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It's never going to end. Okay. I've been waiting for this since I'm like six or seven years old. I became obsessed with basketball. I don't know why. I loved watching the sport. I deeply identified with John Starks growing up during that playoff run. I remember I wrote in my diary, he's so fiery on the court, and I just identify with him. I see myself in him. And I love basketball because it moves really fast and you can see all the players' faces really, really well. And I need to understand the emotional narrative of what's going on with the players in the game. Like football, I'm too far away. I can't see their faces. Hockey, I can't see their faces. Tennis, I like for the same reason. It moves fast. I can see them. I'm with them. I'm with the narrative. Like what is going on? They're trash talking each other. I can see it. You want to see the sweat. But I need to see the emotion. I want to see the drive. I love it. I get so invested. I need it. I love it. Okay. Where were you when the next one? I was in Rhode Island with a bunch of actors and crew. I just finished a movie there. And so we kind of commandeered this bar. The bar was actually, I was like, hey, I'm looking for a place to watch the game. And they were like, oh yeah, that's great. We're actually having a thing on the roof to watch the game. I was like, amazing. So then I got up there and there was all these like World Cup flags. And I was like, what are we going to turn on the Knicks? And they were like, what game are you talking about? And I was like, the only game to care about right now.

Like the New Yorker starts coming out of you. You're like getting so-

And I panicked. And it turned out that there was actually nobody there to watch the World Cup. So they turned it into a Knicks playoff game. And then a wedding ended up coming up and they turned out to be Knicks fans, I cried. I cried. So you had a whole night? I had a whole night because the first teaser for my show got like a 15 second spot. And I only heard about it a couple

hours before the game and I was losing it. You're like, if there's ever been a moment that I am getting promo, it's right here right now that I actually care about the most. I was like, if we

win tonight and my show has a promo on it like I can just I can just die happy I did want to ask

you when I was stalking you there is an Instagram post that you shared five years ago when the Knicks were also in the playoffs oh yes and you were in labor yes at the time yes but it feels like there's a bit of like a chaotic Thank you. story where like, are you putting basketball before giving birth? Like, can you tell the

story? What happened? I was pregnant with my daughter and I knew that I was due. And I was very much in denial that I was in labor the first time. I remember I like gave my husband a haircut. I was cleaning the house. I ordered some Thai food and I had some contractions, but like, was kind of like, well, it's probably fine. I was definitely scared of childbirth. My mother's mother had died in childbirth. So that narrative was very in the back of my head or my psyche somewhere. But what was in the front of my psyche was I was not going to go into labor until after the Knicks game. And so I was laboring over a large kind of exercise ball in full labor. as you're watching as I'm watching the next game and in this photo my mom is next to me on the couch being like I really think you should just like go get the epidural and I was like nope I'm gonna watch this game and I'll go when I'm fully dilated and then you what you call an uber and you're like in labor I actually labored the whole night before I went to the hospital in the morning my contractions never got any closer together than like eight minutes so I didn't think I was very close and i was like i i don't think i can do like do much more of this and then finally yeah i woke my husband up and i was like we gotta call an uber and he was like should i get the playlist ready and i was like i think i don't i don't want the playlist anymore like you would

a playlist labor playlist yeah oh wow i get like the playlist ready and i was like i'm ill i don't want the playlist anymore i love you so much like do i need a labor playlist maybe what kind of music did you have on it there was like a lot of like hip-hop r&b oh okay so not like soothing

i don't think we knew what we're like kendrick lamar going i'm like i feel like i would be thinking more of like like soft like meditation but you're like we were not we were not yes

his contribution to the labor was his playlist you're vibing out which went unused because we we took the uber to the hospital and i remember i was like sir like you really i feel like you

really gotta you gotta step on it and and and we were like driving up park avenue in the city and he like the light would turn like start to turn yellow and he would just stop and i would like

go into another contraction sir do you want five stars he's like your uber rating is going down

you're about to have a baby in my back seat i know and that that was the fear i was like i just don't want to have this baby in the backseat. But then I got to the hospital. And you're fine. And they were like, my water still hadn't broken. And they were like, oh, you're eight centimeters dilated. Like, don't sneeze. Like, this baby's going to fall out of you. Okay. What was it like the first moment you met your daughter? Wow. I held her and I have a video of the first moment. And I said,

oh, my God, that's a person. And obviously, I've heard people say like, and then you're staring at your child and you're like oh my god like this is on us now like we're there we're allowed to the hospital with this beautiful thing but like what do we do did you have any of that feeling

certainly i was overtaken by the feeling of vulnerability just at this thing that you've been able to keep safe inside of you for so long is now outside of you and it's so vulnerable and anything could happen to it, anything could hurt it. The postpartum anxiety for me was very, very rough, like very intense intrusive thoughts. And I had had a kind of crazy journey to get pregnant where I have PCOS. So I had very, very debilitating ovarian cysts throughout my 20s and tried to get pregnant naturally. It didn't happen. Tried IUI, didn't happen. And then tried IVF and it happened in a big way. I only did one harvest, but a kind of side effect of PCOS is that you can kind of become a super responder. so i i they woke me up from the harvest and said that i had 72 eggs yeah which was trippy and bizarre and i thought i'd maybe have 12 of course um and they were like and we fertilized them all and i was like what yeah so it had been a long journey to get to meet my daughter and then when I finally had. It was also towards the end of COVID. So I had been able to keep the pregnancy private the whole time, which is something I know you desperately wanted too.

It is. And I also love that I get to sit here and talk with you about it. And I know that so many women who have PCOS or did IVF are going to be hanging on to every word that you're saying right now because I think what is so unique about women's experiences is they are so unique and no one is the same like you saying that you got 72 a I was like yeah and then the offshoot of that

was after you do IVF they tell you to like monitor your weight in the next couple days to see if you put on any water that you know and I gained like 14 pounds in two days and I was like something's wrong here. So I called the doctor and I'd just eaten like a big fat cheeseburger. And I was like, I don't know, like, I feel like a plump grape, something's wrong. And so I went back in and I'd gone into hyper stim. So they had to extract the fluid, which modern medicine is incredible. But this procedure was bizarre and kind of barbaric. I went in and they were like, have you eaten today because we could do twilight and i was like i've eaten a huge cheeseburger and they said okay well we're gonna have to extract this fluid and then they took out an enormous diet coke bottle and just like took the fluid out right into the diet coke empty

diet coke bottle you're like and i was like this is this is okay i guess this is what we do i know i'm like oh is there not like a normal tube that looks a little more like medical right anything other than like oh wow yeah that's the also the fascinating part because i i want to go through your whole life and we're going to get more into motherhood as we go um because i know you were also raised by a single mother yeah but like that's the part of motherhood that's so fascinating is we we act like it's such like oh and then she like had a baby and it's like no no no like the actual war that women are up against to even be able to say and then a baby came and it actually there's so much like glamorization around and it acts like it's like just like a normal casual thing and it's like this is so complex yeah and there's so much that goes into it that I had no concept of and maybe I'm becoming even more aware of it obviously because I'm going through it yeah but like women are so incredible and it is overwhelming what we have to go through to get to where the standard and the norm feels like it should be. Yeah. This is a paid ad by BetterHelp. So even in 2026, stigma can get in the way of a lot of things like getting support for your mental health. Maybe you've encouraged friends to consider therapy while avoiding taking the first step yourself because, you know, we're busy, guys. We're worried maybe what other people will think or you're telling yourself you should handle it alone and you can do it alone. But Therapy with BetterHelp, the world's largest online therapy platform, can be a space to slow down and talk through what's been building up before it feels unimaginable. Just take a short questionnaire to identify your needs and preferences and BetterHelp will handle the initial therapist matching work for you. Their industry-leading match rate means BetterHelp typically gets it right. the first time. Feel confident knowing BetterHelp therapists work according to a strict code of conduct and are fully qualified. And so if you needed a sign, DaddyGang, to start, this is your sign. Don't let hesitation hold you back. Find support with BetterHelp. Sign up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com slash daddy. That's BetterHelp.com slash daddy. Call Her Daddy is brought to you by T-Mobile. DaddyGang, summer is officially here, which means the Euro trip you've been talking about in the group chat since January, it's actually real. The outfits are planned, the dinner reservations booked, the inspo photos saved, but nothing humbles you faster than landing internationally with no service, no directions, and 1% battery while trying to figure out how are we going to navigate and get to our hotel? That is why I love traveling with T-Mobile. They make, oh my God, they make the experience feel

