June 16, 2025
Robin Wright recently sat through a candid conversation about her fight for equal pay, during her time on House of Cards.
The conversation happened during a moderated chat by Variety’s international with director Leo Barraclough.
In that conversation, Wright explained that part of the reason she had to ‘fight’ was because she had not received an Oscar.
She also began by saying, when David Fincher introduced ‘House of Cards’ to me, he said: ‘This is going to be the future, it’s going to be revolutionary. And look where we are now.”
Very quickly though, she ended up fighting for her rights and admitted, “Yes, it was difficult. I am going to be honest.”
“When I said, ‘I think it’s only fair because my character became as popular as [Spacey’s], they said: ‘We can’t pay you the same as an actor, so we will make you exec producer and you can direct. We will give you three different paychecks.’ I asked, ‘Why can’t you pay me as an actor?’ ‘Because you didn’t win an Academy Award.’”
After hearing, that she recalled thinking thatanger “wasn’t going to change anything”.
Reason being “that has been the protocol for years — it just is. If you say, ‘Why did so-and-so female not get the same amount as Will Smith?’ They say, ‘It will increase after you win.’ Nomination, not so much,” she added near the end.