NORTH LAWNDALE — Damien Lee has no problem when film crews shut down traffic to his block for the Showtime series "Shameless".
That's because he usually scores some security work out of it.
"It's not too bad, but gotta dress warm, man," Lee, 21, said as manned his post in North Lawndale Wednesday. "It'd be nicer to do it in the summer."
Lee said he lives in the house on a corner in the 2100 block of S. Homan Ave., one of the blocks the series was filming exterior shots on this week.
The Chicago-based show follows a dysfunctional South Side Irish family, the Gallaghers. In the show, the Gallagher family lives in the city's Canaryville neighborhood, but the home is actually located in North Lawndale.
"Shameless," currently in its fourth season, is one of several shows filming in Chicago that has led to a boom in the city's film industry. Last year saw a 20 percent jump in production activity over 2012, according to city officials.
The Chicago Film Office has estimated that shows such as Shameless take about eight days and $2 million an episode.
Chicagoans like Lee say they welcome the cameras and the cash that goes along with it.
And it doesn't hurt that Lee likes "Shameless" either. He said he doesn't miss an episode.
"My brother watches it. That's who got me into watching it," he said. "I'm like, this is a good show...Shows what it's like for some of us."
Shameless was also set to film in the Lakeview neighborhood Wednesday afternoon near Irving Park Road and Broadway.
But apparently the show's stars, who film most scenes in Los Angeles, were getting a little taste of Chiberia, according to a tweet from Emmy Rossum, who plays Fiona Gallagher.
"It's so cold in Chicago that our cameras are malfunctioning," Rossum tweeted Wednesday. "We are using hair dryers to warm up the mechanics."
