Emmy Rossum talks about the ‘knee-slapping’ season of ‘Shameless’

Emmy Rossum knows what you’re thinking. It was a tough season for her “Shameless” character, Fiona: Her younger brother overdosed on her unattended stash of cocaine, she found herself behind bars as a result of the incident, she came out a felon and had a binge that sent her to prison. How is that funny?

“It’s a real knee-slapper,” the actress joked during a visit to the Los Angeles Times on Friday to discuss the tormenting season her character endured.

The Showtime series, which begins production on its fifth season in a few weeks, has spent its run labeled as a drama where Emmys are concerned — until now. After three seasons of submitting in the drama categories, the hourlong has switched over to the comedy categories in a bid to increase its chances of breaking through.

“To only have two categories — comedy and drama — it’s very black and white,” Rossum said. “I think there is a new brand of comedy. I think we actually always thought of ourselves as a comedy. We’re definitely more in that vein. We’re definietly not ‘Homeland,’ we’re definitely not ‘Game of Thrones’ ... we have really crazy, silly stuff happening on our show.

“I think there’s a new kind of comedy. There’s a humanity and the real exploration of the depth of a character. It’s not about just beat, beat, joke.”

To hear about what was the most challenging scene for Rossum to carry out this season and to get her thoughts on playing Fiona when she wasn’t in survival mode, check out the video above.

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