H. Macy OWNS that show…he’s fab in the role of “patriarch”.
William H. Macy is amazing! The whole cast is talented. It is crazy how I really feel for most of the characters even when their behavior is not good. I always go back to their circumstances. How can you not feel for them?
…when people claim “they never do/have never done drugs” do they mean ALL drugs or just the “bad” ones? Like, she’s never smoked a joint?!
I’m 27 and I’ve never tried any drug. I’ve never smoked a joint. Not for lack of opportunity; I live in one of the biggest cities in the US and went to school in another. I’ve lived and traveled in countries where pretty much anything was legal. I’ve passed joints from one friend to another and never been tempted. I’ve just never had the interest.
Probably the bad ones—I don’t actually really consider marijuana to be a drug…..like I get that it is–but come on. Worst thing that can happen to you is that you eat all the food in the house. If I was ever going to smoke anything (including cigarettes) it would be a joint. At least I get a nice feeling while I’m blowing smoke in my lungs.
When I personally say that, I am only excluding alcohol. I’ve never smoked, snorted, popped or injected anything. I have nothing against Marijuana (do you, I say) but I’ve never had a desire to try.
Also growing up with a coke addict mother might have something to do with my aversion but my husband is the same and his family was so nuclear it’s painful.
I’m the same way, though my family is more like your husband’s. It was just never my thing, and I never really hung out with people who did either.
Never tried weed? Well, I highly recommend it 😉
Yeah. I’m 28 and have never used any illicit substance. I have had a mouthful of wine once and spit it out. Some people belong to religions that prohibit ingesting substances. There are a huge variety of reasons why people choose to abstain. I’m always shocked that people are shocked by this.
I’ve just recently discovered Shameless and I’m obsessed, I went from s1 e1 to current episodes in like 4 days lol. Love this show although I’m not loving what they’re doing with her character this season.
So boring. She could admit to being behind some of the greatest conspiracies of our time and I still wouldn’t give a sh-t.
Haha, I just watched this interview. I find it odd how Gayle King does all the talking and Charlie Rose just sits back. Huh?
I love Emmy and I love her character, Fiona, on shameless. I don’t think Emmy is dull/insufferable at all, she’s lively and down to earth in my opinion. She’s hilarious during every interview I’ve watched and the girl is clearly talented.
I find that some people can’t stand goody goody people. I dunno why, I never have problem with them. 🙂
I think you hit the nail on the head, lenje. Some people just don’t like “nice” people, they want some flaw or grit in there. I don’t get it either, I like nice drama free people!
I think people don’t like boring people. Emmy is BORING. Boring and dumb.
What’s weird is in that last pic she look so much like Anne Marie Duff who played Fiona in the original UK version!
I love this show too and I am sorry that it does not get more attention. All of the actors including the kids give strong, multi-dimensional performances. The writing is snappy. It is puzzling how overlooked it is at award season and in coverage on television/media sites. All I can think is that it is like the early seasons of Breaking Bad– regular folks loved it but the various pundits on both coasts ignored it for years. Only in the last two years did it catch on in the broader media culture.
I used to dislike Emmy because of the try hard impression but her performance as Fiona has turned me. Nothing but respect for what she has done in this role. It is hard to watch this season because of what Fiona and her siblings are going through, gut wrenching at times, but I have to say it is a bold and logical development of the characters– they are complex and not cardboard dugouts. But I do miss Jimmy/Steve (Justin Chatwin) so much!
the actor who plays turtle on entourage said people walked up to him and asked him about a 3 way his character had on the show. they asked him about it like it actually happened. some people are idiots.
I love tht show…..i watched all seasons in like 3 days….couldn’t stop!! Everyone on there is really a great actor!!! Emmy is very good as Fiona.
Absolutely LOVE Shameless! One of the most underrated shows on TV.