Evan Rachel Wood Is ‘Just Now’ Receiving the Same Pay as Male ‘Westworld’ Co-Stars (Exclusive Video)
”I’ve never been paid the same as my male counterparts. Never, never,“ actress tells TheWrap of pay parity throughout her career
Jennifer Maas | April 16, 2018 @ 5:20 PM
Last Updated: April 20, 2018 @ 6:51 PM
It’s hard to argue that anyone’s face is more strongly associated with “Westworld” than Dolores Abernathy’s (Evan Rachel Wood).
But the actress who plays the robotic rancher’s daughter in HBO’s sci-fi hit tells TheWrap that her paycheck didn’t match her status for the series’ first two seasons. At least, it wasn’t equal to what the leading men were raking in.
“I think I’m just now to the point where I’m getting paid the same as my male co-stars,” Wood said in a recent interview with Sharon Waxman, TheWrap’s founder and CEO.
With the sophomore installment about to premiere, Wood found out she was getting a bump for Season 3 equal to the likes of Anthony Hopkins and Ed Harris — the men of Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s drama (well, the latter still is, as of that messy freshman year finale).
“I was just told that, you know, ‘Hey you’re, you’re getting equal pay.’ And I was like [gasp]. And I almost got emotional,” Wood said. “I was like, ‘I have never been paid the same as my male counterparts … Never, never.'”
“I found out … I’m always fighting for that,” Wood added. “And I have turned down projects — “Westworld,” it’s like, I get it a little more,” she said laughing. “It’s like, ‘Well, you’re Anthony Hopkins or Ed Harris.’ But I think now we’re all doing equal amounts of work and really hard work.”
Wood said up until now, she has been making “pretty much the same amount of money on things for years.”
“I have not moved,” Wood said. “And I’m not saying I’m in like dire straits. I’m very lucky … It’s more about if you’re getting paid fairly, or the same, or if you’re getting paid less simply because you’re a woman, that’s not fair.”
“There’s a lot of politics, but there’s a lot of things that are now being talked about in a different way,” Wood added. “There is a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes. There is a lot of trying to make things equal and trying to make things fair. I don’t know, there is a lot of stuff. But this is the first time that somebody made a point of being like, ‘Hey you’re getting this. And you deserve it.’ And that was nice.”
Earlier this month, HBO boss Casey Bloys addressed the topic of pay parity at the premium cabler following comments made by an exec who said the bump in salaries the cast of “Big Little Lies” received for Season 2 “short of raped” the network.
“One of the things that’s come out of thinking about the movement and some conversations with Reese [Witherspoon], who’s really at the forefront, is something we’ve done recently,” Bloys told The Hollywood Reporter. “We’ve proactively gone through all of our shows — in fact, we just finished our process where we went through and made sure that there were no inappropriate disparities in pay; and where there were, if we found any, we corrected it going forward. And that’s is a direct result of the Times Up movement.”
Bloys added that pay parity “becomes more of an issue when you get into Season 2 and Season 3, assuming the show is a success.”
“When you’re putting a show together, people come in with different levels of experience and maybe some people have won awards or something that makes them stand out. But when you get into Season 2 or 3 of a show and the show is a success, it is much harder to justify paying people wildly disparate numbers, and that’s where you have to make sure that you’re looking at the numbers — that they don’t end up just on the path they were on from the pilot stage. So, the thing that has been interesting about the whole movement is that it really is reminding everybody to do what’s right, and I think it’s retraining all of our thinking.”
HBO declined TheWrap’s request for comment on this story.
Watch the full interview above.
“Westworld” Season 2 will premiere Sunday at 9/8 c on HBO.
New 'Westworld' Season 2 Pics Are Out to Make You Question the Nature of Your Reality (Photos)
"Westworld" returns for its second season on April 22. But before it officially comes back online, the show decided to tease you with a series of new pics from the sophomore installment. Of course, all they really do is give you more questions than answers, but TheWrap is going to do its best to at least help you figure out the questions you should be asking. Click through this gallery to see the pics, and our analysis of what the hell is going on here.
HBO
Dolores' got a gun -- or at least some bullets
Oh, look, it's Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) with a bullet belt. That's new and different. Probably meant to make her look like the most badass host in Sweetwater, as she leads the uprising that was started when she shot and killed Dr. Ford (Anthony Hopkins) at the end of Season 1. It's working.
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The new guy
In this shot, Antoine Costa (Fares Fares), is seen at a makeshift campsite. He's a new character, a tech expert brought in to try to restore order for Delos Destinations amid the chaos of the robot uprising.
HBO
Whose side are you on?
And at that same makeshift camp is Bernard (Jeffrey Wright), your favorite host -- next to Dolores, of course -- who didn't actually know he was a host until well into Season 1. He appears to be cooperating with the group here, so does that mean he is on Team Human in all this? He did work for the park until he discovered the true nature of his reality, so it's a possibility.
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Yup, definitely Team Human
Here's more proof that Bernard is siding with the non-AI crew in this war, as we see him with Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth) -- yup, he's alive -- and some "Westworld" newcomers, control team members Karl Strand (Gustaf Skarsgard) and Maling (Betty Gabriel).
HBO
Bernard, you traitor
Here is yet another picture showing Bernard in cahoots with Delos, as he appears to be consulting with Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson), Delos' executive director of the board overseeing Westworld, who was working to oust Ford -- till Dolores took care of that little problem for her. Of course she started a whole other problem then too.
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New look, who dis?
Now here is a pic of new series regular Talulah Riley, in a very different mode than we're used to seeing this host. In Season 1, she played the greeter Angela who welcomed William (Jimmi Simpson) to the park all dressed in white. She was later discovered by Teddy (James Marsden) and The Man in Black (Ed Harris) as a prisoner. Here she is looking pretty seductive. No clue.
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The other leader of the pack
While Dolores spent the entire first season traveling through her own maze to become self-aware and ultimately start the robopocalypse, Maeve (Thandie Newton) came to that realization as well, albeit with a little manipulation to her programming at first. But come the finale, she went off track and decided to go in search of her daughter inside the park, rather than continue on her set path to escape Westworld. In this pic, it appears she's taking charge, just like Dolores. Wonder if they are working together, or there are multiple factions inside Team Host. Gah, we already need to get out a white board.
HBO
Where the hell are we?
This season, creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy have said we are definitely going to travel outside of Sweetwater, and Westworld itself. We just didn't know one of those new locations would be so blindingly bathed in red light. Oh and there it's Lee Sizemore (Simon Quarterman). Looks like he's still alive and working with (for?) Maeve.
HBO
Back in black
Ed Harris is returning as the Man in Black. All you need to know here at the moment is that the park's most loyal customer clearly survived the fight that ensued between the hosts and employees at the end of Season 1 when Ford was shot (but did you really think he wouldn't?) and is still playing the game.
HBO
Hanging tough
Hector (Rodrigo Santoro) is also looking pretty good after going through a rough shoot out with Delos employees to help fellow host Maeve try and escape at the end of Season 1. Of course, she wouldn't let him come with her and ultimately decided not to leave herself. That may not lead to a happy reunion in Season 2.
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We'll see what all this really means (or doesn't) when Season 2 of "Westworld" premieres on April 22 on HBO.
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These don’t look like anything to us
"Westworld" returns for its second season on April 22. But before it officially comes back online, the show decided to tease you with a series of new pics from the sophomore installment. Of course, all they really do is give you more questions than answers, but TheWrap is going to do its best to at least help you figure out the questions you should be asking. Click through this gallery to see the pics, and our analysis of what the hell is going on here.