Today, the Daily Beast has an article with Gillian Anderson that recounts the long history of sexist treatment she received while working on The X-Files. This sexism was broad and Anderson tells of how, for years, she was paid less than Duchovny. She was even told to stand a few feet behind her male co-star on camera, never standing side-by-side.
After time, it became clear that Scully was not the sidekick to Mulder, and the wage gap eventually closed. This is in part, Anderson says, due to her “intolerance and spunk.” Defining traits for the actress and her parts. One of the reasons we love her.
So it’s a bit surprising to learn that, 22 years after The X-Files first aired, when Fox brought the team back together for a revival, they once again offered Anderson less money than Duchovny. 50% less, actually.
Here’s the long quote, but worth it:
The work Anderson put into securing equal pay back in the ’90s seemingly came undone when it came time to negotiate pay for this year’s event series. Once again, Anderson was being offered “half” of what they would pay Duchovny.
“I’m surprised that more [interviewers] haven’t brought that up because it’s the truth,” Anderson says of the pay disparity, first disclosed in the Hollywood Reporter. “Especially in this climate of women talking about the reality of [unequal pay] in this business, I think it’s important that it gets heard and voiced. It was shocking to me, given all the work that I had done in the past to get us to be paid fairly. I worked really hard toward that and finally got somewhere with it.
“Even in interviews in the last few years, people have said to me, ‘I can’t believe that happened, how did you feel about it, that is insane.’ And my response always was, ‘That was then, this is now.’ And then it happened again! I don’t even know what to say about it.”
That’ some real shit, Fox (that’s Fox Television, not Fox Mulder).
In the end, the two actors were paid equally for their return.
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