Matt Smith Finally Addresses the Gender Wage Gap on 'The Crown'
"We all should be paid equally and fairly."
By Andrea Park
Robert Viglasky/Netflix
A month after news broke that Matt Smith was paid more than Claire Foy for the first two seasons of The Crown—despite the fact that Foy played the titular crown in the Netflix drama—Smith has finally addressed the revelation.
According to Vanity Fair, at the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of his new film Mapplethorpe on Sunday, Smith spoke out in support of closing the pay gap. "I believe that we all should be paid equally and fairly," he said. "Claire is one of my best friends. I support her completely."
Smith went on to say that he's "pleased" that the show's producers have since pledged that, "going forward, no one gets paid more than the queen." On the red carpet, Smith said, "That's what needed to happen," per VF. "Going forward, I think we should all bear in mind, and we need to strive to make this a better and more even playing field for everyone involved. But not just in our industry—in all industries." For the record, The Crown's producers' promise to ensure equal pay "going forward" won't apply to Foy and Smith, since they've been replaced by Olivia Colman and Tobias Menzies, respectively, as the show jumps forward in time for the third season.
Producers Suzanne Mackie and Andy Harries confirmed in March that Smith had been paid more per episode than Foy, primarily because he already had greater name recognition due to his three-season stint as Doctor Who's titular time traveler; they didn't explain, however, why this pay gap persisted into the second season, after Foy had won a Golden Globe and a SAG award for her role as a young Queen Elizabeth II on the show.
Shortly after this revelation, Foy commented on the controversy—but only in terms of the increased attention she received because of it. "I'm surprised because I'm at the center of it, and anything that I'm at the center of like that is very, very odd, and feels very, very out of ordinary," Foy told Entertainment Weekly in late March. "But I'm not [surprised about the interest in the story] in the sense that it was a female-led drama. I'm not surprised that people saw [the story] and went, 'Oh, that's a bit odd.' But I know that Matt feels the same that I do, that it's odd to find yourself at the center [of a story] that you didn't particularly ask for."
Topicsthe crownmatt smithclaire foypay gap