Daily Mail

How Crown’s Claire Foy was paid LESS than male co-star

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ALREADY an acclaimed actress, her role in The Crown has made Claire Foy a household name.

But it emerged yesterday that she was paid less than her co-star Matt Smith, who portrayed Prince Philip – even though he had far less screen time.

The makers of the Netflix drama admitted the pay gap at a TV conference in Jerusalem yesterday, claiming Smith earned more because he was better known when the series was cast.

Smith became an internatio­nal star after taking on the role of the 11th Doctor Who, whereas Foy, 33, had appeared in lesser known British dramas including the BBC’s Wolf Hall and Little Dorrit.

Despite winning a Golden Globe for her depiction of the Queen, Foy was reportedly paid £29,000 per episode.

The Crown’s producers confirmed that Matt Smith was paid more, but did not disclose the figure.

The amount earned by Foy was dwarfed by the salary of other TV stars. British

Pay: Foy and Smith in The Crown actress Lena Headey earned an estimated £358,000 for each episode of Game Of Thrones, in which she played Cersei Lannister.

However, Suzanne Mackie, one of The Crown’s British producers, said Olivia Colman, who replaces Miss Foy as the Queen for the third series, would have the biggest pay packet of the show’s cast.

She added: ‘Going forward, no one gets paid more than the Queen.’

Miss Mackie also revealed that each episode of the first two seasons cost around £5million.

Foy has already admitted that her part in the drama had not made her rich enough to fulfil her dreams.

She said: ‘I have more debt than when I was 16. I live beyond my means. My Ocado shops are off the scale.’

She told The Daily Telegraph that she wanted a six-bedroom house by exclusive Hampstead Heath in north London, adding: ‘But unless I have, like, £8.9million, that’s never going to happen.’

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