Taking a page from Robin Wright, Emmy Rossum has successfully obtained a salary raise for her starring role in Shameless. The actress is said to have held out on renewing her contract with the Showtime series producers until she would be paid the same as her costar William H. Macy, who reportedly made more money than she did even though both had equal billing on the show. The Shameless salary dispute follows Wright’s recent successful attempt to earn the same compensation as her House of Cards costar Kevin Spacey earlier this year.
According to Variety, Showtime had already offered Rossum pay equity ahead of the eighth season of the show. But the actress rejected that deal and asked for a larger salary than Macy’s in order to make up for all the seasons she was paid less than him. Talk about ballsy.
If you think the intense pay negotiations would somehow result in bad blood between the costars, you’d wrong. Earlier this week, TMZ cornered Macy in Los Angeles and asked him what he thought about Rossum’s quest for a raise. His response: “They wrote the Equal Rights Amendment in 1927; it didn’t get passed . . . until 1972. It still hasn’t been approved by all the states. . . It’s about fucking time, don’t you think?” Amen.
The TMZ reporter then pointed out to Macy that, while he’s been nominated for an Oscar, Rossum hasn’t. The actor shrugged it off and said, “She works as hard as I do . . . she deserves everything.” It would appear that Rossum got just that. On Wednesday, the actress tweeted, “Playing Fiona Gallagher has been one of the great privileges of my life. I’m so happy to continue with my Shameless family! Back to work in May!” Ladies, take note: This is how it’s done.