‘The Flash’ Star Calls out Poor Pay for Complicated Crossover Episodes

Danielle Panabaker has more to say about her time as one of the stars of The Flash.

After speaking out about poor on-set behavior from other series regulars, the star also discussed poor pay given to actors on the series. Panabaker was one of three actors to appear in The Flash during all nine of its seasons.

While speaking to Michael Rosenbaum, who appeared on fellow CW DC series Smallville as Lex Luthor, she shared that many actors were poorly compensated but couldn’t complain for fear of being cut from the show entirely.

On the podcast, she said that actors were forced to participate in the many crossovers of the CW’s “Arrowverse,” which included shows like Arrow, The Flash, Batwoman, and Legends of Tomorrow, for very little pay. If actors asked to be paid their normal rate for crossovers, they were instead written out of the show entirely.

“So in Flash’s first season, they did the first crossover and it was just The Flash and Arrow. It was Stephen Amell, David [Ramsey] and Emily [Bett Rickards] crossing over to The Flash, and Grant [Gustin], Carlos [Valdes] and I crossed over to Arrow,” she said. “And the offer to do two jobs at the same time — to do the same role — when we guest-starred on Arrow, it was top of show.”

Rosenbaum went on to explain that “top of show” means actors were not paid their normal salary for the event, but a much smaller amount per episode.

Panabaker continued by explaining it as “You’re going to do this job at the same time, and you’re going to work twice as hard. So you’re doing two jobs, we’re going to pay you a fraction of what you’re paid to do that job on The Flash.”

“When we signed on to The Flash, Arrow [already] existed and The Flash was a pilot. At that time, they did not bake crossovers into our contracts… I think any other show — like Legends or Supergirl — it was in their contracts that if they crossed over to another show, they would only get a fraction of their [rate],” she said. “I know someone who said, ‘No, pay me my salary.’ And they wrote that person out of the crossovers.”

The Flash ran for nine seasons from 2014 to 2023.