Robin Wright refused equal pay on House of Cards because she hadn’t won an Oscar

Robin Wright was denied equal pay on House of Cards because, unlike co-star Kevin Spacey, she didn’t have an Academy Award.

Robin Wright was denied equal pay on House of Cards because she didn’t have an Academy Award.

The 59-year-old actress played Claire Underwood on the Netflix show from 2013 to 2018 but she was denied the same salary as her on-screen husband Kevin Spacey – who was dropped from the programme before the final season after being accused of sexual misconduct – because he had won a Best Actor Oscar for American Beauty in 2000 and Best Supporting Actor for The Usual Suspects in 1996.

Speaking at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival, Variety reports she said: “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.”

Of her fight for equal pay, she said: “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 paycheques.’ I asked, ‘Why can’t you pay me as an actor?’ ‘Because you didn’t win an Academy Award.’”

But Robin knew being angry “wasn’t going to change anything”.

She said: “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. Why does it have to do anything with a raise?”

However, Robin hailed getting to direct episodes of the show a “gift”.

She said: “It was the camera operator on ‘House of Cards’ who said, ‘Why don’t you just try?’ I learned so much on that show. I didn’t feel any pressure. I was encouraged to do it.”

The Princess Bride star – who has Dylan, 34, and Hopper, 31, with ex-husband Sean Penn – admitted House of Cards helped her through a “dry” period in her career.

Asked her biggest achievements, she said: “My children are still alive. As for my career… There’s this window in your late 30s and early 40s, and there were no roles. It was dry. That’s when House of Cards came up. It helped me plateau for a while. I don’t know if I would be able to get parts in films at the time.”