The Hollywood forefront has witnessed a rise in celebrities advocating for pay parity after nearly a century of being paid horribly less than their male co-stars for roles that are equally demanding if not more. Robin Wright is among the few who have furiously battled injustice at the industry forefront in recent years. And yet, the road to achieving true equality in terms of benefitting from equal pay is a long, tedious, and winding one.
Robin Wright Advocates For Pay Parity at Netflix
The Netflix political drama, House of Cards catapulted into the heights of coveted sensationalism because of its uniquely dramatic narrative and quintessential David Fincher drama that never fails to cause the mind to flinch and yet glues the audience to the screens. With Kevin Spacey at the helm, it was a surefire road paved with success, and the director had already voiced his enthusiastic support for the cast selection at the beginning of the production.
Also read: 10 Times Actors Spoke Against Unequal Pay In Hollywood
But despite Fincher’s claims of each cast member being his first choice and thus, they better “not f**k this up,” his overseeing the salary of his uniquely picked out cast members still was marred by pay injustice that separated Spacey from his female counterpart, Robin Wright. On May 2016, the actress after finding out she was being paid less than Spacey threatened the series producer about going public if the situation wasn’t rectified, claiming:
“I was like, ‘I want to be paid the same as Kevin.’ 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.”
The move was a bold one, and one that shouldn’t have been necessary in the first place, but Wright’s extraordinary command over the situation was important, especially considering how largely she contributed to the creation of her on-screen alter ego, Claire Underwood.
House of Cards Goes Through Monumental Scandal
During her stint on the Netflix original series, House of Cards, Robin Wright witnessed the unfolding of scandalous events that changed the course of the series. The series boasting a name like David Fincher and comprising a cast of A-listers like Kevin Spacey and Kate Mara immediately catapulted the political drama into a sensational status. The bandwidth of the show demanded an exceptional performance with the plot spiraling deeper into the madness and mayhem of power and influence.
But just as the show exploded with its groundbreaking and phenomenal storyline, its momentum was crushed under the weight of the scandal caused by its leading star, Kevin Spacey’s sexual assault and r*pe allegation. 15 accusers came forward in October 2017. He was asked to pay $31 million in damages to Netflix.
House of Cards is available for streaming on Netflix.
Source: Judith Rodin Interview [via The Guardian]
