“You know that cliche saying that it takes 10 years to become an overnight success?”
says Howey “That’s exactly what we experi- enced.
It took eight seasons and then it was like, ‘Boom.
I wanted the partsobad.
I’ve never gotten a part in the room, and I lost it.
I was jumping up and down, and very emotional and cursing.
[Director] Mark Mylod said, “See, I knew she was right.
“ETHAN CUTKOSKY:I was 10 years old, living in Chicago.
My mom and I flew out, not expecting much.
By the second audition, we got a contract.
I was like, “I should hold her so she doesn’t fall.”
That’s how we ended the scene.
It was one of the worst auditions of my life.
My manager said, “Just have faith, you never know what can happen.”
I think it was a really good decision.CAMERON MONAGHAN:I’d never seen content like that before.
I’m old and cranky and I said to myself, “What the f is this?”
She didn’t fall, but it was more forceful than I thought.
I unlocked it the second I pushed her off that putting green.
That was the moment where I was like, “Oh, something is going on here.”
That’s when I knew that the show had struck a nerve.MACY:It was not subtle.
Almost every script has at least one scene where the actors ask, “Can we do that?
[Laughs].MACY:Truthfully, I fall on two sides of this line.
Sometimes I read them and go, “That’s bizarre can we do that?”
And it usually turns out that we can.
There are other times that I go, “We can go so much farther!”
It wasn’t scripted that way, I pitched it to John.
They had to buy a porta potty and rebuild it so that I could submerge myself.
But that was me pushing.
John kept saying, “Are you sure?”
And I said, “Oh my god, it’s so funny.
WHITE:I still can’t believe I did [this].
There’s a pretty teacher who lived in the neighborhood and had slept with an underage student.
Even the way they wrote it in the script was so vivid and gory.
It was also just very simple and Bill brought so much to that scene.
I said, “There’s no way this is going to work, this is gross.”
And it really, really surprised me.
We were just hoping they wouldn’t shut us down before we finished the first 12 episodes.
I take none of it for granted, ever.ROSSUM:It’s really a privilege.
I’ve learned so much about acting in these past 100 episodes.
Everything aboutShamelesshas been a mitzvah to me.
Plus, there’s no assholes!
Every show has an asshole.
It’s hard not to think of: “What would my life be post-Shameless?”
And part of it is very frightening and part of it is very exciting.
Shamelessairs Sundays at 9 p.m.
