Claire Foy Never Received Back Pay for ‘The Crown,’ Despite Reports to the Contrary

Following the controversy that emerged when it was revealed that Claire Foy was paid significantly less for her work on “The Crown” than Matt Smith was, reports circulated that the actress would receive back pay. It turns out that wasn’t true. “That was what was reported that I was back-paid. I’ve never mentioned anything about it and neither have the producers,” Foy says in a new interview with Al Arabiya. “The fact that that is ‘fact’ is — not quite correct.”

“Yes it’s Netflix, but it’s a British production company,” she continues. “It happened at the same time as it was coming out with a lot of other people that there was a lot of pay inequality across the board — in the music industry, in journalism, in every industry. It’s across the board that it became part of a bigger conversation, which is an odd place to find yourself in.”

Foy played Queen Elizabeth II on the show’s first two seasons, winning a Golden Globe and receiving an Emmy nod for her performance. “The Crown” is jumping ahead in time for its third season, with Olivia Colman now taking on the lead role alongside Tobias Menzies.

During a panel discussion earlier this year, producer Suzanne Mackie admitted that Smith was paid more due to his higher profile when the show began and vowed that, “going forward, no one gets paid more than the Queen.” Foy, who most recently starred in Steven Soderbergh’s “Unsane,” will next be seen in “First Man” and “The Girl in the Spider’s Web.”