Talk to any actor on a TV series and they'll rave about their castmates and how they're all a family and they love each other and blah, blah, blah. You know the drill. But on Shameless, the posturing might actually be true. Cast-mates video chat each other daily. They support each other at graduations and weddings. And almost the entire extended Gallagher clan watched the Showtime dramedy's eighth season finale together — in the backyard of patriarch Frank (and recent SAG Award winner), William H. Macy.



The finale ended with closure for several of the working-class Chicago siblings: Fiona (Emmy Rossum) regained control of her apartment building, Lip (Jeremy Allen White) worked through his struggles with sobriety, Carl (Ethan Cutkosky) headed back to military school (leaving his crazy new wife behind), and honorary Gallaghers Veronica (Shanola Hampton) and Kevin (Steve Howey) married off their scheming ex-wife, Svetlana (Isidora Goreshter), to a rich old man. (Goreshter just announced on Instagram that she’s leaving the series.)

Below, Hampton discusses season 8, Svetlana's departure, and what she wants to see when Shameless returns.

The beginning of the season saw Vee and Kev united against Svetlana, and by the end they helped her get married. Were they just trying to get her out of their lives?

That's exactly what it was. They wanted to marry her off so that they could get her away from them and be able to keep their bar. There was never going to be a moment where they would ever be what they were the season before, because she stole the bar from them and she made Veronica look stupid and she did things to really hurt Veronica and Kev's family — she took food out of the babies' mouths and made them struggle. So it had to come to an end. That's not to say the Svetlana character couldn't have gone on to other things, but with Kevin-Veronica-Svetlana, there was no way to come back from that.

Did you know going into the finale that it would be the end for Isidora?

We as a cast didn't know about it until halfway or maybe three quarters of the way through the season.

Was it bittersweet having to say goodbye?

More bitter than sweet. Isidora — you're talking about a Hollywood dream story. This is a person who came on the show and was expected to do one scene — the sex scene, with one line — and be done, never to see the Russian whore again. And she made it five seasons to a series regular last year. She worked her way all the way up, which is such a testament to her talent, and it was really a great vibe to be able to play opposite her. It was definitely bitter, but I know she's going to go on and do unbelievable things.

Pairing Kev and Vee with Svetlana was a great, funny dynamic.

We were able to have a lot of fun with it and offer a lot of comedic relief. [Steve] Howey is my best friend on the show, he is my ride-or-die. Way after this show is over we'll be on a rocking chair going, "Remember when we were on that show, Shameless?" I would work with him for the rest of my life.

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Svetlana's character has been instrumental in helping Vee and Kev grow up a little bit — how will they be able to cope without her?

Let's be clear: Veronica and Kevin were coping just fine before she came along. They weren't as savvy as they thought they were. Veronica's used to being the aunt to all the Gallaghers and knowing how to maneuver everything. She got outsmarted, so that won't happen again. She's going to be more aware and looking at the fine print of stuff.

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Is it possible there’s going to be a time jump next season?

No one knows anything. The writers haven't even been back in the room. I don't even know if they're staffed yet. That would be fun, but I have no idea. I was with a couple of the writers last night and they seemed to honestly not know what was going to happen. I don't know! It'll be fascinating for us all.

Emmy tweeted that there was one more season to go. Does that mean the show is winding down?

I think that she probably just meant that we have one more season for sure, but we have not had the word that this is our final season. Showtime is pretty good, like with Dexter, in saying it's the final season. We haven't had that tacked onto the ninth season yet.

Some criticism online said that this finale left a lot of characters in the same place they were at the beginning of the season. Do you think that's true for Vee and Kev?

I don't feel that's the case for Vee and Kev. Veronica was so pissed off at the beginning of the season, she wanted to take a toilet seat and hit [Svetlana] over the head. She was thinking and plotting so many different ways to kill this woman. She and Kev were on a mission together, but they weren't focused on anything that was going on in their relationship and what was lacking. Kev was the pushover he always was, whereas by the end of this season, Veronica got answers. She did fall back and get into a bedroom relationship with Svetlana, but then she figured out what was missing with Kev, and then Kev got his balls. Kev got his balls! We got to grow.

I can see where that criticism would come from, but sometimes that is a reflection of life. Sometimes you have moments where you've really grown and something major has happened and you've changed, but some years it's just like, "Oh, now it's 2018, okay; I feel the same as I did in 2017."

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Vee and Kev were isolated from the Gallaghers over the course of the season. Do you think they'll interact with the family more next season?

I can tell you that I hope they get back to that dynamic, because there's nothing like watching a full cast day or a full cast scene where everybody's on the same mission to help one another. I think that's what people fell in love with from the beginning. None of us like to be isolated. If you look at it, each character — Ian was isolated from the family for a lot [of the season] and Lip was on his own journey with Professor Youens and Fiona has the apartment building and Debbie was doing her welding — there's a sense of everybody living their own life. But I think that we do need to get back to the central part where we all come together. We want that too.

Maybe if this season was missing anything, it may have been some of the heart of it. Yes, we must grow and evolve, but it's important to us to stay true to our roots. I can't wait for season nine so we can really, really do that.

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