The audience really has a lot of affection for these two characters. What kinds of interactions have you had with "Gallavich" fans?

NF: Some really cool moments I've had have been just walking around on the street and having people run into me and recognize me from the show.

EF: Are they scared of you?

NF: They think I'm a lot tougher than I am. But I've had several people talk to me about how this kind of a story, being told in this way, is kind of a first and how that's very important to a lot of people. As an actor, that's like the pinnacle of what you want to be doing, and Shameless is amazing for letting us be a part of this kind of a story. It's been pretty awesome.

CM: Yeah, right from the start there was really positive reaction, both online and in person. Especially online. That component has really exploded over the last five years. You can't see every single message, but you try to look whenever you can, and it's amazing to see the excitement and the passion people have for it. It's good to know we're not alone in the passion for this work that we're doing. It's the best feeling an artist can have.

EF: We all hope that this isn't a tree in the forest that nobody hears, so when you get feedback that it's really resonating with people the way that you hoped, it's really gratifying.

Looping back around to the idea of obstacles, I want to talk about what I think was the biggest one: Mickey's dad, Terry (Dennis Cockrum). In Season 3, Mickey's dad found them together and then forced Ian, at gunpoint, to watch Mickey have sex with a female prostitute. As hard as that was to watch, you also felt so much empathy and sorrow for this couple. Etan, what do you recall about that sequence of events, since it basically led the characters to Mickey's big coming-out moment in Season 4?

EF: With Mickey especially, there's so many things in the way; there's his dad, there's his family in general, the neighborhood, and, at the end of the day, Mickey's own feelings of identity and whether he can come to grips with who he really is. There are a lot of different obstacles and it was important to parse those out. His father was the most fun one, because it was so visceral and violent and the fun of that character is that he can almost do anything. Well, the Milkoviches in general can almost do anything and you buy it. You can have as much fun as possible and, weirdly enough for this show, still keep it grounded.

CM: And we have to give [Dennis] a lot of credit, he was so phenomenal.

EF: Yes. And if you watch those scenes, to see how these guys play it, they're not playing the ridiculousness of the situation, they're playing the brutal emotion. And it's grisly watching their reactions, so, as crazy as the premise sounds, it comes off in a very specific way because of how they grounded it. They've both had a lot of obstacles on the way. Do they make it? I don't know. I can't say.

CM: You said that this was their biggest obstacle, but I think you're going to see that isn't the biggest obstacle after this season.

NF: Yeah. I think that was the biggest physical obstacle. I think there are harder obstacles to overcome.

CM: Yeah, those were external circumstances that were preventing them from really even coming together in a full way, and now that they are and they're able to be comfortable and open about it, there are new unfortunate circumstances.

Based on what we've seen this season, I'm assuming you're talking about Ian's bipolar disorder. I have to say that I loved how protective Mickey was when he told Fiona [Emmy Rossum] that they were going to take care of Ian themselves because that's what family does. That was a very big moment for him.

NF: Yeah. For me, Mickey's always been one of those characters that will literally do anything for the people in his inner circle. If you're part of that circle, there's nothing he won't do for you. That's a really cool thing about Season 4 and 5. In Season 4, there was this revelation and this evolution within the character becoming himself and standing up for who he is and being able to openly include Ian within that circle. And then Season 5, you'll see the issue that arises is not something he can stand up to. In a weird way, he's really helpless to do anything for one of those inner circle people, and that's not easy for someone like Mickey, who is really protective. He just has to stand and be as centered in the storm as he can, which is not a good feeling.