Claire Foy, the acclaimed actress known for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in Netflix’s The Crown, has revealed she considered the iconic role to be "just another role".
The 41-year-old star, who garnered two Emmy awards and a Golden Globe for her performance as the late monarch in the popular royal drama, shared her perspective in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar UK.
"I’d been acting for a good 10 years before then, so I had a decent gauge on how it all worked and enough experience under my belt to know that it was just another role," Foy explained.
"Of course, it’s very rare that you’d ever have that amount of people watch something you do, so I’m really proud of it, but I also thought, ‘I’m still the same actor I was six months ago, doing the same acting’."
She added that this grounded approach allowed her to appreciate the experience without succumbing to external pressures. "That was good for me because it meant I was willing just to be amazed about these extraordinary experiences I was having, as opposed to believing the hype."
Beyond her acting career, Foy also expressed a "vitriolic" disdain for social media, indicating a preference for silence in public discourse. "What I believe and who I am and where I stand on things is constantly in flux, as much as it is for everyone else, and I have absolutely no authority to discuss or proclaim about anything other than what I do as an actor," she told the magazine.
"If you’re just making noise for the sake of it, then you should probably shut up – so I tend to shut up."
Elaborating on her views on social media, Foy stated: "I am vitriolic in my hatred of it. There has to be some sort of medium where it enhances and makes life better, not just much worse – and I don’t really think that’s happening at the moment. It’s very strange to watch these things happen from the outside – to see that everything is changing, and I don’t feel I’m changing with it."
Foy’s extensive credits include roles in Wolf Hall and A Very British Scandal. She is currently promoting her latest film, H Is For Hawk, which follows a woman’s attempt to tame a goshawk after her father’s death.
The full interview can be found in the February issue of Harper’s Bazaar UK, available from January 2.
