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Robin Wright is experiencing a career renaissance. After coming to international attention in breakout roles in The Princess Bride and Forrest Gump, Wright put it all on hold to raise a family with ex-husband Sean Penn.
Daughter Dylan was born in 1991 and is now following her parents’ footsteps into the entertainment industry, son Hopper Jack was born two years later.
“Now I’m kind of on a comeback at 50 years old,” Wright told Rockefeller Foundation president Judith Rodan at the foundation’s Insight Dialogues event in New York.
The comeback is thanks to the role of Claire Underwood in Netflix drama House of Cards. Her meaty portrayal of the savvy politico earned her the first Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Web Television Series.
“It was the perfect paradigm. 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.”
With critical acclaim came popular recognition, and Claire Underwood quickly challenged Kevin Spacey’s Frank Underwood as the show’s strongest character.
“I was looking at the statistics and Claire Underwood’s character was more popular than [Frank’s] for a period of time. So I capitalised on it. I was like, ‘You better pay me or I’m going to go public.’ ”
The studio listened. In the most recent series Wright is also credited as an executive producer with Spacey, and she has directed several episodes.
Wright joins a growing number of high-profile actresses who had demanded salary parity with their male co-stars including Jennifer Lawrence, Patricia Arquette and Kaley Cuoco.
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