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EXCLUSIVE Interview with Emma Kenney of SHAMELESS (Season 2)

Mike Vicic - March 23, 2012

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Emma Kenney, who plays Debbie Gallagher on SHAMELESS, spoke with TV Tango and answered 20 questions. Emma dished about the next two episodes, revealed details about life on set, talked about the rest of the cast, and mused about what she'd like to see happen to Debbie in Season 3. 

 

 

This Sunday, March 25, 2012 at 9pm ET/PT, Showtime presents the second-to-last episode of Season 2 of SHAMELESS, with the season finale one week later. Tune in this week and celebrate Thanksgiving with the Gallaghers.

 




TV Tango: What can you tell viewers about the last two episodes of the season?


Emma Kenney: Really, the rest of the season, it's just like a lot of craziness, a lot of drama.

 

Next episode is probably going to be my favorite episode of the season -- it's amazing. And I'm actually going to be live-tweeting during it, too. It's a really good episode.

 

Next week is the season finale. It's going to be amazing. The season finale is so good. I'm really excited.



TV Tango: I saw a preview for Sunday's episode, and I have to say I love your hat. Did you get to take it home?


Emma Kenney: Oh, my turkey hat! I loved it.

 

Oh my god, Emmy [Rossum] loves to cook and stuff; so somebody once got her two of those turkey hats. Since the episode takes place on Thanksgiving, Emmy brought on the set one day, and she pitched the idea to one of the directors. They're like, "Of course, I love it! Let's do it!"

 

We got to wear the hats and I loved them. I was wearing them around Warner Bros., and I got kind of weird stares during my lunch break -- I was wearing it at lunch.

They didn't let me take it home, but I'm sure if I asked Emmy, she'd let me.

 

TV Tango: What's the craziest hat you own?


Emma Kenney: I'm not a big hat fan...probably...I have a Bob's Big Boy hat. In L.A., every Friday during the car show, my dad and I would go to Bob's Big Boy for dinner -- or lunch or whatever, depends on my filming schedule. We'd go there and go to the car show, and I got a hat there once. I also got a Bob's Big Boy piggy bank and one of those little coin/change purses. That's probably my favorite hat.

 

I also have a Mets hat. My dad is a huge fan of the Mets. On my 9th birthday, my dad got my name on the scoreboard and it said, "Happy Birthday, Emma!" and he also gave me that Mets hat; so that's probably my second favorite hat.



TV Tango: How did your character, Debbie, feel doing all the work for the family's Summer daycare service?


Emma Kenney: In a way, she kind of liked having that responsibility and everyone admiring her hard work and caring. But she also realized that it was too much of a load for her. She also really, realy understood, getting that stress rash. I also think she liked getting that kind of attention in a good way, instead of in a bad way for her not sharing something with Carl or somebody.



TV Tango: When Debbie was trying to get Little Hank's attention in "Father's Day," what would you have done differently if that was you instead of Debbie?


Emma Kenney: Probably not worn all that makeup. That's a little headstrong. I don't even own that much makeup, which is kind of crazy. So maybe that and not trying so hard, I guess.

 

I've worn makeup before, but that was the most makeup I've ever worn. It took, surprisingly, like 25 minutes, because our makeup artists are good makeup artists, not bad makeup artists; so they had to find ways to make their makeup look bad.

Once, they almost poked the eyeliner into my eye -- well, they didn't do it intentionally. They were coming and I opened my eyes, and I was like "Ahhhh!" and I closed my eyes.

 

It was also kind of funny, because during the lunch breaks I had to walk a few blocks to get to the lunch. When we're having lunch, some people down the street...I remember getting like weird looks. They were looking at me, and I'm just like, "Hey, how you doing?" Well, I didn't say that, but I was thinking it. It was really awkward.



TV Tango: Were you surprised when you read how Grammy was going to die in the "Parenthood" episode?


Emma Kenney: I wasn't surprised because again it is SHAMELESS, you know, but it was like really sad.

