‘The Queen is really rather like Madonna!’ Actress Claire Foy reveals how her role in The Crown has given her a rare insight into the royals
By GABRIELLE DONNELLY FOR WEEKEND MAGAZINE
The strangest part about having left The Crown, says Claire Foy, is seeing her former cast mates going off to play different parts.
‘It’s a bit weird,’ she says, wrinkling her nose, seeing, for instance, Matt Smith who played Prince Philip go off to star in the action horror film Patient Zero, or Vanessa Kirby who appeared as Princess Margaret join the new Mission Impossible movie.
‘With The Crown we all did something together that was really engrossing and special and mad, and we all became incredibly close as a result. And now on the one hand I can’t wait to see what everyone will do next, but on the other I want to say, “Stop! Why aren’t you making The Crown anymore?”’
Nevertheless, she admits that as much as she’s enjoyed playing the young Queen Elizabeth in Peter Morgan’s sprawling series about the monarchy, after two seasons – the second begins in early December – she felt it high time to hand over the reins to the yet-to-be-named actress who will take Her Majesty into her middle years.
‘I need change,’ she told the Los Angeles Times recently. ‘I need to play somebody who’s able to communicate on a more open level. And that’s not Elizabeth.’
Today, relaxing in a Beverly Hills hotel during a brief visit to Los Angeles, this friendly, vivacious young woman from lower middle-class Stockport – ‘I’m definitely a massive commoner’ she tells me proudly in her light northern accent – could hardly behave less like the reserved monarch if she tried.
‘I’ve been released!’ she announces gleefully. ‘I’m no longer her so I feel like I’ve escaped!’
Claire, 33, says it was for practical reasons that she only signed on to do two seasons of the series.
‘There’s a huge difference between a person when they’re 21 and when they’re 85, so I have to forget playing this part any longer because you have to change at some point – you can’t have a woman of my age playing an 85-year-old!
‘And the change was especially marked for the Queen, because as the years have passed she’s changed massively, both physically and vocally.
‘In the beginning she was very unsure of how the whole thing worked, what her line was between family and duty and so on. But as she grew older her confidence grew, and I should imagine the way the institution is now is exactly how she would like it to be.’ Continue reading ‘The Queen is really rather like Madonna!’ Actress Claire Foy reveals how her role in The Crown has given her a rare insight into the royals