By Chris Beachum

“Even in the end when she is waiting to be executed, she’s very true to herself. She doesn’t pander to anyone or anything like that. I think she’s already a solid, strong person from beginning to end,” reveals actress Claire Foy about her real-life role as Queen Anne Boleyn in the limited series “Wolf Hall.” This six-part saga aired in the U.S. on PBS under the umbrella of “Masterpiece” programming.

In her recent interview with Gold Derby (watch below), Foy discusses in-depth her character, the second wife of King Henry VIII (Damian Lewis). While she was outspoken, her failure to produce a male offspring was eventually her downfall and led to a public beheading. She adds, “History would have been very, very different if she had a son… That’s all he wanted, and he was such a maniac for having (that). He wanted to continue the line as the throne would be safe.”

For this lavish British production, the behind-the-scenes team working on production design, costumes, hair and makeup helped the actors assume their roles. Foy says, “The locations we were in were extraordinary, and a lot of them were locations that had been visited by Henry VIII… The art department did some incredible things dressing it, but so much of it came from the buildings we were in. And the costumes were just extraordinary… and amazing to wear, painful but amazing.”

The series is based on two award-winning novels by Hilary Mantel, with the focus on the rise of royal advisor Thomas Cromwell (three-time Tony winner Mark Rylance) and his championing of a marriage between Henry and Anne in the early 16th century. Director Peter Kosminsky filmed the lavish production in some of the finest British medieval and Tudor houses.

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