Early last week during a panel discussion about The Crown, two of the Netflix drama's producers revealed that Claire Foy had been paid less than her co-star Matt Smith per episode of the show's first two seasons. The outrage was immediate: No matter how much more well-known Smith may have been than Foy when the show first began, it's unconscionable that a show called The Crown would pay the woman playing the literal crown less than anybody else involved—and even more so that this pay gap continued past the first season, after Foy had won a (much-deserved) Golden Globe Award for her turn as a young Queen Elizabeth II.
On Tuesday, Left Bank Pictures, one of the show's production companies, issued a statement to Deadline in which they apologized to Foy and Smith for embroiling them in this situation over something the actors couldn't control and likely weren't even aware of, and are “absolutely united with the fight for fair pay.” (It should be noted, however, that Left Bank makes no mention of doing anything to retroactively close the pay gap between Foy and Smith, neither of whom will appear in subsequent seasons of the show.)
"We want to apologize to both Claire Foy and to Matt Smith, brilliant actors and friends, who have found themselves at the center of a media storm this week through no fault of their own. Claire and Matt are incredibly gifted actors who, along with the wider cast on The Crown, have worked tirelessly to bring our characters to life with compassion and integrity," Left Bank wrote in the statement. "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."
The statement continued, "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. As company policy we are engaged in conversations with ERA 50:50 and going forward are keen to talk to Time's Up UK; organisations which are working to ensure all women have a voice."
Though Smith may not have known at the time that he was being paid more than Foy, since the news broke last week, fans are now asking him to take some action against the pay disparity. This week, British activist network Care2 launched a petition calling for Smith to donate the difference of his and Foy's paychecks to the Time's Up legal defense fund. "You know gender pay gaps are a problem when even the Queen isn't paid fairly," reads the petition, which had garnered more than 26,000 of its goal of 30,000 signers as of Tuesday.
Related: TV Writers and Actors Are Anonymously Sharing Their Salaries to Promote Equal Pay
