WENN

Actress Evan Rachel Wood became emotional after she discovered she was being paid the same as her male Westworld co-stars.

The star was taken aback by the fact that her paycheck aligned with established stars like Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, and Jeffrey Wright, on the hit HBO series.

''I was just told that, you know, 'Hey you're getting equal pay'. And I was like, (gasp)," she told The Wrap. "I was like, 'I have never been paid the same as my male counterparts… Never, never'.''

Though the 30-year-old initially viewed the other actors on the sci-fi hit as bigger names, she has come to recognize they all take on the same amount of work, and she felt they should be compensated equally.

''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," she added.

Wood reveals she has struggled with pay disparity in the past – an issue that came to the fore when she was married to British actor Jamie Bell.

''Oh my God, so many times. I've dated and was married to an actor and there was transparency there in our salaries," she explains. "It was staggering, the difference. Even with people I feel like I'm on par with, the difference is miles away from each other.''

She also recalls working on one unnamed film, in which her less established male co-star was given top billing.

''There's me working consistently since I was three or five years old, and I work hard, and yet they weren't going to give me top billing because I wasn't a man," she shared. "I've had to start turning down roles because they won't pay me enough.''