Shameless star Emmy Rossum found that playing Fiona Gallagher came with a surprising off-screen complication. During her nine-season run, the actress said the show’s frequent nudity shaped how some men viewed her, making dating in her 20s considerably more awkward than she expected.
Emmy Rossum explains how Shameless nude scenes affected her dating life
Emmy Rossum discussed the experience with Maria Sharapova on an episode of the Pretty Tough podcast. She said potential partners often arrived with assumptions about her sexuality because of what they had seen on the series. “It got quite tricky because of the nudity on the show,” Rossum explained, calling those preconceived ideas about her “totally bizarre.”
One date made the problem especially clear. The man hoped to pursue a political career and eventually admitted that dating an actress who had appeared nude on Shameless could create complications if he ever ran for office. Rossum recalled thinking the entire discussion was “an insane conversation to have.”
She also pointed out that her 20s were already a period of figuring herself out as an artist and as a person, while audiences connected her body with the work she performed. “There’s also all these preconceived notions about you that are out there that are associated with [you] because your body is your art, right? And people can get confused, ” Rossum said.
Rossum joined Shameless at 24 when the series premiered in 2011 and departed after its ninth season in 2019. The show followed the Gallagher family as they navigated poverty. and daily struggles that comes with it, with William H. Macy, Jeremy Allen White, Ethan Cutkosky, Steve Howey, Shanola Hampton, Emma Kenney and Cameron Monaghan among the main cast. The fusion of dysfunctional family drama, dark comedy and an unpredictable ensemble helped the series become a massive-hit.
The U.S. Shameless ran for 11 seasons and remains highly rated. IMDb currently gives the series 8.5/10 from about 339,000 ratings, while Rotten Tomatoes lists an 82% Tomatometer and 81% Popcornmeter. Rossum’s Fiona appeared across 110 episodes, making her one of the show’s central figures before her 2019 exit.