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Honestly, it just starts sounding a lot more realistic. But whether you're going on your annual girls trip, heading to a destination wedding, or just like simply leaving town to pretend your inbox doesn't exist for a few days, you're covered on America's best network, Daddy Gang. Hook yourself up. Delta Drink with eligible plan and linked SkyMiles account 24 hours before qualifying flight required. 21 plus. See tea life for terms. T-Mobile has the best T-Mobile network in the US based on an analysis by Ookla of Speed test intelligence data 2H 2025. Visit T-Mobile.com. Okay, let's go back. So you're raised by a single

mother. Yeah. She was a photographer. My mom was a photographer. She was, my mom is very adventurous. she was a single mom and she met my dad on an airplane um and he was not interested in being a dad um he left her when she was pregnant and so i didn't meet him until i was four and even then I didn't know he was my dad. But my mom was, my mom is amazing. She's very adventurous. She was a corporate photographer. When I was little, she would travel a lot. And she would do things like go to Saudi Arabia to do the annual reports for mobile oil. And she would hang out of a helicopter like attached by a cable and take pictures of an oil rig. She photographed like the making of the Adam Baum for our government. She was Steve Jobs' personal photographer for many years before I was born. And my mom was just like hugely impressive and capable in so many ways. Like we went to Japan and she could like order in Japanese and ask where the bathroom was. We went to France and she like broke out the French with the cab driver where they were like talking about the first world war in France in French and I was like that's like real French my mom is gonna be 80 in January and she had me when she was 40 and she like I asked her last week what are you doing this week mom and she was like my dishwasher is fixed so I'm going to it is broken so I'm gonna fix it and I was like what do you mean do you know how to fix a dishwasher and she said no but I will by Friday and I called her and she fixed it what a gift yeah have such a capable inspiring

intellectual mother yeah as you're kind of like north star to life yes and watching the world through her eyes is like it explains a little bit obviously of why you are the way you are how would you have described your relationship with her when you were young and growing up we were close but i

I certainly felt the absence of my dad. I certainly didn't want my mom to go to work. You know, my kids are three and five now. And sometimes it's hard when you go to work. Sometimes they have big feelings about this. One time when I was like four, I think I was throwing a tantrum like don't go to work don't go to work and my mom said okay do you know what happens if i don't go to work and i said what and she said we would sleep on the street and i said okay and she said do you know what it's like to sleep on the street and i said shrug you know four i don't know of course and she opened the fourth floor window and she took my pillow and my blankie and my teddy huggy who i still sleep with to this day of course he is in my hotel room

right now huggy huggy he's a polar bear he's a polar bear is he a little scary though he's very

hugged on his belly have you gotten him like re-stitched a little he's been so operated on frankenstein but she took all that and she put it out the window and like i remember watching it like float down. And that was how she taught me the importance of survival. She threw it out the

window. I'm picturing there's like a little fire escape situation. No, no. Oh, it was four floors down. Four floors down. So then did you walk down and have to go to the street? Yeah, we went and

got it. And then she went to work. Yes, she did. So I might do things differently now. But we were very, very close. I needed her. I wanted her. But she had to go to work. She made me understand survival in a very intense way. My mom's not a woman of feelings. She's a woman of like, her love language is acts of service.

And she's quite core practical. Like this is what it is. So this is what it is. Yeah. There you go. Your bedding's in the courtyard if you'd like to sleep there. But also as I've become a mother, I have found so much forgiveness for my mother for all the ways in which feelings were not her strong suit. Right. My mom's mom died when she was 13. She grew up in a really traumatic household. She was out of the house by the time she was 15 and went to Barnard College and really made a life for herself as a single woman, as an adventurous single woman. So I know that I'm going to need forgiveness as a mom, too. And I think as we step into these new chapters of our lives, we are afforded the opportunity to recontextualize the ways in which our parents came up short for us. Absolutely. But still love them.

Yeah. I remember I read somewhere you had said, like, in the past, you wanted to be worthy of being your mother's daughter. Oh, shit. And I was like, oh, that's a good one. I am.

That's a heavy one. I certainly am. But that's like. But for my daughter, she doesn't have to do anything to be worthy of being my daughter.

Interesting.

Yeah. She's amazing. Like my mom and I never had a lot of money, but I never felt that as a kid. She never bought herself new underwear. She took care of me. She put me in a private school. like everything went to taking care of me and putting and funneling into me so even though she may have not you know been able to be all the things a conventional mother is supposed to be should be although i hate shoulds she did a lot for me and i love her very much i was gonna say

it's um really impressive because talking about you know two women living in an apartment together New York City. Until I was 18. One bathroom. One bedroom. I can picture it. So you went to one of the most prestigious prep schools in the city. What were you like at school? How would

your teachers have described you? It's funny because I found my old report cards. She gave them to me. She had everything saved from my childhood. And she was like, I want to give these to you i was really into drama really into art um really into make-believe um and i had a solid group of friends a very small group of friends from day one my best friend dory joanna pam from day one dory who is still so my best friend they're actually all my close friends but dory bought the apartment three floors below me so that we can raise our kids together it's very like fiona and then kevin v the neighbors next door i love it i love it and our kids literally go up and downstairs the back stairs to hang out and it's like very a little community in our little apartment building we actually lived across the street from each other and decided it wasn't close

enough and she sold the apartment and moved into my building when it became available this is like making every shameless fan so happy right now because i'm just picturing you and like the chaos of going up downstairs and all of you being so close. Yeah. Oh, wow. It is amazing. And were you an overachiever in school?

No, but I never really found my place or my people in school. But it was my second grade music teacher that recommended that I go audition at the opera at the Children's Chorus. And I did. And that's how I ended up singing at the Children's Chorus. And I loved it. The second I walked into the opera, it was like I had found my people, my place.

That's what I was reading. So you were seven years old when you started singing at the Met. Yeah. Eleven, you landed your first TV role. Sixteen, life changes, you starred in the movie The Phantom of the Opera. Seventeen. Seventeen. Yeah. Did your mom have any hesitations about you going into this career?

Well, my mom was an artist. And so being an artist was a noble profession and not a profession that you went in to get rich or famous. Certainly didn't go to the opera to sing there for $10, $20 a night to have that outcome. my mom was very aware that there were dangers and drawbacks to this when you had you know i

like mentioned the pressure that you put on yourself to be worthy of your mom did you bring that mindset into your career at all

i i i had a lot Thank you.

of natural drive and ambition to be the best that I could be. And also, there was a lot of rigor that came with being at the opera. You were expected to go on stage, perform, get it right every single time. There was like not a lot of leniency for fucking up. And so that really made my own, you know, Virgo perfectionism, like really kick into high drive. But I felt when I walked out onto stage that that all evaporated. It was so easy for me to share, to feel that I could lose myself in that and that there were people that were sitting there every night experiencing

that live with me. It was magic. You have said that you like to be a little terrified by a role. Yes. What feelings draw you to that of wanting to be terrified?