 

My mom normally gets the script email before me, and she'll read it; so I remember my mom was like, "Did you read the episode? Did you read the episode?" I'm like, "No, why?" And she's like, "It's amazing. Grammy's death...I'm not going to spoil it for you, but it's outstanding." So I go to read it, and I kind of skip a few pages because I want to know what's happening. I was like not shocked, but I was just kind of caught off guard, I guess. I didn't expect it to be that scary.

TV Tango: And did you have any input into Debbie's speech to honor Grammy in "Hurricane Monica"?


Emma Kenney: That was all the writers, but I remember that scene. I'm like the best person to cry on cue -- it takes me like 10 seconds to cry on cue -- but I could not get the tears out for this scene. I don't understand why. But Steve Howey, who plays Kev, could tell I was kind of stressed out, trying to figure out a way to do it. So he said, "You don't have to cry. There are people who don't like to cry on cue, they'll sometimes laugh and smile and stuff." He said, "Why don't you try laughing and smiling instead of crying?" I was like, "Oh my god, yeah!" So I tried it, and it looked more real than the crying that I would've been doing. I was really happy that Steve told me that, because I was totally mad that I wasn't getting the scene down.



TV Tango: What would you like to see happen to your character in Season 3?


Emma Kenney: For more personal, fun reasons for me, I would want Debbie to have some kind of action scene. It sounds totally random, but I always wanted an action movie or an action scene. I'm kind of obsessed with that kind of stuff. I definitely want to do an action part, where Debbie like steals something, running down the street being chased by robbers, and I duck into the sewers and climb up trees and all of that kind of stuff.

 

For more character-related reasons, I would like to see Debbie...this sounds kind of weird, but I would like her to get more stressed out because that would give me more character lines. You know, things going on in her life that would make it more interesting, I guess.

TV Tango: If she gets more interested in boys, that can happen very easily, right?


Emma Kenney: Definitely. If she and Hank break up, stay away from Debbie.

 

TV Tango: If you get your action scene, do you want to do your own stunts or do you want a stunt double?


Emma Kenney: I want to do my own stunts! I actually had one partial stunt, even though it was not that stunt-like -- when Debbie swings the bat to Carl's head. Since he's a minor, they require him to have a stunt double, but I didn't have a stunt double for it; so I had to work with our stunt coordinator, Laura, and she taught me how to swing a bat and where to swing it. You should not swing at the temple, because the person could end up with a concussion or something. So I learned how to swing it in this way so the bat would kind of twist so it wouldn't smackdown hit him -- it's kind of losing the pressure during the twist. That was kind of cool.



TV Tango: What about your character, Debbie, do you love the most?


Emma Kenney: I guess that she's changing so much. It would probably be boring to play the exact same character each season in a row. In the first season, Debbie was a lot more subtle..and girlish..and caring and loving. But this season, she's a lot more -- I don't want to say wild, she's still grounded but she's kind of more outgoing and definitely more cynical, angry at the world and frustrated and didn't care and love as much as she should as a little girl.



TV Tango: Since you're young, people always ask what you learn from others on set. What's the most important thing you've taught someone else on set?


Emma Kenney: When we have other kids on set. I remember how we had a kid on set once who didn't really have that much filming background. Not that I verbally taught them something, but how to carry yourself on set. How not to run around the set and make a big ruckus. How to go to school during break, and get all of your school done -- learning that you have to have 3.5 hours of school on set. How you can't skip an hour.

TV Tango: How often did you go extra time for school on set?


Emma Kenney: If I have a lot of scenes that day -- or really, really long scenes -- then most likely no. But we have this thing called a bank, where the maximum time you can bank is 10 hours. If I have no scenes that day, I legally have to come in for 3.5 hours of school, but normally those days I'll bank one or two hours, but  you can't bank anymore than that.



TV Tango: Since there's an Emmy and an Emma on the show, what are your on-set nicknames?


Emma Kenney: We have tons of nicknames. Jeremy, who plays Lip, and I are like big nickname kind of kids. We also have a handshake. We have tons of handshakes on set.

