“House of Cards” star Robin Wright demanded to be paid the same as her male co-star Kevin Spacey, and threatened “to go public” if Netflix didn’t cough up the dough.
“I was like, ‘I want to be paid the same as Kevin,'” Wright told media at the Rockefeller Foundation, according to the Huffington Post.
Wright plays Claire Underwood, the wife of President Frank Underwood (Spacey)on the Netflix show, while also serving as a producer and occasional director.
“It was the perfect paradigm,” she added. “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.'”
And this is why she vouched for equal pay between her and Spacey.
“I was looking at the statistics and Claire Underwood’s character was more popular than [Frank’s] for a period of time. So I capitalized on it. I was like, ‘You better pay me or I’m going to go public,'” Wright said. “And they did.”
According to the Huffington Post, Wright spoke about a variety of different topics including politics and parenting. The hour-long conversation with Judith Rodin, the president of The Rockefeller Foundation, was the first in a series of events the foundation is hosting called “Insight Dialogues.”
Forbes reported that Wright made $5.5 million from her entire stint on “House of Cards,” so far, while TV Guide reported in 2014 that Spacey made $500,000 an episode, putting the actors salary at $6.5 million.
The talk of equal pay has been a topic of debate in Hollywood. Jennifer Lawrence wrote an essay last year denouncing the pay gap between male and female actors. Zoe Saldana has been vocal about the pay gap, as well, and insiders told TheWrap back in October that a similar pay inequality impacts women actors, producers, writers and executives, alike.
“Across the board at the executive level, it’s at least a 20 percent difference between men and women’s salaries,” said one top female executive at a premium cable network.
Equal Pay Day: 14 Horrifying Stats About Gender Inequality in Hollywood
Today is Equal Pay Day, dedicated to equal pay for men and women. But in Hollywood, a true equal payday is a long way away. Here are 14 horrifying stats, and some telling anecdotes.
Iron Man Beats Katniss
"The world’s highest-paid actress, [Jennifer] Lawrence, made $52 million in the 12 months to June 2015," Forbes wrote last year. "An impressive number until it is compared to the $80 million banked by Robert Downey Jr., the world’s top-paid actor."
Lawrence wrote a powerful essay about pay inequality after the Sony email hack revealed that she was paid less than her male "American Hustle" co-stars.
“Got a steve warren/gretchen rush call that it’s unfair the male actors get 9 percent in the pool and jennifer is only at 7pts,” wrote a Sony executive in a leaked email. “You may recall Jennifer was at 5 (amy was and is at 7) and WE anted in 2 extra points for Jennifer to get her up to 7. If anyone needs to top jennifer up it’s megan [producer Megan Ellison]. BUT I think amy and Jennifer are tied so upping JL, ups AA.”
"While male actors see their careers peak at the age of 46, female actors reach their professional pinnacles at age 30, according to a TIME analysis of the careers of over 6,000 actors and actresses."
Katniss, Black Widow and... That's Itfor Women
"Scarlett Johansson, who earned $35.5 million last year, was the only film actress to join Lawrence on the 2015 edition of the Celebrity 100, Forbes’ list of top-paid celebrities," Forbes added.
One Anonymous Perspective
"Across the board at the executive level, it's at least a 20 percent difference between men and women's salaries," said one top female executive at a premium cable network.
A female producer of Oscar-nominated dramas told TheWrap that Hollywood's pay gap between genders is "easily 20 or 30 percent." She stressed that female producers and directors, and not just actresses, are undercut.
Part of the Problem is Representation
Of the Hollywood executives who choose which movies are made, only 20 percent are women, a New York Times analysis found.
In June, actress Zoe Saldana said she struggled to secure child care as part of her contract for "Star Trek: Beyond" -- while her male counterparts were getting high-class perks.
The Academy
89 percent of the Academy’s director’s branch is male, as is 87 percent of its executives branch the Washington Post found.
For films released in 2014 and TV shows in 2014-15, 66.5 percent of speaking characters were male, and just 33.5 percent were female, according to a USC study.
Who Gets to Direct
In the same time period, 84.8 percent of directors were male, while just 15.2 percent were female, the USC study found.
Who Gets to Write
Same study: 71.1 percent of writers were male, and 28.9 percent were female.
Outnumbered
In 2012-13, women were outnumbered 2-to-1 among film leads, 8-to-1 among film directors, and 4-to-1 among film writers, according to a UCLA study.
On TV, women were outnumbered nearly 2-to-1 in leading roles, nearly 2-to-1 among creators of broadcast scripted shows, more than 2-to-1 among creators of cable scripted shows and more than 4-to-1 among the creators of digital series, that study found.
Women made up 19 percent of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors and cinematographers working on the top 250 domestic grossing films of 2015, according to a San Diego State University Study. Of the top 100 films, women filled just 16 percent of the same roles.
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Hollywood has a long way to go toward fair pay
Today is Equal Pay Day, dedicated to equal pay for men and women. But in Hollywood, a true equal payday is a long way away. Here are 14 horrifying stats, and some telling anecdotes.