Well, it's different in life. I think in life, you know, you have that little smoke detector in your head. And like when you're young, you're like, oh, I think I hear something beeping. Like maybe the battery needs to be changed or like, oh, it's a little hot in here. Like maybe I should turn on the AC. Is that the smell of singeing? I'm sure my neighbor's making cookies. Like, no, bitch, your hair's on fire. Get out of the house. Right? So in life, when you hear the smoke detector, you have to run from it. But in art, when you hear the smoke detector, you move towards it because that says that there's something there for you, something unexamined in yourself, something that scares you, something that causes you shame. And those are the things that we must examine about ourself about our characters about our womanhood about our society we have to no different than what you do you're unafraid to look in the places that other people don't want

to look yeah that makes me think about fiona gallagher like let's talk about yes so your character on shameless she was ferocious she was resilient she was pretty self-destructive at times Yeah, risky. Take me to the moment that you read the script for the first time. Like what drew you in in the way that you're kind of talking about right now about Fiona?

It was unlike anything I had done before. It was raw. There was sexuality. There was longing and yearning for an absent parent, which is something that hit deep for me. there was kind of like this slightly chaotic environment that was based on survival that also felt very familiar to me there was deep love and connection and loyalty in that family and that hit deep for me and there was a sense that even though they were in an economic depression they were not depressed. They refused to be. And there was resilience and love. And I knew it was mine. I knew it was my role. I knew it was for me. There's like sometimes when you read things, you're just drawn to them and you're like, yeah, I volunteer as tribute. Do you know what I mean? Like put me in coach. And didn't they at first not feel that way about you? No, I was told that they thought I was too princessy. I had come off Mystic River day after Tomorrow, Phantom, Poseidon Adventure. I had walked a lot of red carpets and press tours for those. And I had not displayed that level of rawness in a performance, certainly. But I think only an actor knows what they're capable of, which is why it's so important for all artists to take their careers into their own hands and get into the driver's seat, because only you know

what you have inside. I mean, and just like now knowing, I mean, I was such a fan of the show and I still am, like the environment that you were able to create with your character, like it felt so immersive. Like when you're watching the show, I'm literally a part of this family. Like I can't stop watching. And you all did such a good job bringing it to life. Playing this character for almost a decade, did you discover anything unexpected about yourself in the process?

I had always wanted a big family. That was so emotional for me to like walk in and firstly, you make a pilot, you never know if it's going to go. But before we made the pilot, they gave us a week in the house, in the space, which was built on a stage in the Warner Brothers lot. And in the kitchen, the director, Mark Milod.

put a bunch of cold cuts and bread. And at that time, the fridge still smelled fine after years and years of the fridge getting unplugged and replugged. And the fridge smelled so bad by the end. And they would put GoPros in the fridge and we would have to open the fridge, you know, because there's a little camera inside and we would get something and you would have to plan when you would take your breath. It was like a joke we all played because like an old fridge, just like there's something wrong with it. It was like something had died in that fridge. smell it and I'm not even there. It was so bad. You'd be like, okay, so as I'm coming around the kitchen island, I'm going to take my breath here and I'm in, I'm getting it right. Okay, I'm closing it. It was crazy. But the first week that we were in that house, it was magic. It was, we were all, and that's kind of what it's like being on a show. It's like summer camp or Love Island. You're all in with less glam. You are all in the same place. You are caring about the same thing. You are talking about the same thing. You are eating your meals together. So those cold cuts were in there so I could prepare the meals for the family for our week of rehearsals. The fridge smells still smelled great. So it was fine. But it was really this amazing time where we were sharing and getting to know each other. And there was rigor on the set too. We didn't have a huge budget. So we would shoot up to eight or 10 pages a day sometimes. When we went to Chicago, there were no sides on set ever. No sides. All actors were – no sides for crew either. Can you explain what that means? Yeah. So when you get to set ordinarily, people shrink down the script to this kind of like pocket-sized version and you just have the pages that you're going to shoot that day. So if actors haven't learned their lines, which some choose not to, they can look at them or people can refer to them. So everyone's got a little, like, mini Bible of what you're making today. John Wells doesn't believe in that. He believes everyone should show up and be ready to do the job. So he doesn't make those available. They're literally not produced. So if you want sides on set, you've got to lug your whole script around. So that meant that everyone showed up completely ready to work at all times. There were no last looks. Last looks is when your hair and makeup team come in when they say the cameras are ready to roll and they touch you up. Zero. We didn't have sides. We didn't have last looks. It was the best training camp for 10 years of show up on time, be ready. This is my home. This is home for me. I don't need touch-ups. I don't want touch-ups. I want to make I want to I want to make let's make some feelings right this is like back to

what you're saying about the opera you're like this is it and I know that there has been reports of like 20 hour production days and the set could be challenging at times like how do you look back on that period when you like hear those things like do you stay positive I mean I love that show

and our experience so much 20-hour production days are they happen and when we were in Chicago we would shoot two units at once we would so you would be shooting over here you would change sometimes like in a restroom at a gas station or sometimes like you would do a quickie change like behind a dive coat on the L train, you would go to the next location. But we were so enmeshed with each other. We were so in each other's lives. We spent 10 to 16 to 20 hours a day, five days a week, five months a year for nine years together. So it's impossible not to be so close.

um did you ever feel like your work ethic was mislabeled in the press or in those moments

where you were showing up and doing your job that wasn't my experience I felt very very nurtured and shepherded by John Wells who encouraged me to direct on the show which I got to do many times. My cast also was very championing of me to do that. I certainly come to the set to work and I bring my all. And I think like many women, we care deeply and we prepare deeply and we love what we do but I um I mean I I love that job so much and I I felt like I was I felt like I was born on that job that I that's where I learned to direct John also was so shepherding of my writing as well giving notes on the first script that I had written, hiring me to direct on another one of his shows. And those are all my buds. Like, we're close. I'm seeing one of them tonight on set. So I'm really grateful for that time. And it has just nothing but happiness in my heart for it.

Okay, we're going to close out Shameless Conversation with some rapid fire. Okay, if you had to pick, which of Fiona's exes would she end up with?

Jimmy Steve. They just they're just so good together. I mean, yeah, he's he's not always honest at all, but I just love them together.

Jimmy Steve. They're they're even in the honesty lies the problem. We thought his name was one thing. Loved him. It's another.

