The famous actress Robin Wright has drawn attention to an important issue which has plagued the industry for a long time i.e the issue of equal pay for men and women working at the same level. She claims that her character is equally significant as Frank who is a dirty but savvy politician climbing the ladder through treachery, deceit and corruption and her wife is very much part of his schemes (in fact she was often the architect). She even said her character Claire Underwood was at one time more popular with the audiences than her counterpart Frank Underwood played by Kevin Spacey in House of Cards.
She told the Huffington post “I was like, You better pay me or I’m going to go public”. She has joined the A-List actresses of the entertainment industry who have come out and raised this issue in public including Jennifer Lawrence and Meryl Streep. Earlier, JLaw brought up the issue of pay-equity when she found out that her male co-stars Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale in American Hustle were paid much more than her although she had less screen-time and importance to the story.
The magnitude of pay-inequality is in the public domain now, while Kevin Spacey made $500,000 per episode in 2014 (a year in which Robin Wright won a golden globe for the show) she was making $420,000 per episode. She leveraged her power, strong-armed the producers of the show to release the equal pay-cheque, and the studio caved into her demands. This particular case has found more resonance amongst people as she has earned a massive fan-following owing to her incredible performance as Claire, one could argue that if she decides to leave the show, the ratings of the show will probably fall just like the ratings of President Underwood without his VP.