 

He came up with this nickname for me. One day during season 1, he's like "Hey, Emma Dilemma." And I'm like, "What?" He's like "It's your nickname." And I'm like "OK, I have to come up with a nickname for you." So I tried coming up with words that rhymed with Jeremy, but literally there was nothing. I was kind of fiddling around with the alphabet and I found "Jeremy Therapy." It does not rhyme, but I call him "Jeremy Therapy."

Emmy and I, we kind of like mixed up the letters in our [first] names and last names; so hers is "Emma Rossy" and mine is "Emmy Kenna." So you see how we kind of switched the last syllables.



TV Tango: It sounds like you also have a pretty good relationship with Justin Chatwin.


Emma Kenney: Yeah, Justin and I are super close. He does yoga, and once in Chicago we went out to do this really fun yoga class.

 

I call Justin "Justine" as a joke [laughing].

 

Justin is the funniest guy alive. You can probably even tell that from his tweets. I know this one tweet that he sent, I literally found myself laughing out loud. It was about the term LOL. I don't remember the exact tweet, but it was something like Justin said that his mom emailed him saying that his aunt died that day and "LOL, Mom." His mom thought it was Lots Of Love. I remember reading that and literally found myself Laughing Out Loud.


TV Tango: Speaking of Justin's tweets, he joked about you being a hungover, caffeine addict. Care to explain?


Emma Kenney: [Laughing] I know, I saw that tweet. I think he's probably talking about all the sugar that I eat on set. I don't get a sugar high, but I do eat like a lot of sugar. I'm like a candy kind of kid.

 

I remember Justin once tweeted...[laughing]. Ethan [Cutkosky, who plays Carl] tweeted a picture of him and I like seriously looking at a pool during the middle of a scene [see above]. So Justin retweeted, and he also replied saying something like depressed kids on our SHAMELESS set. Something like that. It was like, "Saved depressed kids now."


TV Tango: Any thoughts about tonight's episode [3/19] of PRETTY LITTLE LIARS?


Emma Kenney: Oh my god, it's the season finale!

 

TV Tango: Who do you think 'A' is?


Emma Kenney: Honestly, even though they cleared the thought of Jenna being 'A,' I think it might be Jenna just because they're trying to twist it around. The last scene, Jenna's not blind! She was just faking it! I always thought she was faking it. I really think Jenna's 'A.'

I don't know though, maybe we don't know 'A.' I also have a premonition that 'A' is going to be someone the girls don't know.

 

But it would be amazing if the person who 'A' was was really one of the girls. She was just faking it all along, making them believe that they were really being stalked. How else would there be a stalker in somebody else's closet. I mean that's super creepy, a stalker in a closet. Oh my god, I'm getting chills. If they're in their bedroom, how would some guy randomly know exaclty what they're doing? The girls would know exactly what they're doing.



TV Tango: Tell me about your favorite script that you've written that the world doesn't know about yet.


Emma Kenney: I wrote this really crazy action movie, of course. I would like to make it into a full-length, but I never got to film it. It was like 60-70 pages or so. It took place in the future, like the 3000s. It's about these friends in the woods playing hide-and-go-seek, and they find this control box that is a control box of the world -- and it's not plugged in. It turns out if the control box of the world is not plugged in, then the world will end. It can only be unplugged for 36 hours. So it's like this big mission, and one of the pieces of the box fell out, but they need all the pieces to save the world. It's this whole big action thing, because they don't know where it goes. It turns out there's like one last vintage piece in the museum, and they have to break into the museum, and blah, blah, blah.



TV Tango: Besides PRETTY LITTLE LIARS, what TV shows are on your DVR?


Emma Kenney: You know, I don't watch that much TV, PRETTY LITTLE LIARS is probably...oh, I watch AMERICAN IDOL. I love THE VOICE. Honestly, that's probably it.

 

Sometimes I'll catch little snippets of TV. I like Nickelodeon and Disney. I love VICTORIOUS and on Disney I love SHAKE IT UP!