He was cast before I was, too. Interesting. Yeah. And we had made a movie together called Dragon Ball Evolution a couple of years before. So I already knew him. And the second that I knew he was cast, I couldn't wait to work with him again. Oh, that's amazing.

yeah okay which gallagher sibling were you the closest to off camera lip okay let's talk about good old jeremy yeah who do you think was more stubborn character wise fiona or lip lip but i've seen fiona you're like obviously yeah he was the problem okay what is your one of your

favorite memories with jeremy allen white on set anytime we had a scene that was just us where we could really dig in either a quiet scene or scenes where we went at each other he's so he has so much soul and he brings so much intensity and so much truth and honesty that's the kind of the beautiful thing about playing characters for i mean i made 110 episodes of the show they made more than that than I did and after a certain point the writers start to write little bits of you in there and they start to understand like the symbiosis of how you guys work together and I'm so happy for him and proud of him and and he's such a incredible human being an incredible actor and I just feel lucky that we got to share all those scenes together no I know I was thinking

about that like how crazy to see that success that he's having yeah and have been probably feeling like he's like a brother to you on this set and then to see obviously like you both having so much success that must be so gratifying it's amazing it's amazing okay um what is your favorite

off-camera memory that you have with the cast in chicago we had this massive massive snowstorm And we got shut down for one day. We would go to Chicago to shoot twice a season. And we all stayed in the same hotel. And we would be in and out of each other's rooms. And we ate all meals together. And we got this piece of cardboard to like be a makeshift sled. and Justin Chatwin saw a truck and got on the piece of cardboard and like rode it down the road. He's such a, he's such a daredevil. And I have this video of us while watching him do it, being like, don't do it, but also do it. Oh. And that was kind of like, we had a lot of kind of mischievous play and craziness. And it was just incredibly fun.

Love it. what fiona decision will you go down defending

god i mean i think the worst time she ever fucked up was when she left the cocaine around that i think robbie had given her and liam got into it and he ended up hospitalized for it and i think that that was the worst i ever saw her and certainly when i read it i was terrified of the scene because of how i i cared about fiona even though it made for

really good drama oh my god not you like reading that scene you're like i'm like oh it's really good drama but like oh god i gotta do this now okay off the top of your head most emotional

scene to film certainly in the uh prison the strip search scene was really very challenging

It's so crazy because that show was so funny in moments. Yeah, very dark. But like my parents are re-watching it and they're like. It's dark. What's an iconic line of dialogue from the show that you still remember?

I don't think it was even in the show, but we had this off-camera joke of, look what you could have had, Craig Heisner. That was like maybe Shinola's line, but maybe not. And it was about Taylor Kinney who played this guy Craig Heisner that Fiona was into in high.

school and he ends up married, but then she ends up sleeping with him, even though he's married. I like that line. So I think I don't know if that was in there, but that's what we used to say a lot.

Call Her Daddy is brought to you by Airbnb. So sports are usually math territory, but when it comes to soccer, you guys know, you know what? I'm all over it. So safe to say, I am very excited for the FIFA World Cup coming to L.A. The last time I went to a global sporting event was during the Olympics. And honestly, the trip became so much more than just going to different games in Paris. I just remember Matt and I ended up booking the cutest apartment one weekend on Airbnb to explore different parts of France. One night after dinner, instead of I remember rushing home, we stopped in this tiny little local bar ended up sitting next to a couple from I think they were from Madrid and we just started talking and somehow found out that they also worked together and they had golden doodles and we were like oh my god this is meant to be um and then when Matt and I got back to the apartment that night we opened a bottle of wine sat on the balcony talking for hours about all of the random moments that somehow end up becoming the best part of traveling it was one of those trips where you come home and you just feel like you actually lived in a space instead of just visiting it. And that is what I love so much about Airbnb. During the FIFA World Cup, people from all corners of the world come together. They're swapping jerseys, grabbing drinks after the match, maybe debating who actually has the best goalie, like whatever it is. And Airbnb makes it easy to stay together under one roof. You get to live in neighborhoods that actually feel local and experience a city beyond just the tourist spots. Airbnb, the world is meant to meet. Call Her Daddy is brought to you by T-Mobile. Daddy gang, summer is officially here, which means the Euro trip you've been talking about in the group chat since January, it's actually real. The outfits are planned, the dinner reservations booked, the inspo photos saved, but nothing humbles you faster than landing internationally with no service, no directions and 1% battery while trying to figure out how are we gonna navigate and get to our hotel? That is why I love traveling with T-Mobile. they make oh my god they make the experience feel way more put together like for example t-mobile members can get a free premium drink on delta airlines which we love yes and there are so many other travel perks that actually come in handy see how to get rewarded with hilton savings on rental cars and up to 2500 bucks in cruise credit at t-mobile.com slash travel with that many credits suddenly the whole should we extend the trip for another two days conversation honestly it just starts sounding a lot more realistic but whether you're going on your annual girls trip heading to a destination wedding or just like simply leaving town to pretend your inbox doesn't exist for a few days you're covered on america's best network daddy gang hook yourself up delta drink with eligible plan and linked sky miles account 24 hours before qualifying flight required 21 plus ct life for terms t-mobile has the best t-mobile network in

the u.s based on an analysis by ukla of speed test intelligence data 2h 2025 visit t-mobile.com okay i want to talk about a huge accomplishment of yours your fight for pay equity on shameless How did you first decide to even take that on?

Well, when I started the show, it made a lot of sense that Macy made a lot more money than me. He was coming in much older, much more accomplished, tons more credits, and number one on the call sheet. And then by season three, they approached us. We had a six-year contract, approached us to add another year. And I think my lawyers felt at that time that we had the receipts. Like we could see the way the storylines were shaping. We knew about fan engagement. And we felt that it made sense to ask for that. We didn't get it. And that's fine. We thought, you know, we tried. We didn't get it. And then in season five or six, they came and they asked for more, more years. So I guess at six, we extended to seven. And then maybe in seven, they came and they asked for eight, nine. That's right. And by that point, I had been directing a lot on the show. And it very much felt like a two-hander. And we said, let's go for it again. It was kind of shut down pretty fast. And. we kind of that kind of lingered for a while um and then i wasn't sure if we were gonna get it um it's always scary asking for what you think you're worth to say i think this is what i'm worth. You have to take up space in the room. And it's their job to make the show for as little as possible to make the most profit. Any business runs that way. So Kai can understand it from the other perspective too. And I didn't know if they were going to come over to our side and do it or not. And we were getting kind of close to filming the next season. And I was one day sitting, I was like on a writer's retreat and I was procrastinating and I opened up Twitter and it was a headline that we were in like a stalemate. And I was shook.

because you had intended for this whole thing to stay private yeah it's a private business

negotiation negotiation and i never imagined it would become public not just for the public but also for the rest of the cast and the crew right because the cast wasn't aware obviously everyone everyone was doing their own negotiation and so i certainly didn't want that how did you

manage that once it broke on twitter like did you reach out to cast did they reach out to you like because it's a little awkward i didn't say anything um and after the first headline or

article i was kind of like refresh refresh refresh what's gonna happen um and the tide really shifted. People seemed to write other articles, like, immediately commenting on that, kind of being quite surprised that I wasn't already being paid equal. And it was resolved within a day. I was shocked. Shocked. And quite frankly,

very, very surprised that we actually got it. Wow. So maybe the public commentary actually really helped in your favor because it like woke people up to be like, she's not delusional. Yeah. Like, guys, what are we doing here? Yeah. I also think something that's so interesting is like when men advocate for their worth, they seem strong and it's kind of you know they're competitive and it can even be strategic and when a woman does it you can just come off as difficult and ungrateful for what you have been given as you were navigating all of that before it you know got released on twitter did you feel this pressure to remain likable during the negotiations because these are people that you know you have to work with i only desire to

remain professional. And my focus is never on money. It's on what's fair and what's right. And I believe that people should be paid for their labor. It was really about being valued equally when I was doing equal work. So for me, it was as simple as that. And I was very, very happy when we got it. And very, very happy for what it seemingly did for other women who I, you know, I was like in a health food store in Ontario or somewhere in Canada making a movie a year later. And a girl in the health food store said to me, oh, thank you so much for what you did for pay equity. We all asked for a raise here. And I couldn't imagine that it had traveled so far. I think, you know, I think ambition and wanting to be in the driver's seat of your life is not something to be shied away from. I think likable should not be the focus. It focuses on outward in, not what we know to be true about ourselves and our worth.

