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Robin Wright On The Lengths She Went To Demand Equal Pay With ‘House Of Cards’ Co-Star Kevin Spacey

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 18:14 PST, Jun 1, 2016

Robin Wright bears a striking resemblance to her House of Cards character, Claire Underwood, according to Vanity Fair. At least when it comes to not tolerating any less than desirable behavior. The actress, who turned 50 last month, revealed that she fought tooth and nail to be paid just as much as her Netflix show’s co-star Kevin Spacey.

In her address to the audience, while promoting her new documentary, Robin Wright revealed that she managed to win the battle through logical tactics and negotiations only after House of Cards had aired for several seasons. And as a result, she was finally getting paid as much as Spacey, who plays her onscreen husband, Frank Underwood.

And while women around the world press their bosses and firms to be paid equally to men, Robin Wright explained that she had a pretty clear message for Netflix: she wanted to be paid the same as Spacey, the House of Cards actress revealed to the audience at Rockefeller Foundation.

In fact, this isn’t the first time the wage gap between Robin Wright and her House of Cards co-star has been discussed in the media. Last year, Wright’s daughter, Dylan Penn, called the difference in her mother and Spacey’s pay for the Netflix series “crazy.”

Just like Spacey, Robin Wright has appeared in every episode of House of Cards so she surely had a legitimate reason to ask for her pay to be equal to Spacey’s. Apart from starring in the Netflix series, Wright also executive produces it, just like Spacey.

Robin Wright has so far directed seven episodes of House of Cards. It was reported before Season 3’s premiere in 2015 that Spacey was getting $500,000 per episode on the political drama. Wright, meanwhile, reportedly made $5.5 million while working on House of Cards in the period between 2014 and 2015, which means she got about $420,000 per episode.

“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.”

Robin Wright added, speaking to the audience, that she threatened Netflix to “go public” if they didn’t pay her better. The 50-year-old actress noted that her character was even more popular than Frank Underwood at one point of the show, and she took advantage of that during her negotiations with Netflix.

Robin Wright isn’t the first actress to fight for equal pay between male and female actors. Apart from her, such stars as Patricia Arquette (Boyhood, Boardwalk Empire), Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games, American Hustle), Gillian Anderson (X-Files, The Fall) and Susan Sarandon (Thelma & Louise, Dead Man Walking) all complained about the pay gap in Hollywood.

It was announced at this year’s Cannes Film Festival that Together Now, a collection of seven short films directed by and starring women, is currently in the works. Robin Wright is set to direct one of the Together Now short films, according to The Verge.

Apart from Robin Wright, women, such as Catherine Hardwicke (the director of the first Twilight movie), Patricia Riggen (The 33), Melina Matsoukas (director of Beyoncé’s Formation music video), Kátia Lund (co-director of City of God), Ma?gorzata Szumowska, and Haifaa al-Mansour, are all set to direct the short films.

Juliette Binoche and Freida Pinto, meanwhile, are set to star in the short movies. It’s yet unclear whether or not Robin Wright will star in either of the shorts. All seven short films will make up a feature-length movie.

Together Now, comprised of seven shorts, is being made by non-profit production company We Do It Together, the main goal of which is to empower women around the world. On its official website, the company wrote that they want to change “the utterly outdated and discriminatory paradigm” in the film industry.

[Photo by Andrew Toth/Getty Images]

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