Ruth Wilson: ‘I definitely get paid less than The Affair co-star Dominic West’

Ruth Wilson insists she’s always been paid less money than her The Affair co-star Dominic West.
The British actress, who won the best actress prize at the 2014 Golden Globes for her role as other woman Alison in the critically acclaimed drama, has called for equal pay after revealing co-star Dominic “definitely gets more” money than her for appearing in the Showtime series.
Dominic shot to fame in the U.S. after starring in HBO show The Wire and in an interview with British publication Radio Times, Ruth discussed the issue of the gender pay gap in Hollywood and the pair’s differing salaries.
“I definitely get less money than a male in my situation would. Definitely,” she told the publication, and when asked if she thinks she is paid less than West, Ruth confirmed: “Yeah. I think so. Certainly when I signed up to that project, I would have got paid less.”
Ruth concedes the fact that Dominic had already appeared in a successful TV show before signing onto The Affair was a factor, but argued that nothing changed when she won a major acting honour.
“Then they (the producers) might argue, ‘Well, he’s already done a major American TV show so he’s already got a level.’ But even after a Golden Globe I’m not going to be on parity,” she sighed. “So he definitely gets more than me. I mean, I don’t know what the figure is, but I’m sure he does.”
Ruth has previously said winning equal pay is a “hard fight” and she added it is a battle that will require men and women to have some honest discussions if the gap is to be closed, admitting she herself has found it difficult to raise the issue with Dominic.
“It’s sort of funny,” she said. “It’s quite hard to bring that up in a way. But it needs to be an open discussion and men need to help us out. I don’t want more money, I just want equal money. Which means men have to take less.”
Both Ruth and Dominic will return in series four of The Affair in June this year (18).