The Crown's Claire Foy Playing The Queen Earned Less Than Matt Smith, Who Played Prince Philip
Queen Elizabeth made less money than Prince Philip, not in real life, but the actors who played the part, Claire Foy and Matt Smith, respectively, in The Crown.
In a not-so breaking news, another wage gap has been revealed. This time, it is in Netflix's The Crown, which talked about Queen Elizabeth's life from the 40s to present. With that said, it is obvious that the lead star is Foy, although Smith has also a great role considering his character played a huge part in the life of the prim and proper royalty.
However, in an interview with producers Andy Harries and Suzanne Mackie, it was revealed that Foy earned less than Smith during the course of the two seasons of The Crown. They confirmed that this was because of the 35-year-old actor's Doctor Who credit, which had become a huge hit when it ran from 2010 to 2013, and quickly added that it would be rectified in the future.
"Going forward, no one gets paid more than the Queen," explained Mackie.
Useless Change?
But with their intention to "rectify" the said pay gap, this would be useless as Foy and Smith would be leaving The Crown as the story tells of older characters as the time table moves to the 60s and 70s. For season 3, Queen Elizabeth would be played by Olivia Colman, while the actor for Prince Philip still remains unknown.
Even so, Foy as compared to Smith had a few stints, but these did not make her popular during the time. But the 33-year-old actress proved she has more talent to showcase when she finally bagged the lead role in The Crown.
Foy won numerous awards for her portrayal as the young Queen in the series. For season 1, she won a best actress award from the Golden Globe, while she was nominated for the same category for the second season by the same award-giving body.
The Crown season 1 also landed Foy her Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama. Smith, meanwhile, earned nominations from the Emmy and the Golden Globe.
So it is safe to say that Foy greatly helped in helming such a successful and acclaimed series. However, with the recent revelation about the pay gap, it just strengthens the fact that many male actors get paid more than the female, a resounding issue being voiced out by the affected nowadays.
For Foy, she gets a meek $40,000 per episode. This was described as meek as each episode costs a whopping $7 million or above, and one can only imagine how small the actress gets, considering she is playing the lead role in The Crown.
Even as Smith's salary was not mentioned, the producers have already acknowledged that he gets bigger moolah than Foy. The larger chunk of the money, according to Harries, goes to "the screen," and explained the Queen had 120 costumes in season 2 alone.
