The Crown alum Jared Harris calls Matt Smith-Claire Foy pay gap "an embarrassment"

Digital Spy

"I think it's an embarrassment for Left Bank Pictures," says Harris, who played Elizabeth's father King George VI in Season 1 and who is the first The Crown cast member to speak about the equal pay controversy. Harris says Smith shouldn't be blamed.. "That's a function of the fact that, at the time when they made the deal, Matt Smith would have had a larger profile around the world (than Foy)," he says. "But they could've, at that point, paid her as much as him. That was their choice. And, right now, they're probably wishing they did."