TURKEY: Emma Kenney with William H. Macy (inset). (
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Emma Kenney would be a typical 13-year-old girl, but for one thing.
She stars in a TV show she won’t see in its entirety until her dad buys her the boxed set for her 18th birthday.
Kenney plays Debbie — the sweet, red-haired daughter of William H. Macy — on the TV’s most morally ambiguous show, “Shameless.”
On the show, her father is a nasty drunk who does not particularly like his six kids, whom he steals from and uses, um, shamelessly in his various scams.
When the new season begins tomorrow night. Debbie is counting the days until her father gets home from his latest bender.
Q: How would you describe the show to somebody who’s never seen it?
A: A lot of other people may describe the show as crazy and racy and inappropriate. And it is all of those words, but it’s also so much more than that.
It’s also a family show. And I don’t mean it’s a family show for families to watch, but it’s about a strong family and all the obstacles and mishaps they go through as they’re living their everyday life in a poor area in Chicago.
Q: Have you ever seen a full episode of the show?
A: Not every single scene. Never a full, full episode.
Q: Is it hard to work on a show where you can’t see everything that’s going on?
A: I don’t think so. To be honest, this isn’t the type of TV show I would watch in my spare time. It interests me but it’s not the type of show that I would watch.
Q: Because of the bad language and sex, is there a concerted effort to keep the kids away from it?
A. Bad language is totally different. I go to regular school so its not like I don’t hear those words anyway. But for inappropriate scenes, it’s a closed set. I’m not even allowed to go to craft service when they’re doing those scenes.
Q: Has there ever been a time when your character would have walked in on something and how was that handled?
A: There was a scene in Season 2 where it looked like Debbie was watching inappropriate stuff but she wasn’t. They filmed my reactions first and then they filmed that stuff later so I was never in the area when they filmed the inappropriate stuff.
Q: What was inappropriate?
A: Nudity and stuff.
Q: Tell me a little bit about working with William H. Macy?
A: You can tell he puts so much effort into this job and you learn, it rubs off on everybody. You learn about holding yourself on set and how to act on set and all those little things that go into making a film or TV show.
Q: Is it hard to play opposite a man whose character is a drunk?
A: I don’t think so. Seeing Frank drunk is like I would be waking up in the morning and going downstairs to get breakfast.
Q: Are there any comparisons between who you are and your character?
A: A lot of people ask me that and I think that they kind of assume that characters and actors are the same thing and it’s just playing your real self through a character. I don’t think that acting is like that at all. Debbie is so much more strong than I would ever be. To be honest, if Emma was ever in that situation that Debbie is in I would totally crack.
Q: We always see professional athletes with headphones on preparing to compete. Do you do something to prepare for a scene?
A: Before an emotional scene, on my phone I have a playlist for emotional songs that help me get into that actual moment. Before a crying scene, two minutes before I’ll take my earbuds out and I’ll go stand somewhere by myself and think about things that would make me sad. But the things that make me sad are different every time. I can not reuse the thing. After I cry about it, the tears are gone. They’re done.