Emmy Rossum claimed during a roundtable with The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday, June 15, that she was once asked to audition in a bikini.
The Shameless actress was talking about about being involved in David Schwimmer’s video vignettes, which were designed to fight sexual harassment, when she was asked if her career has ever been affected by sexism.
“I’ve never been in a situation where somebody asked me to do something really obviously physical in exchange for [a job], like a pay-to-play kind of situation. But even 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 [Shameless]. But the director wants you to come into his office in a bikini,’” Rossum recalled. “There’s no audition. That’s all you have to do.”
When fellow roundtable guest Pamela Adlon pointed out that Rossum already was showing off her body on Shameless, Rossum added that the director wanted to make sure she hadn’t gained any weight.
“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?’ 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 said.
Rossum pointed out that there wasn’t a bikini or even a nude scene in the film.
“[It was like] ‘We really love your work, but we just want to see how tight your ass is,’” Rossum said. “Are you f–ing kidding me? Last time I checked, I’m not a f–ing model.”
Rossum, who recently tied the knot with Sam Esmail, made headlines last year when she fought for salary parity with her male costar William H. Macy.
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“It was difficult for me to say, ‘This is what I think I deserve,’” she said during the roundtable. “You do want to be liked.”
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