- Tobias Menzies, who now plays Prince Philip, has opened up about The Crown's gender pay gap scandal.
- The actor revealed that he was paid less than Olivia Colman, who of course plays Queen Elizabeth in Seasons 3 and 4.
- The show's original queen, Claire Foy, famously made less money than Matt Smith on the first two seasons of The Crown.
The new Prince Philip has arrived, and he's not afraid to talk about gender equality, especially when it comes to how much he's paid for his role in The Crown.
Outlander's Tobias Menzies spoke to Harper's BAZAAR UK about the drama that previously faced the Netflix show when it was revealed that Claire Foy, who originally played the queen, made less than Matt Smith (Prince Philip). At the time, Smith had made a name for himself in Doctor Who, while Foy was a relative unknown. However, as Queen Elizabeth, Foy was undoubtedly the show's lead, and received rave reviews for her work.
Menzies told the publication, "It's an area that, as you may appreciate, I'm wary to step into." However, he continued, "I think broadly speaking, yes, greater transparency will lead to greater equality and that is absolutely the direction of travel that I think is necessary and good. It's interesting... my understanding is, that this time round, I'm paid less than Olivia."
Menzies' lesser wage makes sense, especially given that Colman won an Oscar in 2019 for her role in The Favourite. The actor explained, "Of course I think that feels proportionate because Olivia's much more established than me and has a much higher profile that she's bringing to the show and the product."
The actor also supported Foy and said, "Someone's not always coming in with the exact same amount of previous work, [but] the optics of that particular thing were hard to swallow because obviously Claire was doing the larger part. They got there in the end I suppose."
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