and i think like i agree i think that's the goal right i remember when i entered interviewed Ellen Pompeo. And she talked to me about her contract negotiations with Grey's Anatomy. And she was like, girl, no one is going to give it to you. You have to ask for it. That's interesting. We have the same agent. Oh, my God. Very interesting. Oh, that's very interesting. I like her very much. I like her very much, too. Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay. Because when Ellen said that to me, I was like, oh, man, you're so right. No one is going to give it to you you like you got to go for it there were also a lot of men on my team

who were like let's get this we are going to get this we are not going to go back unless we get this so it wasn't me saying I want this there were a lot of times where I felt scared and wanted to cave I was like who cares I love this show I love these people I want to do this and they were like no, we're not doing this. We're not doing it. Because I had caved once before. I had caved in the first contract negotiation. And yeah. I also just I really appreciate you talking about

it because I think it's just such an uncomfortable conversation for so many people because you think about money and you think about men. And so like we're kind of dancing around a topic that historically just has not been synonymous with women and so to reacclimate people's brains to like no no no no i'm doing the same job as this person who happens to be a man but why are we not making the same amount or why like where is the pay equity it it sparks a larger conversation like twitter obviously took it and ran with it um but it does still there is that fear within you that it's fascinating. It's like, would a man be scared? Because we're kind of trained of like,

how far do you want to push it? And I'm so pleased that now this equity conversation is being had. It is very hard for women to get what they are worth because there is a double

standard. Do you have any advice for women who have a hard time advocating for themselves and

and for their worth practice it at home practice saying it out loud practice saying what you need and what you want in every aspect of your life sexually say what you want with your partner say what you want eat what you want for dinner don't eat the thing you think you should eat for dinner do what you really want and and treat yourself in the way that you want to be treated it's also like i wanted to stay in the job i loved the job i wasn't walking away from the job um i loved the job and i loved the job until it felt like there wasn't enough juice to squeeze out of the lemon we had made 110 episodes and by the time i left and they offered us two more years i i had already started my production company i had set up my first show and i was greenlit and getting ready to make it. So when they came with two more years, I felt beholden to the other job. And I think a common misconception is I left to go have babies. That could not be further from the truth. I left to go make the show I had been developing that our showrunner John Wells had encouraged me to kind of get in the driver's seat of my own career and make my own shows and make things. And I left with a lot of grief and sorrow because I would I would miss all those people and I couldn't believe that they were going to go on the journey without me but I was also really excited I felt like I was launching and a new getting ready to start this new chapter of my life also I I I wasn't

aware of that rumor I'm like that of course that is so on the nose Emmy of what we're talking about

we're like of course it was like she left the industry to go have babies she moved back to New

York. Obviously. Yeah. Obviously. Of course. I want to talk about dating. Yeah. I love that topic. Okay. When you look back on your life. Yes. Do you notice any patterns? Yes. Or, okay. You're like, where do I begin? Put me in, coach. Let me write you a dissertation right now. Patterns or similarities between the guys that you were drawn to in your single and early dating days. Oh. Yeah.

intensity intensity intensity I don't know explain well I don't know my first great love was when I was about 18 and he was the older brother of one of my closest friends so I had known him a little bit from when I was younger and he asked her to ask me if he could ask me out and I thought it was so

cute. And she was kind of like, LOL, like this is going to work out. Like you should totally go out with him. So I did. And he picked me up in a Hummer, which I thought was ridiculous. And I told him immediately, this is a ridiculous vehicle for New York City. In New York? This man owned a

Hummer in New York City? And he thought it was a flex though. For sure. What color was it? It was

like light green or gray or it was not amazing okay um but i gave him shit for it and um he liked that so i liked that um and then the second date he um oh he let me drive the car i had had no license and i had never driven a car and after dinner he was like do you want to drive you know yourself home and then i'll drive the hummer do you want to drive the hummer and i was like i on the license and he's like I'll teach you how to drive and I was like what this is great and he was like you got to accelerate into the turns and I was like oh this guy's intense like love this um we didn't kiss um and I started dating him when I had shot Day After Tomorrow and Phantom of the Opera but neither of them had come out yet so is this some like quiet little chapter in my life before everything kind of exploded and the second date I was on the press tour for The Day After Tomorrow, and...

What a good movie.

He... Thank you. Oh, such a good movie. So fun to make. Such a good movie. I love Jake Gyllenhaal. And we were on the press tour in Paris, and he flew to Paris to take me on the second date.

On the second date, this man flew to Paris? Mm-hmm.

He was 20. I was 18, I think. And he said, I've got a surprise for you. And he shut down the Palace of Versailles and took me on a date there. I mean, it was, it was epic. He shut down Versailles for you. And it was misty and raining. And you're 18. And we kissed for the first time at the Palace of Versailles. And I was like, this is the rest of my life, right?

How is it a second date? Intense. Intense. Very intense. And when you look back, like, what does that intensity in a relationship like really feel like and ignite in you um

i don't know i i'm also drawn to people that are very good at what they do his family was art dealers and he was extremely educated in art and history and spoke multiple languages and was like a fisherman and could do a lot of things um and i found that really

interesting i mean i i completely agree i think when you can be intellectually stimulated but

also watching someone be really good at a craft it's and also like i don't like opacity i don't want to wonder if you like me or not. I don't want to play games. I don't want to be in a situationship. I don't want to be like, is he going to? No, I will know if I like you and I

want to know if you like me. But date two. Yeah. Paris. Yes. Versailles. Yes. We're shutting it down. Yes. It leaves a fall off opportunity because what is date three, four, five and where do we go from here when the intensity is so intense like obviously you're saying you saw patterns i mean we were together for almost two years and at 18 that's pretty long yeah when did you ever come down from that relationship well i maybe we were together for a year and a

half it felt like a long time i it was the first time i moved out of my house where i'd grown up with my mom and i moved into his house with his family his whole family so my friend they all lived on different floors of the house. So my friend that I had grown up with, she was like on the third floor. We were on the second floor. The parents were on the top floor. It was like

all a big family in a house. I love how the people, when they were trying to cast you for Shameless, they're like, I don't know if you're really her. Everything in your life so far is like,

I am Fiona Gallagher in a different extent. And then the first time I went away to make a movie when we were together. I was going to be gone for six months, just in LA. And it was the first time we've really been apart. And we had been to the Oscars together. We had really kind of enmeshed in each other's lives. And my world had really kind of changed and exploded. And he had been along for the ride on that with me. And I was going to be away for six months. And he worked in New York. And I remember on a call, he said something like, well, do you think you're going like continue to do more of this and i said hopefully that's the plan and that was not the answer he was looking for and so I was really heartbroken I I remember I cried for hours for

days days I was very heartbroken because you're basically like do I pick my career or the guy I'm

in love with yeah and I was like well my identity cannot be the cost my being an artist which I've been since I'm seven years old cannot be the cost for being in love. Did you find that you

continued to crave intensity again? Sure. Did you slow things down ever? Did you ever have a slow

burn, Emmy? No. My husband is a slow burn. We're going to get there. Yeah. We're going to get

there. Don't fast forward. Okay. Okay. Hold on. Hold on. So we're still in the like, you were looking for intensity yeah you would find yourself enjoying it in the beginning yes eventually it would burn out yes um 21 yes you got married oops oops oops okay tell me about what what happened

