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A revolving rotation of people are pouring in and out of The London NYC hotel as I pass through the lobby —an influx likely ascribed to the bridal event in-house and Comic-Con's arrival. Fortunately, the hotel restaurant where I am meeting Steve is fairly quiet this early-October afternoon. I am still at the hostess stand when Steve walks in. Unlike Kevin Ball, his Shameless character, Steve's wardrobe (a black t-shirt emblazoned with a skull donning a wolf headdress and fitted black jeans) clings to his 6'4" 230-pound build (numbers he offers up when talking about typecasting) —showing off his muscular physique. "People tell me, your body has changed over the course of Shameless, and I was like, 'Yeah, I had all these kids to lift [his own three with his wife, actress Sarah Shahi: Wolf, 8; two-and-a-half- year-old twins, Violet and Knox; and his onscreen twin daughters]. Before, I had long hair, riding motorcycles, and I was being that guy…" Ready for a positive change, Steve swapped partying for the gym. "I became a better dad, became more involved. Also, it helps with energy and hanging out with them, 'cause they need you physically, not just emotionally, spiritually. Especially my kids, they're just like WWE in my house." Now that the actor is in professional-fighter-shape, everyone is asking him to disrobe. "I'm naked in everything I do now. Just being exploited left and right," he quips with a grin. On the previous season of Shameless, Kev wrangled a bartending job at the Fairy Tale by slipping on gold lamé shorts (yes, that's all he had on) and bringing all the boys to the yard when he hosed off his very-chiseled chest and six-pack with a soda fountain gun. And this was the tame version. Originally, they wanted one of the guys to drink the water flowing off of Kev's gold-wrapped package. "I was like, 'No! That's disgusting!'" Steve exclaims all wide-eyed and animatedly. A little uncomfortable with all the male attention he garnered from onlookers ("I would adjust just to have it look good, right? And they were like, 'Uh huh, ahhh!' What the fuck is going on? Why are you watching me?"), his biggest challenge was saying Kelis' famous lyric without sounding like a caricature of a gay man. "I was doing it, not even conscious of it. I'd whip around, go, 'My milkshake brings all the boys to yard,'" he says flamboyantly. "Wow, I can't not do it. The director is like, 'It's great.' I'm like, 'No, no, no. Let's do it again.' I wanted to say it like, This is true," he says seriously. "I had to really believe that I'm bringing joy to people." Since Shameless' 2011 premiere, I —along with legions of fans— have tuned in each week to watch the charismatic ensemble cast, which includes Emmy Rossum and William H. Macy, push the boundaries. Then Netflix picked up the show, and their fan base really blew up. "People binge-watched it and they were like, 'What the fuck is this?' The writers are really good." Shameless has covered every dysfunctional arena —no salacious rock has gone unturned – from taboo relationships and drug/alcohol addiction to illegal occupations and absolutely-no- holds-barred sex. As you'd expect, Season 8, which returned to Showtime on November 5th, is chockfull of "the same old, good, sordid debauchery as other seasons." Kev is still bartending at the Fairy Tale. "He starts off there and for extra money he gets fondled up by a patron and he finds a lump [in his breast]. They find out it's benign but he's freaked out, so Kev tells Veronica that he needs to know if it runs in the family…." So, they go to Kentucky, the Confederate flag wavin' part, to reconnect with his long-lost family. Here, they run into the Ku Klux Klan. "As the actors, Shanola [Hampton] and I were like, 'What are we doing? This is just out of nowhere.' But it lives up to the show's name, it's pretty shameless. They're pushing the envelope pretty hard. Frank goes sober for a while. Fiona now owns an apartment building. There's some new characters. Lip goes on this sober bend. Ian becomes this gay Jesus. Carl's dealing with this psycho new girlfriend. Debbie still has Franny. She becomes a welder… There's a lot going on." A fan of all his cast mates, Steve continuously finds himself impressed with their performances. "I think the most improved, the one I'm super impressed with, is Cameron [Monaghan, who plays Ian]. I've seen him grow in the last eight years from this boy to this man." Recently, Emmy threw Emma Kenney (who plays Debbie) an 18th birthday party, where the cast went around the table telling stories. "When Emma auditioned, she was 9. 9! A little girl. And I remember her as a little girl, and that's all I remember her as. Next day she shows up and she's a woman… It's unreal. And I tell them that. This is not normal, that a show goes this long. Doesn't exist. I remember being told that on my other show, I was on a sitcom called Reba." By Chris Rich? I ask. JoAnna Garcia Swisher (our former cover star who played Steve's wife, Cheyenne, on Reba) told me that Chris would tell you all not to take this for granted because it doesn't happen very often. "Yep. Did JoAnna tell you that story?" Steve marvels at the idea of being among the few actors from multiple shows with 100+ episodes, like Lee Majors (Steve was named after Lee's character Steve Austin), who was recently honored for this at an award show Steve attended. Reba went for 125 episodes and Shameless reached 96 with the eighth season. Now that Shameless has been renewed for a ninth season –news that had not been released at the time of our interview— those bragging rights will soon be his. Our server appears. "Do you want to order some food?" Steve asks me. If you eat, I'll have something small, I reply. "Let's nosh." He orders the chopped salad with salmon, while I order dessert: Coconut Panna Cotta. "Oh, you're awesome, Vanessa. Next level." On the subject of Reba, Steve tells me that playing Van Montgomery was an amazing experience. "It was my first thing. I did some guest stars and a commercial and that was it. I was really nervous. I was 20, 21… I didn't have any expectations. I just went off how Reba [McEntire] went. She was first to set, last to leave, cool as shit. I really respected her and I learned a lot from her professionalism." During the six seasons they all worked together, Steve mentions that he's the only one who got Reba fired up. "I gave shit to the director, Will Mackenzie, and he's just a sweetheart of a man. I don't know what the hell was wrong with me, but I became a dick. Mackenzie said something and I said, 'Don't give me a line read!' And Reba just went, 'You don't talk to him that way. You respect him!' Everybody backed away and pointed at me and was like, 'Get him. Get him, Reba. He's bad! You made Reba mad, you fucking asshole,'" he says in an exaggerated manner reminiscent of Van. "I took it on the chin and said, 'You know what, Reba? You're right. I apologize. Will, I