Emmy Rossum Was Once Told to Audition in a Bikini...for a Movie With No Bikini Scene

Actress joins Pamela Adlon, Minnie Driver, Kathryn Hahn and Issa Rae for The Hollywood Reporter's Comedy Actress Roundtable

By Kendall Fisher Jun 15, 2017 3:33 PMTags

Emmy Rossum is "not a f--king model" last time she checked.

The 30-year-old actress joined Pamela Adlon, Minnie Driver, Kathryn Hahn and Issa Rae for The Hollywood Reporter's Comedy Actress Roundtable and opened up about gender equality in Hollywood and one cringe-worthy moment that really stuck with her.

"As recently as a year ago, my agent called me and was like, 'I'm so embarrassed to make this call, but there's a big movie and they're going to offer it to you. They really love your work on the show. But the director wants you to come into his office in a bikini. There's no audition. That's all you have to do,'" Rossum recalled. 

Of course, this is a bit confusing considering how often her body showed throughout her years on Shameless.

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She continued, "He wanted to know if I was fat now. That was basically the question. And I actually had this moment like, 'Well, how good is the part?'" she admitted. "For a second, I was like, 'Would I do it? Send me the script. Maybe the character is in a bikini in the movie.'"

She wasn't.

"Not in a bikini in the movie," she quipped. "Not naked in the movie. 'We really love your work, but we just want to see how tight your ass is.' Are you f--king kidding me? Last time I checked, I'm not a f--king model."

She went on to note that if someone with her experience in the industry questioned doing something so degrading, she can only imagine what newcomers accept.

"I feel like we're all vulnerable to it," she said. 

Despite the bikini moment, however, Rossum isn't against female nudity in film and television—so long as there's a proper reason for it.

"I think we should be equal opportunity P and D," she laughed, joking about men getting naked for roles as well. "But I only really want to see any nudity if there's a purpose for it. For me, I am OK to be as naked as you want me to be, within reason, if it applies to the story. If it serves the character."

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She continued, "I don't really have a problem with nudity. I have a problem about people's heads being f--king bashed in and children watching that. I don't have any problem with children seeing a woman topless. I just don't."

This is part of who she is as an actress and how she handles life in the public eye, too.

Watch: Is Emmy Rossum Scared to Get Naked?

"My character on Shameless—'cause it has been so many seasons now—has gone through so much," she explained. "I went to jail for cocaine and overdosed a toddler and still found the humanity in that. I guess there was a moment where I thought, 'Oh, God, is everyone going to hate me?' And then I felt like, 'Who cares?' Whatever anybody takes away from it is a reflection on them, not you."

This mentality is also how she stood strong in telling HBO and the producers of Shameless that she wasn't coming back to the show unless she had equal pay to her male counterpart, William H. Macy

"I'll tell you the person who supported me the most was William H. Macy," she revealed. "To have the man counterpart on my show be like, 'Yes, she does deserve this and more' was so validating. And after it became public, it was a quick resolution."

She continued, "[But] it's not just Hollywood. You look at the people in the medical industry. People in government…My thing was just, 'I need to do something to make it right for me, so that I can feel good about doing this job.' And then it became such a big thing, I was at a health food store in Canada, and this little girl who worked there came up to me and was like, 'What you did for gender equality really meant so much to me.' And just the fact that I touched a real person meant something to me."

Read the full roundtable discussion on THR.