Netflix series House of Cards star Robin Wright reveals why she was paid less than Kevin Spacey
Robin Wright says she was denied equal pay on House of Cards because she didn’t have an Academy Award.
The 59-year-old actress played Claire Underwood on the Netflix show from 2013 to 2018, but she was denied the same salary as her on-screen husband, Kevin Spacey, because he had won a Best Actor Oscar for American Beauty in 2000 and Best Supporting Actor for The Usual Suspects in 1996.
Speaking at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival, Wright told Variety: “When David Fincher introduced ‘House of Cards’ to me, he said, ‘This is going to be the future, it’s going to be revolutionary.’ And look where we are now.”
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Of her fight for equal pay, she said: “Yes, it was difficult. I am going to be honest.
“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 pay cheques.’ I asked, ‘Why can’t you pay me as an actor?’ ‘Because you didn’t win an Academy Award.’”
Wright knew being angry “wasn’t going to change anything”.
She said: “That has been the protocol for years - it just is. 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?”
Wright, who has Dylan, 34, and Hopper, 31, with ex-husband Sean Penn, admitted House of Cards helped her through a “dry” period in her career.
