- Culture
- 18 May 16
The actress has opened up about her struggle to earn the same wage of House of Cards co-star, Kevin Spacey.
It's an ugly truth that even in the 21st century, in a supposed progressive state, most women do not earn the same as men despite doing the same job.
Robin Wright channeled the steely and fierce attitude of her character Claire Underwood when she threatened to bring the battle for pay equality public with Netflix. Speaking yesterday at a press conference, Wright was asked about the barriers that faced her as a woman in Hollywood. This led on to her revealing her own fight; "I was like 'I want to be paid the same as Kevin'," Wright got straight to the point, "Claire Underwood’s character was more popular than [Frank’s] for a period of time. So I capitalized on it. I was like, ‘You better pay me or I’m going to go public’ And they did.”
Like her male co-star, Wright has starred in all 52 episodes of the Netflix political drama, directed several episodes and was listed as an exec-producer in the last series. Yet there was an $80,000 discrepancy between her earnings and Kevin Spacey's according to The Huffington Post.
Wright is the latest high-profile actress to speak out publicly on the issue. The Gender Pay Gap has become a topic that is pushed more and more to the forefront of Hollywood in recent years with actresses like Jennifer Lawrence, Patricia Arquette and Meryl Streep all becoming advocates in the fight for pay equity. Although these women are banking 7-figure pay cheques, the gender pay gap that exists in today's society, whether in Hollywoood or here, remains morally bankrupt.