Watch Emmy Rossum Discuss Her ‘Shameless’ Role for Upcoming Season 9

Shameless star Emmy Rossum spoke about what life will be like for Fiona Gallagher in her last season of the show during a season 9 behind-the-scenes teaser earlier this month.

“In season 9, Fiona has really become an entrepreneur,” Rossum said in a video released on Aug. 6. “She’s climbing towards the American dream. “I’m not quite sure how that’s going to play out yet but… we’ll see.”

Shameless will also hit 100 episodes, which is a milestone for a premium cable show.

“It’s emotional and we feel really lucky,” Rossum said of the milestone in the clip.

Rossum announced on Thursday she is leaving Shameless in a surprising Facebook statement in which she recalled the best moments of playing her breakthrough role and what it was like to join the Shameless family.

“The opportunity to play Fiona has been a gift. There are few characters — female or otherwise — as layered and dynamic. She is a mother lion, fierce, flawed and sexually liberated,” Rossum wrote. “She is injured, vulnerable, but will never give up. She is living in an economic depression, but refuses to be depressed. She is resourceful. She is loyal. She is brave. I knew it the second I read the pilot script, this was different, this was special. I tirelessly prepped the audition with my coach Terry Knickerbocker. I walked to the appointment in the rain so I looked disheveled. During my third audition, when I got the part IN the room, I literally jumped up and down screaming in joyous relief and disbelief. Quite simply, the last eight years have been the best of my life.”

At the end of her statement, Rossum concluded, “I know you will continue on without me, for now. There is much more Gallagher story to be told. I will always be rooting for my family. Try not to think of me as gone, just think of me as moving down the block.”

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in 2017, Rossum said co-star William H. Macy supported her effort to get equal pay for her work on the series.

“I’ll tell you the person who supported me the most was William H. Macy,” Rossum said at the time. “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.”

Rossum’s role as Fiona Gallagher was the show’s center, as she tried her best to keep the fractured Gallagher family together when their father Frank (William H. Macy) did his best to screw everything up.

While Rossum is beloved by critics and fans, she surprisingly never earned an Emmy or Golden Globe nomination for the role. Outside of Shameless, she starred in The Phantom of the Opera, The Day After Tomorrow, Mystic River and A Futile And Stupid Gesture.

Shameless season 9 premieres Sunday, Sept. 9 at 9 p.m. ET on Showtime.

Photo credit: Paul Sarkis/SHOWTIME