Emmy Rossum Shuts Down Criticism She “Gets Paid to Get Naked on TV”

A commentary on Wednesday’s vice presidential debate turned into a clapback against sexist shaming for Emmy Rossum. The actress shut down a troll on her Twitter this week when they tried to shame her for the nude scenes she’s filmed for work, but the Shameless star wasn’t having any of it, Screenrant reports.

It all began later Wednesday night when Rossum tweeted, “Can’t wait to get my I’M SPEAKING t-shirt,” referring to Senator Kamala Harris’ line from her Oct. 7 debate with Vice President Mike Pence. While she got plenty of love for the comment, not everyone was feeling it in her replies. One commenter replied to Rossum’s tweet with, “Yeah your shirts that say I GET PAID TO GET NAKED ON TV are sold out.”

During her nine-season run as Fiona Gallagher on the Showtime drama Shameless, Rossum filmed multiple sex scenes. And if her reply to the critic in her comments is any indication, she’s proud of her work on the show and stands by it. “I get paid to tell stories and life sometimes involves this awesome thing called sex,” she wrote back. “Maybe you’ve just never had any so you don’t know.”

Rossum’s zinger had her fans rejoicing in the comments, with one writing, “Bang! Zoom! To The Moon! Emmy shot the ball and score a triple beating the game!!!! And all the people is singing her name!!!,” and another adding, “Um….can I get this clap back on a shirt because it is Fucking gold.” More praised the actress for “roasting” and “dragging” the “twitter troll.”

She followed up her tweet with another message on Thursday (Oct. 8) doubling down on her reply addressing the hate she gets for her nude scenes. “When I say something Trump supporters hate, they love to come at me for my body,” she wrote. “‘Shut up and go back to being naked.’ They seem to think I should be ashamed of my female naked body. I don’t feel shame. I love my body. That must be intimidating for them. I’m not sorry.”

Rossum has spoken up about her Shameless character’s sex scenes before, telling E! in 2014, “Being naked in character is very easy because it’s just playing pretend. You’re someone else, you don’t feel like yourself.”

She later told Entertainment Weekly that the sex scenes in Shameless help keep the show “real.” “We’re just trying to find the honest truth of what a character would do,” she said. “If the honest truth involves sexuality, if it involves intimacy between two characters or violence between two characters, whatever it is, as long as it feels real.”

While Rossum left the show and played Fiona for one final time last year, she’s got some more roles lined up after appearing on Mr. Robot in 2019. Next up for Rossum is Angelyne, a new series on Peacock.

Where to watch Shameless