Evan Rachel Wood, star of 'Westworld', reveals she was paid less than her male co-stars
Gender pay disparity is an issue that has been at the forefront of discussions for a while now and that discussion is only set to get more heated with 'Westworld' star Evan Rachel Wood's revelation that she was paid less than her male co-stars for the first two seasons of the hit science fiction thriller.
While many of the arguments in such cases claim that the male counterpart is usually more established and more of a 'crowd puller,' such excuses would not hold water in Evan's case. She plays the role of the robotic rancher's daughter, Dolores, in the show and is arguably one of the primary protagonists around whom the story revolves.
Furthermore, she was arguably much more established compared to her co-stars as well. Having begun acting in the 1990s, she has starred in several TV shows such as 'American Gothic' and 'Once and Again' and garnered widespread critical acclaim for her performance in 'Thirteen,' which also earned her a Golden Globe nomination.
With season 2 of the popular show set to premiere on April 23, the actress recently opened up to TheWrap's founder and CEO Dolores Abernathy on the issue of equal pay, admitting that it was only now that she was getting paid the same as her male co-stars.
She revealed that she was informed of the hike for season 3: "I was just told that, you know, 'Hey you’re, you’re getting equal pay.' And I was like [gasp]. And I almost got emotional. I was like, 'I have never been paid the same as my male counterparts… Never, never.'"
"I found out… I’m always fighting for that. And I have turned down projects - 'Westworld,' it’s like, I get it a little more. It’s like, 'Well, you’re Anthony Hopkins or Ed Harris.' But I think now we’re all doing equal amounts of work and really hard work."
Evan also addressed how the issue of gender pay disparity is now actively being tackled: "There’s a lot of politics, but there’s a lot of things that are now being talked about in a different way. There is a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes. There is a lot of trying to make things equal and trying to make things fair. But this is the first time that somebody made a point of being like, 'Hey you’re getting this. And you deserve it.' And that was nice."
Tennis legend Martina Navratilova had recently called out the BBC for what she viewed as a blatant discrepancy of pay between her and fellow pundit John McEnroe based on gender alone; McEnroe was paid 10 times more than Navratilova for practically the same work.
The BBC also received criticism when it revealed its pay list and about two-thirds of presenters earning more than £150,000, including the top seven earners, were male, compared to one-third female.
Clearly, it's an issue that is not confined to the realms of TV and film but is prevalent in all fields.