Having played Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown and King Henry VIII’s doomed second wife Anne Boleyn in Wolf Hall, Claire Foy is well on her way to icon status. But it wasn’t so long ago that the British actor firmly believed she wouldn’t live more than four decades.
“I have thought about death my whole life,” confides Claire, who at 12 developed juvenile arthritis that put her on crutches, then, at 17, had a tumour behind one eye that required complicated surgery.
“I just presumed it was going to happen, especially through my childhood. My thing was that I was never going to make it past 40 – ever!”
It didn’t help that in her early years, she also lost “someone” close to her, which left her with the impression that if you get ill, you automatically die.
Now 41, with a 10-year-old daughter Ivy – whom she shares with ex-husband Stephen Campbell Moore, 46 – and a huge future in film and TV still to come, Claire agrees there’s no time to die just yet.
Finding strength in survival
“I’m still here and someone once told me, ‘You know, most people live,’” she says.
“They meant most people live quite a long and lovely life. Well, not necessarily lovely, but people do tend to live. That’s what humans want to do. We want to survive – and that’s quite reassuring. “Being morbid isn’t necessarily negative,” she adds.
“It can mean that you are quite immediate, like, ‘Live every day as if it’s your last!’ “Because I was ill when I was younger, I just thought, ‘Let’s crack on! Just appreciate your life and the fact you’ve got it.’ Though I’ll always make it a bit of a palaver.”
From Little Dorrit to The Crown
In 2008, Claire was noticed for her breakout role in the miniseries Little Dorrit – and the work came thick and fast. She cemented her place among Britain’s acting elite in 2016 when she stepped into the sensible shoes of Queen Elizabeth II in the first and second seasons of The Crown.
It led to two Emmy awards, a Golden Globe, a SAG and many more offers to portray royalty.
“I’ve been offered other queens, yes,” shares Claire.
“But I thought that’d be a bit weird and boring.”
Choosing roles that resonate
Instead, she was keen to explore more relatable characters and it was that instinct that drew her to her latest film, H is for Hawk, which tells the heart-rending true story of British naturalist Helen Macdonald, 56, who bought a hawk to cope with grief.
The movie is based on Helen’s “vivid, visceral” 2014 memoir of the same name, in which she relates the story of bonding with a young female Eurasian goshawk called Mabel after her father, Alisdair, died suddenly in 2007.
The ferocious-looking birds are notoriously difficult to train and Claire needed weeks of bonding with goshawks in order to give a convincing performance. Director and co-writer Philippa Lowthorpe, however, says Claire was a natural falconer.
Striding across the moor with Mabel
“I remember seeing the first clip of Claire’s training,” says Philippa, 64.
“She was striding across a windswept moor dressed in her Helen clothes with a huge hawk on her wrist. It made me cry.”
Two identical goshawks were used for the movie and Claire was surprised at how quickly she became confident around them.
“It involved an insane level of presence,” she says.
“I couldn’t be anywhere other than there because they could sense it. “You couldn’t be distracted. Your focus had to be entirely on them. It was like trying to regulate your heartbeat to be the same as the birds’, then you got in tune with them. It was strange, but I loved it. I was open to being surprised every day – and that was useful because the birds were in charge a lot of the time!”
Fame feels stranger than the moors
Due to her growing fame, being out in the British moors with a hawk on her arm is more comfortable for Claire than going shopping on a high street. She admits she’s mortified when strangers approach her at the supermarket or when she’s with friends in a clothing boutique.
“People are nice,” she says.
“But it’s not normal.”
Being instantly recognisable, she adds, can be “a barrier” between herself and the world.
Struggling with otherness
“I struggle with that,” she says.
“There have been times I’ve been ‘othered’ and it doesn’t feel nice. It makes me really self-conscious.”
Neither does she enjoy looking back at TV shows and movies she made years ago.
“You’re watching yourself age on screen,” she laughs.
“It’s okay looking in a mirror because it’s incremental, but if you’re suddenly seeing yourself from years ago… Whoa! It’s a shock.”
