House of Cards’ Robin Wright had to fight to get pay equal to Kevin Spacey
The actor best known for her portrayal of Claire Underwood in House of Cards has said she had to fight for equal pay in the hit series.
Wright, who stars alongside the show’s producer Kevin Spacey, is the latest to weigh in on the inequality of pay in Hollywood.
Speaking to an audience at the Rockerfeller Foundation, Wright said she realised several series into the Netflix show that she was being paid less than Spacey.
She said: “I was like, ‘I want to be paid the same as Kevin.’”
Adding: “I was looking at statistics and Claire Underwood’s character was more popular than [Frank’s] for a period of time. So I capitalised on that moment.”
“I was like, ‘You better pay me or I’m going to go public.’ And they did,” she went on.
‘There are very few films or TV shows where the male, the patriarch, and the matriarch are equal. And they are in House of Cards,’ she ended by saying.
According to reports, Kevin Spacey was being paid $500,000 per episode of House of Cards in 2014, when Season 3 was still to air.
Similarly, reports suggested Robin Wright earned $5.5 million from the series between 2014 and 2015, averaging at $420,000 per episode.
House of Cards showrunner Beau Willimon last year spoke about the sexuality of Kevin Spacey’s character Frank Underwood.
Corey Stoll, who played Congressman in the Netflix series, got his kit off in a new episode of Girls.
Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe last month said he simply cannot understand why there is such a pay gap between men and women in Hollywood, and that it makes him really “fucking angry”.
X-Files star Gillian Anderson last year spoke about the gender pay gap, saying she was offered “half” the pay of David Duchovny for the show’s revival.
Years after speaking out about having a relationship with a woman, Anderson last year said she thought she owed it to her to not keep their relationship a secret.
