Robin Wright Demands Equal Pay For House Of Cards

Robin Wright is the latest actress to demand equal pay for doing the same job as a man. Speaking at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York, the House of Cards star told the audience that she had to push for the same salary as co-star Kevin Spacey on the hit Netflix show – and threatened the studio bosses with going public if her demands were not met. According to a report by Huffington Post, the irony was not lost on Wright that she had to fight for equal pay for portraying a character who, in the plot, constantly battles for equality against her husband – in this case the President of the United States. And in the show, usually, she wins. “It was the perfect paradigm,” she told the audience. “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.” Indeed, Wright has starred in every single episode of House of Cards, is listed as a producer, and has even directed seven episodes. “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 better pay me or I’m going to go public.' And they did,” the 50-year-old said. Wright went on to claim that raising a family (she has two children with former husband Sean Penn) had affected her salary. “Because I wasn’t working full-time, I wasn’t building my salary bracket. If you don’t build that … with notoriety and presence, you’re not in the game any more. You become a B-list actor. You’re not box office material,” she said. “You don’t hold the value you would have held if you had done four movies a year like Nicole Kidman and Cate Blanchett did during the time I was raising my kids. Now I’m kind of on a comeback at 50 years old.” Equal pay in Hollywood is a hot topic after Jennifer Lawrence came forward last year about being paid significantly less than her male American Hustle co-stars. Since then many other actresses including Gwyneth Paltrow, Meryl Streep and Susan Sarandon have shared similar tales. A story such as Wright’s will hopefully inspire more women to be upfront with their demands – in Hollywood and elsewhere.