you know that smoke detector that you're supposed to hear in your head well i heard it and i ignored it um after i dated versailles guy who we will call him now versailles guy who's now by the way happily married lovely kids and i'm still friends with his sister um love that for him um i dated a guy whose favorite pastime was breaking up with me in public we would like to order the meal and then he would say things to me like um just feel like you're growing so much from knowing me but like i don't know that i'm growing that much from knowing you yeah and like on average how many times do you think he did this to you two or three emmy two or three and you would just sit there and like I really liked him I really liked him he was really he was really talented I was very attracted to his talent his power on stage we had done Romeo and Juliet together and he had been Mercutio and Mercutio was just like a real panty dropper and I was just by yeah I really liked him and so there were like two very consecutive rough heartbreaks how did your

mother feel about you getting married at 21 well she felt great about it because she didn't know

yeah when so I started I started dating Justin and he worked at Interscope Records that I was signed to um and we were dating for maybe a couple months we were certainly we liked each other and then i got dragon ball evolution and i was gonna go away for six months to mexico to durango mexico the middle of mexico and make this movie and i remember the day that i was going away to make the movie he said something to me like i don't know if the relationship is gonna survive the distance so like maybe we should break up or get married how could i make this up at me yeah you i literally had a flight that night to durango mexico and so i think the decisions

that we she's dead she's dead i am obsessed with you you're like so it had we had to get married yeah so from either breakup or get married yeah well at that moment

i thought to myself well i'm just coming off these two really rough heartbreaks like abandonment is my core wound i don't want i don't want that that hurts me and i literally thought my 21 year 20 20 year old 21 maybe yeah my 21 year old brain thought you know divorce doesn't seem that complicated like it it's probably pretty straightforward how did that work out it wasn't not straightforward okay it like i but but no but it you know and i i i knew that i

No, you're planning the divorce before.

A hundred percent. And so we he literally printed out like a marriage contract online and got some guy on the Internet to like come over to my house. I found like a white turtleneck that was in my closet and like threw it on because. like, I was like, this is appropriate, right? Yeah, yeah. Literally not hearing the smoke detector in my head being like, don't do this. You don't have to do this. No guy should be like, let's marry. You know what I mean? It was my intention not to tell anyone because I knew in my gut it wasn't right. How long were you married for? I think we're married for, oh, I was away for six months. When I got back, it became abundantly clear we weren't a match in any way. Did he come to visit you in Mexico I don't think so oh I don't remember that's interesting that's interesting because he's like it's like not that long of a flight I don't know what like everyone's very dramatic I don't know like it's literally just like going you people go to Mexico for the weekend

like what are we talking about I love that it's like if you leave like we're not going to make it so we have to get married it was so dramatic okay okay so you come back and then eventually you're like this isn't this isn't the thing when did you tell your mom I told my mom hey I'm breaking up

with justin and i need a lawyer and she was like you did not and i was like i did and my mom has always been somebody that mobilizes my mom is like like if anyone is going through a breakup my mom is not employed right now so if you need someone to show up she'll like send you for a manicure and be like i have the u-haul like go take care of yourself what is your mom's first

name cheryl cheryl is gonna be there to be like girls let's get the divorce papers yeah oh wow okay so she mobilized for you yeah she mobilized and you got the fuck out almost a decade later yeah you met your now husband yes on a movie set what drew you to him was there intensity there

tell me everything okay we met on my birthday we had a meeting about a movie that he had written the first movie that he was ever going to make and when a director offers you a movie they send you an email through your agents. And there's usually the script, maybe a lookbook and usually a letter that expresses why they think you're right for the movie and tells you a little bit about the movie. And sometimes with a first time filmmaker, they'll tell you a little bit about themselves. So. No. Yeah. So I brought you the letter because I knew we were going to talk

about relationships. I am sat. No one has ever done this on Call Her Daddy. Emmy? I have the

letter. Where is my popcorn? Oh, I'm not gonna read the whole thing because my husband is long winded. His films are long and his letter is long. But this is the letter that he wrote me. I'm going to read some excerpts of it. Give it to us. Oh, I'm so ready. So here's the thing. you're a beautiful successful actress thank you with a long career ahead of you doing my movie would require you to take a gamble on somebody you don't know so i'll give you a rough sketch of whom we're dealing with i'm a screenwriter reluctantly living in los angeles wishing i were in manhattan i'm tall but i hunch my parents are egyptian but i was born in new jersey i'm too nerdy to be a hipster and too cool to be a nerd so i have friends and enemies on both sides of the aisle, the entire situation fills me with a lot of anxiety. A lot. I do not care much for money. I also don't have much of it, given my incredible Dartmouth-NYU student loan debt. I also want to make movies because I have to. I'll explain. I was in therapy the other day, analyzing the very subject. I've wanted to be a filmmaker ever since I was eight, and it's been a long, arduous journey to get there. And I'm telling all of this to coddle. That's my therapist's name. It's pronounced like Cottle. How fitting. Anyway, Cottle sits there all intense and pensive like he normally is and says the same thing he normally says. This is just your career, Sam. There's more to life than your work. I hated him for using that word. I finally told him, stop using that word. This is not a career. That session turned ugly and weird, but it also turned out to be very important. It's when we realized I don't look at this like a job. It's the same way a mom wants to be a mom, a dad wants to be a dad, or a pet wants to be petted. It's a want that just is. If there were a parallel universe where filmmaking was the equivalent of a $30,000 a year factory job, I'd be there. And I was like, who is this? I'm immediately into it. He's like, I'm in therapy. I'm like, check, check. I love my job I'm tall but I hunch I'm like who is this voice

I'm a nerd but I'm not a nerd I'm not a hipster Like all the Everything So when you get that Yeah What is your first reaction I remember

I was sitting in the hair and makeup trailer at Shameless and I was reading the letter before I had read the script and I turned to Shinola Hampton and Sharon Rivera our head of hair and was like can I read you this letter I think I'm supposed to know this person and there was something that was just like immediately familiar or intriguing or something so I read the script and it was undeniable and I was like who is this person and then I met him and he showed up in a american apparel hoodie in a vintage prius and he had lookbooks upon lookbooks upon lookbooks about what the film was going to be how he was going to make it and i was immediately impressed by his work ethic and his vision and thought he was a really interesting person what did it feel

like after you are like I am so impressed with this person I am already into it by his writing then you meet him see him for the first time hear his voice when does it turn from work to romance

we knew each other for about a year we developed the movie went and found financing for the movie he put the movie together, he cast it. And then we started, we had spent time together over that year. And I remember I started thinking about life through the lens of him. I would be eating a sandwich and I'd be like, I wonder if Sam likes tuna. Or I'd be like, I drove past a museum and was like, I wonder if Sam would like to see the Kubrick exhibit. I wonder if Sam would think that's funny. And I was so curious about him. And I had spent so long trying to find someone that I thought would understand me when I realized maybe what I'm after is trying to find somebody I never want to stop trying to understand. Like I was so fascinated by him. And then about a week before he made the movie, he came over to my house for dinner and he said, I've just been to therapy and I really have to get this off my chest. Coddle and I talked about this and I just have to tell you that I love you and we hadn't even started the movie yet I was like huh um I did not say it back I did not know how I felt um and then we started the movie a week later what did you say back bon appetit I don't really remember saying much of anything I think he said something like but I but I don't mean it like that what I mean is like I mean I do but I also don't like obviously I'm me and you're you and I'm sure that like you know you could never love me and one day I'm sure that I'll be at your wedding and I'll always love you from afar and nothing ever has to happen obviously it won't and I just needed to say that and then the rest is history eventually yeah i mean the second that i got on set and i saw him he was so kind and capable and he played really good music at video village and he gave really good notes and so suddenly he went from someone suddenly he was really sexy his like quiet power was like oh no so then i said after the first week i think i love you too and he was like no you don't and i was like yes i fucking do and he was like okay here's what's gonna happen i'm gonna kiss you and you're gonna be like i don't feel anything and then we're just gonna go back to the way and i was like what are

