What are they looking for, and what’s the connection? Whether it’s sex or some kind of emotional connection, that’s what makes it appealing to me. But I’ve always believed that relationships are not about the age between people but who they are. You see how young he is in some of the choices he’s making with her and he tells her some of the stuff that’s going on in his life that puts her in the middle of situations she doesn’t necessarily want to be a part of.
I don’t think she takes a motherly “I’m going to take care of you” approach, but a little bit more of ‘I’m older I’m wiser I know what I’m talking about and you need to get your shit together.’ ” “She is somebody that he can trust and as somebody that I think is looking at him and saying, ‘You can be more than you were raised in.’ And for Lip, he’s stuck between the people and the society that he was raised in and now being at a university with new options, and she’s saying, ‘Behave like the kid at that university.’ Yes, I think she definitely is somewhat maternal, and you’re going to see that in the next episode. If she’s advising him or just listening as he confides in her, that almost sounds maternal. Read more ‘Shameless’ Postmortem: Justin Chatwin Breaks Down His Future With the Showtime Dramedy Not every episode has them in bed! ( Laughs.) She’s a progressive woman, so what is it that moves her? What is is that she sees? What’s happening inside?” She takes an interest in him that goes beyond what she expected. So I come at it from the position that “this isn’t just about sex.
When he shows up to her office - just how he is with her - I think she’s attracted to him I think it’s sexy and hot and all of that, but then she starts to really see that he is a very special kid in terms of where he came from and who he is. He’s really smart and not just in the classroom. One of the things that did concern me, and which I kept going back to, was “Would she really do this and risk her tenure by getting involved with ?” That said, Lip is special. What do you think Helene saw in Lip that inspired the progression of their relationship to move as fast as it did? I was looking for something different, and Shameless came up, and it was perfect timing. ( Laughs.) So after six years on that show, it was very exciting to me. I think most actors do want to take on roles that are something different from what we’ve played before, and Helene couldn’t be further from Dr. The producers came to me with the part, but they were concerned that there was nudity involved They wanted to know whether or not I would even consider it, and I said, “Well yeah, but it depends, obviously, on what it is.” So I had a lengthy conversation with Nancy Pimental and Chris Chulackand Andrew Stearn about the details of this woman - who she is and what role she plays in the story and then in Lip’s journey. I really want to play all kinds of characters, and it felt like the only way to do that was to get into a role that shows a completely different side of me. The wonderful thing about television is that you do get to play the same part for a long time, but the the other part of that is people do start to see you as only this one thing. If so, what was it about Helene that made you say, “That’s the one!” Let’s start at the beginning with Helene: were you actively looking for a role so different from Dr.
Macy: Directing ‘Shameless’ Was “The Hardest Thing I’ve Ever Done” In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Alexander talks about what to expect from Helene and why now was the perfect time for her to take on an edgier role. Amanda may have been Lip’s gateway drug into a new world of the finer things in life, but Helene is challenging him and inspiring him to be a better man. But the entrance of Helene ( Sasha Alexander), Lip’s professor-turned-lover may just be the biggest complication of them all. But that seemed harder when Lip started dating rich girl Amanda ( Nichole Bloom), and it got even more complicated when Mandy moved away from Chicago with her abusive boyfriend. For four and a half seasons of Showtime’s dysfunctional family dramedy, Shameless, many viewers have been waiting - maybe not-so-patiently - for Lip Gallagher ( Jeremy Allen White) and Mandy Milkovich ( Emma Greenwell) to figure things out and actually make a go of their nontraditional relationship.