Shiri Appleby on fighting gender bias in Hollywood

King: Have you seen gender bias reduced?

Appleby:It's interesting because I knew we were going to talk about this and it's something that I've been thinking about a lot and I feel like I've always had to work incredibly hard to get anything in this business, so I don't know if that is gender or not, or if that is just the way of succeeding in Hollywood, but it feels like it takes me a tremendous amount of effort to like push this boulder up the hill. And I mean, I'm curious if you think it's just as hard, but I feel like, you know, when you're fighting for paychecks it's like you have to just have a number and stick to that and again I don't know if that's what it's like for men, but I know that's what it's like for me.

King: Hollywood is supposed to be progressive and advanced and liberal.

Appleby: And you know...

King: Forward thinking. So why?

Appleby: I mean, it's taken me...

King: Equal pay?

Appleby: And equal opportunity. I've already directed an episode of television, I've starred in close to 200 episodes of TV, and I'm now going to other studios asking for directing jobs and I'm told that I still need to shadow, something I've already done a handful of times. I don't know if that's being a woman or if that's just how challenging this business is.

King: What does shadow mean?

Appleby: It means that you follow a director around

King: And they get paid for that?

Appleby: No. I've done it five times. No, you don't get paid for it.