The Crown's Claire Foy breaks silence on controversial pay gap

Claire Foy and Matt Smith in The Crown. Photo / Supplied

In recent weeks, much has been made of the fact that Claire Foy was paid a lower wage than The Crown co-star Matt Smith - despite portraying the main character.

And in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, the 33-year-old actress has broken her silence about the wage disparity, admitting that she finds it "odd" to have been the focus of such a discussion when she didn't invite it.

She said: "I'm surprised because I'm at the centre of it, and anything that I'm at the centre of like that is very very odd, and feels very very out of ordinary. 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 centre [of a story] that you didn't particularly ask for."

Her comments come days after the hit show's producers offered an apology to Claire and Matt for their controversial and widely-discussed wage disparity, the Daily Mail reports.

The Crown came under fire after producers revealed Matt was paid more than Claire for the first two seasons of the Netflix drama and in light of the revelation, a petition was launched for the actor to donate his wages to the Me Too campaign.

Since the news broke, Left Bank Pictures have issued a statement in which they apologised to the actors for the situation they have been left in.

The full statement, released to Variety, reads: "We want to apologise to both Claire Foy and to Matt Smith, brilliant actors and friends, who have found themselves at the centre 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.

"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."

Just hours before, a petition was launched for Matt to donate the pay difference to the Time's Up movement.

The 35-year-old Doctor Who star, who plays Prince Philip in the biopic, has been called "to make up for this sexist pay gap" after earning more than Claire, 33, despite her starring as the lead role, Queen Elizabeth.

The petition comes after fans took to Twitter in outrage after The Crown producers Suzanne Mackie and Andy Harries made the shocking revelation when they were asked about the stars' pay during a panel discussion about the series at the INTV Conference in Jerusalem last Tuesday.

They admitted that he did make more due to his Doctor Who fame, according to Variety. (He starred in the popular BBC series from 2010 to 2014.)

They didn't explain why Foy, who has significantly more screen time in the biopic, continued to earn less than Smith in the second season, after she eclipsed his fame with her award-winning performance.

However the Producers did tell Variety this will change as creative director Suzanne Mackie said: "Going forward, no one gets paid more than the Queen."