The Crown: Production company apologizes over pay gap

A firestorm has erupted this week after it was revealed that during the first two seasons of Netflix’s The Crown, the main star who played Queen Elizabeth II, Claire Foy, was paid less than her male counterpart, Matt Smith, who played Prince Philip.

According to the BBC, a new development has been made in the story as the production company, Left Bank Pictures has apologized for the pay gap and says the actors “have found themselves at the centre of a media storm this week through no fault of their own”. The company went on to state…

“We want to apologise to both Claire Foy and to Matt Smith, brilliant actors and friends. As the producers of The Crown, we at Left Bank Pictures are responsible for budgets and salaries; the actors are not aware of who gets what, and cannot be held personally responsible for the pay of their colleagues.

“We understand and appreciate the conversation which is rightly being played out across society and we are absolutely united with the fight for fair pay, free of gender bias, and for a rebalancing of the industry’s treatment of women, both those in front of the camera and for those behind the scenes.

“We all have a responsibility to do what we can to ensure that these issues are tackled, and as a leading production company we want to make our contribution to the debate.”

The production added that Smith was paid more at the time of negotiations because of his higher profile from his Doctor Who days. While Smith’s exact amount per episode is unknown, we are aware of Foy’s. BBC reported that she received $40,000 per episode for her role as Queen Elizabeth II. Co-Producer Suzanne Mackie last week said that in the future, the lead actress would not be paid less. Foy will be replaced by Olivia Coleman.

What make us upset for Foy is that as an actress she may not have been relatively known at the time, but everyone knows who she is now. The company basically made her the sacrificial lamb to see whether or not the show would be a success. What should have occurred at the end of the first season was a renegotiation of Foy’s contract given the amount of praise and nominations she received for her role. Her performance as the Queen was the best one yet and for that, for doing her job, she deserved better.

Ms. Claire Foy, we will forever be fans of yours.

The Crown is still in pre-production with no word yet when filming will start. For more news related to The Crown, be sure to visit this link. If you want to stay up to date on all of our coverage of The Crown the best way to do that is to join our official CarterMatt Facebook page.

This story was written by Samantha D’Amico. If you want to follow her on Twitter, you can do so at SAM_iamXO.