When it came to getting paid the same amount as her “House of Cards” costar Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright had to be as shrewd as her character Claire Underwood.
While speaking at the Monte-Carlo TV Festival on Monday, Wright opened up about fighting for equal pay with Spacey going into the fourth season of the hit Netflix series.
“It was difficult, I am going to be honest,” she said, according to Variety. “When I said, ‘I think it’s only fair because my character became as popular as [Spacey’s],’ they said, ‘We can’t pay you the same as an actor, so we will make you exec producer and you can direct. We will give you three different paychecks.’ I asked, ‘Why can’t you pay me as an actor?’ ‘Because you didn’t win an Academy Award.'”
When the landmark Netflix series about amoral politician Frank Underwood (Spacey) and his ambitious wife Claire (Wright) debuted in 2013, Spacey was an established star who had already won two Oscars: best supporting actor for 1995’s “The Usual Suspects” and best actor for 1999’s “American Beauty.” A year later in 2014, he was reportedly earning $500,000 an episode for the series’ second season.
By the time “House of Cards” ended its six-season run in 2018, Wright’s Claire had become the series’ lead after Spacey was fired in 2017 amid allegations of sexual misconduct.
So, did Wright ever get equal pay?
“I don’t think I’m getting paid the same amount,” Wright revealed in a 2017 profile for the United Airlines in-flight magazine Rhapsody. “They told me I was getting a raise. But… I don’t think so.”
Looking back on it now, Wright said being angry over unequal pay wouldn’t have made a difference because it “wasn’t going to change anything.”
“That has been the protocol for years — it just is,” Wright said at the Monte-Carlo TV Festival. “If you say, ‘Why did so-and-so female not get the same amount as Will Smith?’ They say, ‘It will increase after you win.’ Nomination, not so much. Why does it have to do anything with a raise?”
Netflix did not respond for to a request for comment.
Wright went on to direct 10 episodes of “House of Cards” and was an executive producer on seasons four through six.
She will star, direct episodes, and executive produce the upcoming limited series “The Girlfriend,” which will be released on Prime Video in the fall.
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