Emmy Rossum Directs in a Towel, Perfectly Captures Being a Woman in Hollywood

At first glance, Emmy Rossum’s latest Instagram post is funny: she’s directing an episode of Shameless wearing a towel. But the more we think about it, the more we can’t shake the feeling that it’s actually a gut-wrenching glimpse at a woman’s perpetual struggle to be taken seriously in Hollywood.

“When you’re directing but also in a towel in the scene,” Rossum wrote alongside a photo of herself sitting in a director’s chair on the set of the Showtime hit half naked.

Rossum, 30, is the same multi-talented star who made headlines last year when she won equal pay after demanding to earn the same amount as her Shameless co-star William H. Macy. Yet here she is, still being subjected to Hollywood’s sexist double standards—barely dressed yet smiling while she works her butt off.

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Shameless, which is currently filming its eighth season, stars Rossum as Fiona, the oldest daughter and unofficial matriarch of a dysfunctional family of six kids. In the show’s seventh season, Rossum began working behind the camera, as well.

“As the time went on, the leadership role started to feel somewhat more shared,” she explained during a Vulture Festival panel discussion in May. “I felt that I loved the show, that I loved everyone in it, but I just wanted it to feel right.”

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Well, as her fellow female starlets know all too well, it’s a long road. In the meantime, keep fighting the good fight, Emmy!