Everyone that knows me knows that I’m obsessed with House of Cards. My second post revolved around my love for Claire Underwood because she is a bad ass. I never thought that the woman playing Mrs. Underwood, Robin Wright, is a bad ass too. Entertainment Weekly reported that Wright pressed for equal pay to Kevin Spacey, who plays President Frank Underwood on the series.
According to the Huffington Post, Wright attended the Rockfeller Foundation’s “Insight Dialogues” on May 17 to discuss her philanthropic efforts and the fourth season of House of Cards. The conversation eventually shifted to the gender pay gap she was experiencing on the show. “I was like ‘I want to paid the same as Kevin,'” Wright said. “It was a 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.”
Mashable reports that Spacey made $500,000 per episode and Wright only made $420,000.Wright, like Spacey, functions as an executive producer on the Netflix flagship and has appeared in all 52 episodes of the series. Unlike her male costar, Wright has increased her directorial role as the seasons’ have progressed.
“I was looking at the statistics and Claire Underwood’s character was more popular than Frank’s for a period of time,” Wright said. “So I capitalized on it. I was like ‘you better pay me or I’m going to go public.’ And they did.”
WOW. If that doesn’t make you want to stand up and applaud her, then I guess we can’t be friends. That was a bold move on Wright’s part considering the gender pay gap is a controversial topic in Hollywood. However, it needs to be discussed. Jennifer Lawrence contributed to the topic by penning an essay that got picked up by major news outlets, including the New York Times. Sarah Silverman and Kate Winslet have also spoken openly about the topic in hopes that things will change.
Am I the only one that is hoping that Claire Underwood makes equal gender pay her new platform in season five? I mean, the woman broke the fourth wall last season, so I guess anything is possible.
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