The Heartbreaking Way Art Imitated Life When Fiona's Grandma Passed Away On Shameless

When a series is adapted from another country, it's not a given that it will work in its new setting. Luckily for fans of the original "Shameless" series from the United Kingdom, though, Showtime's American remake of the dysfunctional, low-income family dramedy managed to nail just about everything that made its predecessor work (via Rotten Tomatoes).

Emmy Rossum played the central role of Fiona from Season 1 through to Season 9 of "Shameless," and her character was put through the wringer time and time again over the course of the series. Forced to carry much of the slack for her irresponsible, alcoholic father, Frank Gallagher (William H. Macy), Fiona takes on a ton of responsibility with regard to making sure her siblings are looked after properly.

However, when it came to one of Fiona's most trying and emotional moments in "Shameless," the death of her grandmother in Season 2 of the series, Rossum shared that this storyline may have hit a little too close to home for her.

Emmy Rossum stopped by the r/IAmA subreddit for a round of questions from fans of "Shameless" and her other works. Given the often taboo-embracing nature of the series, it shouldn't come as a surprise that fans wanted to know if any of the show's button-pressing storytelling took a toll on the actor. However, it turned out to be a more commonplace experience that shook Rossum the most from her time on the show.

"My gramma died the week we were shooting the episode where Fiona's gramma died," Rossum recalled. "So that was hard. I found myself not wanting to get emotional on set because that feeling was so close to home, and I wanted to save it for my personal life."

While the loss of a grandparent is something that most of us will have to go through at some point in our lives, it doesn't necessarily make it any easier to reckon with when that day finally comes. While it's unlikely that Rossum's real-life grandmother died in as controversial a manner as Peggy Gallagher (Louise Fletcher), who was mercy-killed with a pillow, all the same, it's undoubtedly an irreplaceable loss and clearly something the performer didn't want to cross streams with for "Shameless."