House of Cards actress Robin Wright has revealed that while she asked for equal pay, she’s not receiving it.
Wright plays the wife of US President, Frank Underwood in the hit Netflix show and fought to get the same pay as her co-star, Kevin Spacey but has recently discovered that this isn’t the case.
She said, “I was told that I was getting equal pay and I believed them, and I found out recently that it’s not true….so that’s something to investigate.”
“Yes, so that’s something to investigate.”
“Claire and Francis are equivalent as far as their power, their union and the plot.”
“I may not have as many scenes or words as Francis, but Claire doesn’t need to verbalise as much.”
“Francis is an orator, a poet, a demonstrator. Claire is an [ego] that sits in the back and directs him, but they are partners on the same plane.”
When asked whether she felt nervous about approaching the studio for equal pay, Wright said, “Not for a second.”
“It’s just fair, on principle.”
The actress had previously told the studio that she would go public unless they agreed to equal pay – something they had claimed to do.
Speaking at an event in New York, Wright said, “It was the perfect paradigm.”
“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.”
“I was looking at the statistics and Claire Underwood’s character was more popular than [Frank’s] for a period of time.”
“So I capitalised on it.”
“I was like: ‘You’d better pay me or I’m going to go public.’ And they did.”