Surprise, a woman was paid less than her male counterpart on a 1990s TV show. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be much of surprise in 2018 either, but let’s stay positive. It is, after all, 100 years since women won the right to vote in the UK. If you were married. And your husband owned land.
So: Gillian Anderson was reportedly paid less than her co-star David Duchovny in the 1990s, for her work on The X-Files, even though they both played equal leads (Dana Scully and Fox Mulder). Then, when the series was rebooted in 2016, Gillian got offered half the dosh that David did, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Fortunately, THR also reported that they ultimately received equal pay.
Which is just as well, because X-Files creator Chris Carter doesn’t think this pay gap is very fair. He told Digital Spy that while he may be coming at the issue from a “very personal perspective”, he believes “Gillian should be paid as much as David, and she is paid as much as David.” If by a “very personal perspective” he means the perspective of every woman and rational human ever, then yes, he’s on to something. How big of him.
However, he had some power over the matter, in a very personal way. He created the show after all. But it’s hard, it really is. Because, “What people don’t appreciate is that it’s a business, and just because we all believe that people should have equal pay, the people on the other side of the table believe that they should be able to make the best deal they possibly can, and that’s simply how it works,” Chris says. In essence: that’s showbiz, schmucks.
He concludes, “They just don’t automatically pay someone equal to someone else because that’s what they world is asking for.” Oh, we know Chris. We know.