you doing just do it already and he's like but it can't mess up the movie and i was like okay it won't and then it didn't mess up the movie and then we kissed and we've basically we broke the couch we broke the couch we had an L sofa and we broke the couch we broke the couch yeah and that

was 14 years ago 14 years ago yeah can you talk about how you've said throughout our conversation today you know like I have these abandoned abandonment wounds yeah and you know I know your relationship with your or lack thereof relationship with your father was extremely complicated like how did you finding such a stable incredible partner that you love so much like have you been able to look at that relationship with your father

father and whether it's heal some wounds or just like, how do you feel about it now?

Oh, it's such a good question. My relationship with my husband and watching him be the world's greatest girl dad. He was like made to be a girl dad. It's the ultimate healing. The ultimate. And my husband is so loyal and so kind and so giving and so everything I've really ever wanted.

that's so beautiful i didn't even think about that like you're getting it's healing watching him do to your daughters what i didn't get you didn't get yeah and to watch him do it so incredibly yeah effortlessly and to do it to such a caliber that like you're he would never ever leave her wow that's really beautiful because i feel like i'm sure there's so many women watching who have complicated relationships or don't have relationships with their father and that is such a from experience with my friends who have a similar situation where you're like I don't have the relationship and I and some of my friends like I don't even want it but trying to find your way forward with those male figures in your life and like put in place like what that would look like in your ideal world to be able to like get it and to watch it how healing that must feel i'm so happy for you it's moving yeah it is have you ever reached out or ever spoken to your father

again since yeah yeah yeah you're younger okay i met my dad when i was four but i wasn't told he was my dad and why was that he told my mom that he wouldn't come if she told me who he was so you thought you were just meeting like a guy came to one of my mom's friends came to take me for dinner for my birthday. And I was four or five. So I didn't ask many questions about it. I didn't really get it. And Skye came and took me for dinner and we went for spaghetti. And I don't remember much of it. The only thing I remember is kids cut their spaghetti. And I remember he said, we don't cut our spaghetti. And I went home and my mom was like, how was it? And I was like, he said, we don't cut our spaghetti. And she was like, okay. So then a couple years later after hearing at school and kindergarten and first and second grade you know who's your dad why you know it wasn't it wasn't common to have a single parent household at least the when i was growing up it wasn't as common um all the families that i grew up in looked very traditional and conventional and so i felt that absence very much and so i started asking my mom more and more who's my dad just tell me who's my dad and she's like do you remember that guy that came to take you for dinner and I was like we don't cut our spaghetti guy as my dad and she's like we don't cut our spaghetti guy as your dad and I was devastated I was like I didn't like we don't cut our spaghetti guy she's like I know um yeah and then did you ever I did I did I met him once when i was eight he took me to casper and he fell asleep but i did but did develop a deep crush on devon sawa so the day was not for naught completely lost yeah okay um and then i didn't really see him again until i was on shameless in my 20s and um we tried a couple times um but he's just not really interested in loving me oh but my husband is amazing with my daughter and getting to watch him play with her pick her up from school be so incredibly devoted as a dad and to my son too um getting to watch the fact that I got to give her something that I didn't get is I get to live vicariously through

that. And that's enough for me. It's beautiful. Intimacy. Yeah. How has your understanding of intimacy changed since your early 20s? Well, I'm so much better at asking for what I want. Now,

I, you know, that that little voice inside of you that says, I'd like to be touched like this, or I'd like this or I don't like that. I felt that my voice felt quiet and stifled when I was younger. I felt shame about expressing desire. I felt shame about expressing specifics that I wanted, about using the words. But you have to tell somebody what you want. And also what you want on Monday doesn't mean you want it on Thursday. And it's okay to say, yeah, I wanted that on monday i don't want that today you know like it's okay to grow and change and i feel like i have a lot more

more comfort. And part of that was my pregnancy because my hormones were so strong and I felt so sexual. I was so down that it was the voice was so loud in my head. It was screaming that I couldn't

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network in the u.s based on an analysis by ukla of speed test intelligence data 2h 2025 visit t-mobile.com Can we talk about motherhood? Yeah, my favorite topic. I'm pregnant, obviously. And I feel like a lot of the advice that I'm getting for parenting advice, a lot of people just keep saying like, oh my God, you kind of just have to figure things out. Like that's, people can try to prepare you and tell you what's gonna happen. How did you personally embrace the uncertainty of not having all of the answers and not being able to look at the page? Like you said, you do your script and fill in the blanks and prepare and be ready and then get onto that set and like take it 100% like a pro. You kind of can't do that from what

I understand with motherhood, Emmy. Tell me. You can and you can't. Like you can prepare, but then you never know how things are going to hit you. Yeah. And there's like so much instinct at play. You will just know, at least for me, I can only say from my experience. I saw my child. I knew my child. And I was so taken. You know, I had the same thing that I said about my mom. I wanted to be a mother that was worthy of being this child's mother. And then I realized I'm trying too hard. I'm trying too hard to be worthy of anybody else. I just got to be me. and women are always told, you can have it all. You can, but that actually means you have to do it all and it comes at a cost. And often that cost is not your job and not your kid, but you. So when my daughter was 10 months old, This is an insane story. When my daughter was 10 months old, this is what my therapist calls the pancake problem. I was going to shoot on the crowded room and I had like a 16-hour shoot day and I was waking up before she was going to wake up and I was coming home way before, right after she was going to be asleep. And I was like, how will my daughter know that I love her today she will think I don't love her today she's 10 months old she doesn't know what's going on right she literally doesn't know what's going on so I thought okay well the car is gonna pick me up in like 20 minutes but I have to do something so that my daughter knows I love her today so I have to take a shower I have to get in the car in 20 minutes but I'm gonna make my daughter pancakes from scratch also before i leave this is so i turn on the stove i make the batter i turn it on low i put three little pancakes in the pan and um i set a timer on my phone for three minutes because that's generally how long until you got a flip i ran to the shower got in the shower shampooed washed it out ding ding ding the timer goes off time to flip the pancakes gotta get out of the shower but i still have to condition so i'll have to get back in the shower this is insane but this is also so postpartum like i was like in it i'm picturing

you like wet towel like running no i'm naked you're naked i'm but i'm naked i don't time for

a towel the pancakes are on and i'm in the shower and i gotta be in the car in 15 minutes run to the pancakes they're perfect flip them gorgeous golden brown perfection sprint back to the shower but I left the shower door just a crack open so the water is on the floor so I slip and my foot gets caught under the shower door and I hear like a crack and now I'm like down on the shower floor. And I then scream out like someone turned the pancakes off. I then like army crawl to the kitchen. The pancakes were fine. I then called work and was like, hey, I'm gonna I'm gonna be a couple minutes late and I need to switch my pickup to Lenox Hill Hospital probably just like just just like 20 minutes late. I'm so sorry. I just need like probably a quick x-ray and I'll be right. I'll just a quick little x-ray and I'll be right there. By the way, i didn't hold camera i was like i was completely there on time i got the x-ray my daughter got the pancakes and at the end of the day i was like something's gotta change

okay no i'm listening to the story i'm like i thought that we were like we had to call in to work and we're like out for work no no no she got the pancakes yeah she did the work in the in a

boot and she lost her mind in a boot yeah 100 and so this was a lesson i learned that year and got really, really good at being like, I'm going to do less. But it's something that comes up for me a lot. Like just last week, I took I went to set. I shot my first scene. I had like the middle of the day off. I took my kids to the zoo. I took them on a zip line. We got lunch. I went back to set, did my last scenes, went back, did bath time, bedtime, got on a Zoom. And I was like, I'm depleted. I got to. So this pancake issue, I think, is real for a lot of women, a lot of moms who really want to show up on every level in their lives. They're showing up at work. They're showing up for their kids. No one is feeling it, right? But they're feeling it. And so I think for me, the biggest lesson is that sometimes it's okay to do a little bit less.

