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27th Sep 2019

Olivia Colman says she ‘bloody well hopes’ she’s being paid the same as Tobias Menzies for The Crown

Jade Hayden

“It’s not called Philip, it’s called The Crown.”

Yes, Queen. Literally.

Olivia Colman is due to take on her role as Queen Elizabeth soon as Netflix’s The Crown enters its third season.

And with the role comes an abundance of responsibility, effort, and intense research – a feat that Colman has said she generally doesn’t undertake.

But in this case, she kind of had to, in fairness.

Speaking to Harper’s Bazaar for their upcoming edition, she said: “For this, I have to accept it.”

“I can’t just sit like me, I have to sit like her, and look like pictures of her.”

“They have been teaching me how to walk – I’m really terrible at that, I have no physical awareness. I walk a bit like a farmer, one of the directors said.”

Colman, who is best known for her roles in Broadchurch, Peep Show, and The Favourite, said that she even had to learn how to speak like The Queen.

Which, yeah, fair enough like considering she is playing her. “I thought that general ‘posh’ would do it, but apparently not,” she said.

The Crown‘s OG Queen Elizabeth, Claire Foy, stepped down from her role after two seasons – as did the rest of the cast thanks to the show’s considerable leap forward in time.

Foy found herself at the centre of a gender pay gap issue last year when it was revealed that her co-star Matt Smith was actually being paid more than she was.

And while Colman doesn’t know exactly what Menzies is being paid, she said she “bloody well hopes” that he isn’t receiving a fatter pay check than she is.

“I bloody well hope so,” she said. “It’s not called Philip, it’s called The Crown.”

Excellent.

The Crown returns to Netflix on Sunday, November 17.