Jeremy Allen White is opening up about starring on Shameless.
The 34-year-old actor played Lip Gallagher across all eleven seasons (134 episodes) of the Showtime drama series.
However, in a new interview, Jeremy shared that he started feeling disconnected from his character after a few seasons.
Keep reading to find out more…
“I was on the show Shameless for a very long time; the first four years, I felt connected and driven. Then, not by any fault of the show, but for any show that goes on for many years, I think it becomes difficult for an actor to feel really connected,” the actor told Variety. “There are some seasons on that show where I had an attitude of, ‘I figured this out.’ That allows you to show up and be a little bit lazy and I don’t ever want to do that. On these jobs, and especially in film work where you only have a couple months, I don’t think you should go home and say, ‘I’ve got this figured out.’ It should always be in pursuit of something.”
He was then asked how he makes sure that doesn’t happen on The Bear, which is going into it’s fifth season.
“It’s different. My responsibility to that show feels different. I mean, it’s an ensemble like Shameless, but I don’t feel like I carried the same weight as [William H. Macy or Emmy Rossum] did on Shameless. There were some years on Shameless where I felt more connected to Philip Gallagher and there were some years I didn’t,” Jeremy said.
“I feel really connected to Carmy and I feel really connected to [The Bear creator] Christopher Storer in a way that probably just due to my age I didn’t feel with [Shameless showrunner] John Wells always,” he added. “Those were very separate things, kind of the story coming at me as an 18-year-old and a 19-year-old, versus the story coming at me from Chris, who I really consider a friend and a peer.”
Speaking of The Bear, Jeremy revealed he goes back to film season five at the start of the new year!
“January 5th or something like that. Very soon,” he revealed.
If you missed it, one of Jeremy‘s Shameless co-stars has previously opened up about the possibility of returning for a reboot.