I know, I feel like that's what everyone's like, but then I feel so guilty of like one area has to suffer. And like, has that impacted the way that you view your career and success at all?

hmm well motherhood hasn't made me any less desirous of storytelling or ambitious clearly

not that's why we're here today we're about to get there yeah and i think it's made me more

strategic and clearer about when it's worth when the story is worth me missing even the smallest moments of my kids life like a normal day I wake up and I take them on the public bus and I do drop off and if I go to set I go to set and if not I go about my day and I pick up like I want to be in my kids lives as much as possible your new project yeah the show furious yeah it is

your production company's second project yeah and you are both the executive producer and you are the star so congratulations thank you doing both um i am so

interested to hear you talk more about it because it is obviously so like female led. And I know that's what your production company focuses on. But just tell us a little bit more about it from

your perspective and what drew you to it. I really wanted to go back and look at old films that had good skeletons of what could make a TV show and was really, really looking for a character that would be as rich and as deep and as fascinating as Fiona that I could play for years and years. And it's a really fascinating world. It tells the story of my character, Alice, who is a former NYPD detective, which is a very prestigious job. It is not a job that people leave. And Alice has left the police department because she's been in an abusive relationship with another officer who she's known since her teenage years. She started over at the FBI. She's a new FBI agent who's really going to have to work her way up. She stumbles upon this idea that there's a murder that is connected to an old case that she had at the NYPD. We are simultaneously following this serial killer, this really fascinating, mysterious woman who has been also a victim of violence and is kind of on a mission to enact vengeance and get justice for herself. And Alice's plan to get justice on a much larger scale. And we'll notice that the women are actually more similar than they are different. And I was really fascinated too by what happens for women in law enforcement when they need to make a complaint on their own behalf like who do you call when your partner is hurting you and is in also in law enforcement you call 9-1-1 and who answers the phone the partner of your partner whose responsibility is to watch each other's back on the street it is incredibly complicated dynamic and very charged and for alice who stumbles upon this case and then gets back involved with the nypd who she's been running from um to have to see that former person at your new job when you've done everything to get away from them and also the relationship between alice and her ex is one that had violence and control but also love and desire and loyalty and history for a very very long time um so it's a very very complicated like fertile ground and one that i was like i could dig here for a long time well i i

agree i my uh team and i were talking about how we just love these female characters and i know the show gets its title from the greek goddess of vengeance you mentioned yeah yes multiple goddesses yeah who's want to enact vengeance can you explain what really started to interest you about female fury and rage oh well i think women have a lot to be furious about um that felt cheesy

but i didn't mean it that way um because that's the title of the show okay um no i think um i think sometimes as we see with these characters our power does come from being underestimated um for both of these women they have to work in the shadows outside the the conventions and they both exhibit very risky behavior um and i think that that's why they're

fascinating to watch something that i love that you do a little differently is the central conflict yes being at first between these two women obviously there's so many layers to it but I feel like neither woman neatly fits into the hero or the villain box which I love that so much and I'm curious like what interested you in kind of putting out a show that does live in the gray

area I love that I mean I think that's so delicious I think that there's so much more kind of juice to be found in moral gray areas than in people who seem one way but then surprise you and can be other ways no i completely agree are there any

themes that you have been really pulled to in your life recently or any i don't know anything just like thematically that you're like oh that's also something i want to definitely explore in the future in a project or whatever it be that you're like, I think that's something as a

woman, especially with my female-led company that I want to kind of take on?

Yeah, I think, I mean, I'm interested in exploring all aspects of contemporary womanhood. Anything that causes us shame, anything that makes me uncomfortable or confused or to feel some sort of way, that's what I move towards. Certainly roles that scare me,

and this one did i have so much respect for how much you pour into your roles and obviously even hearing you say like i wanted to find something that was as intense for me and like brought it to life like fiona because that those are huge shoes to fill everyone like thinks of that role and they're like oh my god it was so iconic and so the fact that you have such a passion for this show coming out I know it's like how exciting as yes an actress but also on the back end being behind the camera and bringing this to life um I'm so happy for you thank you it's really cool I literally was just like a sponge wanting to talk to you about everything and I know we went all over the place today but that was by design because I was like I need to I know we only have so much time but I need to try to cherry pick every little thing from you thank you for sitting with me and just having some girl chat. Thank you so much. I appreciated it very much. Call Her Daddy is brought to you by Ross. Summer is here and Ross is where it begins. Summer is basically permission to dress and decorate like your mood board from flowy dresses and denim shorts to graphic tees you'll live in ross has the standout pieces to build your perfect wardrobe and when it's time to refresh your outdoor space think pillows planters trays and all the little extras that turn your patio into a whole vibe find your nearest ross at rossstores.com call her daddy is brought to you by t-mobile daddy gang summer is officially here which means the Euro trip you've been talking about in the group chat since January. It's actually real. The outfits are planned. The dinner reservations booked. The inspo photos saved. But nothing humbles you faster than landing internationally with no service, no directions and one percent battery while trying to figure out how are we going to navigate and get to our hotel? That is why I love traveling with T-Mobile. They make oh my God, they make the experience feel way more put together. Like for example, T-Mobile members can get a free premium drink on Delta Airlines, which we love. Yes. And there are so many other travel perks that actually come in handy. See how to get rewarded with Hilton savings on rental cars and up to 2,500 bucks in cruise credit at T-Mobile.com slash travel. With that many credits, suddenly the whole, should we extend the trip for another two days conversation, honestly, it just starts sounding a lot more realistic. But whether you're going on your annual girls' trip, heading to a destination wedding, or just like simply leaving town to pretend your inbox doesn't exist for a few days, you're covered on America's best network, Daddy Gang. Hook yourself up. Delta Drink with eligible plan and linked SkyMiles account 24 hours before qualifying flight required.

21 plus, see T-Life for terms. T-Mobile has the best T-Mobile network in the US based on an analysis by Ookla of speed test intelligence data 2H2025. Visit T-Mobile.com. Call Her Daddy is brought to you by Bright by Scotch Bright. Daddy gang, a lot of us obviously take pride in where we live, right? We want the decor to look good and then we want the lighting and the cleaning and all of it. And you want it to look spotless and you want it to look really nice, right? So level up your clean routine with Bright's line of sponges. Use the palm scrubber with a comfy grip for serious scrubs, the easy-to-fill leak-proof dish wand to keep hands out of the mess, or the scrub and wipe for a scrubbing side and a sud-sing side. All three look good, scrub great, and they come with handy drain and dry stands that are super compact and cute. Hook yourself up. Boost it with Bright. Shop now.