Robin Wright is detailing how Netflix did her wrong as an actress for “House of Cards.” Wright co-starred alongside Kevin Spacey in the hit 2013 series; she later took over as the lead star after Spacey was fired amid abuse allegations before Season 6. “House of Cards” concluded in 2018.
Wright told Variety during the Monte-Carlo Television Festival that she had to fight to get paid the same as Spacey. “Yes, it was difficult. I am going to be honest,” she said. “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.’”
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Spacey won the Academy Award for “The Usual Suspects” in 1995 and also “American Beauty” in 2000.
Wright continued of her former co-star and the then-policy at Netflix, “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?”
Wright previously told Marie Claire that she had to “capitalize” on her character’s fandom to negotiate a raise. “I was like, ‘I want to be paid the same as Kevin.’ It was the perfect paradigm,” she said. “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.’ 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.’ And they did.”
Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings admitted that he doubted Ted Sarandos’ vision for “House of Cards.” Hastings recalled to Variety that Sarandos told director David Fincher that Netflix would commit to spending $100 million on the series and greenlight it for two seasons before a pilot had even been shot. Fincher also would have full creative control of the show, with Netflix refraining from giving any notes.
