By Debra Birnbaum

“It’s six degrees of separation,” said Nicole Kidman, of her connection to Claire Foy. The two women had gotten to know each other when Kidman was on stage in London with Foy’s husband, Stephen Campbell Moore, in a production of “Photograph 51.” But it’s their TV roles that have everyone talking — Kidman as an abused wife in HBO’s “Big Little Lies,” and Foy as the reluctant Queen in Netflix’s “The Crown.”

The actresses open up to Variety about the roles that may win them Emmy gold.

Congratulations on your Emmy nominations. What do they mean to you?

Nicole Kidman: I’m absolutely over the moon, because obviously this is something that from conception all the way to now has been my baby and to see it get acknowledged in this way is extraordinary. It’s good to have all of the cast and all of the production and the director and everyone’s nominations. It just makes for a sort of joyous celebration.

Claire Foy: I feel the same. I think it feels a bit surreal because we finished shooting the second (season) of “The Crown” now, so it feels like we’re at the end, even though (the Emmy nomination) is about the first series. So exactly the same as Nicole really, that so many people from the show have been nominated, but it’s just a lovely excuse for everyone to get back together again and celebrate something that was so lovely to do. You get to celebrate it in a way where we can all go, “Hooray!”

What do you each look for in a part? What makes you say yes to any given role?

Kidman: For me, it changes every time. It can be a director, it can be the actual character and the journey of that character, it can be a small role in a film that I feel is really compelling. It can be because it’s being directed by a woman, or it’s written by a woman, it can be because my friend’s starring in it. There’s so many different reasons I do things. But, I suppose the underlying current for me is the idea of not doing something I’ve done before. I call myself a character actor and I’m always trying to stay a character actor.

Foy: I’m one of those people where I don’t really know what it is really until it’s front of me, and I have definitely said no to things that on paper would make a lot of sense. Or would be a really great part, but for some reason, I don’t feel like I’m the right person for that part or I don’t understand it in the same way as other things. That’s not to say I’ve done things that I completely understand, because the majority of my jobs, I’ve been terrified about not really getting to the heart of it or struggling to. I’m realizing the more jobs I do and as my career goes on that there seems to be a theme of choosing the things I’m most scared of doing in a weird way. I’ve never really taken a job and not been scared of some sort of aspect of it. It’s the challenge of it, I think. Continue reading Nicole Kidman and Claire Foy on Formidable Female Roles and Collaborating With Male Showrunners

The actress plays Queen Elizabeth II on the Netflix drama

RUTH KINANE

Thursday morning, Claire Foy received an Emmy nomination for her performance in Netflix drama The Crown, where she plays Queen Elizabeth II. EW caught up with the actress to see how she reacted to the news.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: This is your first Emmy nomination — you must be super excited.
I feel very, very honored and also a bit all-of-a-fluster. I’ve never been before and I can’t wait.

The Crown was nominated in a few other categories too including best drama series, best supporting actor for John Lithgow, and for best writing and directing. Will you guys be in touch to celebrate? Is there a group text?
We’ll definitely be in touch. We just finished shooting the second season so we probably won’t see each other, but it’s not long to wait — it’s only until September — and we’ll all get together and have a big old party. I’ll definitely be getting in touch with John to say congratulations. But we’ve all just worked together again for a long time so we’re sick of the sight of each other — we’ll all be like, “Yeah, yeah, see you September.”

Looking back at season 1, was there any particular scene or episode that stood out to you and made you realize how big this show was going to be?
I really loved episode 9 (“The Assassins”). I just really thought it was near perfect. That’s the episode when Churchill is having his portrait painted and where Philip and Elizabeth have a real break in their marriage and you start to see the cracks in what they’ve been through. Not that I enjoyed playing that or relished the confrontation, but I felt like I could really get into it at that point and I really enjoyed doing those scenes with Matt [Smith], and Ben Caron, who directed those episodes, was just amazing to work with.

It’s so great because, as a viewer, you’re really rooting for both of them; you want both Elizabeth and Philip to get their way. I just want them to be happy together!
I know! That’s all you want, for them to work things out, but it only gets worse in the second series. It’s like, bloody hell, it’s just awful!

They need to go on another safari and have fun.
Exactly! Go back to Africa! I think that’s why it’s so great; they’re not perfect people, and Peter [Morgan, the series creator] is really good at not trying to paint them that way. I don’t know how he writes these scenes between people who’ve got all sorts of complications and problems and all you want them to do is have a cuddle. Continue reading Claire Foy celebrates Emmy nod, teases ‘completely different’ season 2

But if Elizabeth II did watch, there’s the perfect British TV show that would let us watch her do it.

Like the no-nonsense monarch she plays on The Crown, Claire Foy has a finely tuned B.S. radar. And the actress doesn’t believe recent news reports that Queen Elizabeth has spent Saturday nights at Windsor Castle bingeing Foy’s Netflix show about her early days as Queen. Foy recently spoke with Vanity Fair about what to expect from The Crown’s anticipated second season (“sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll”), whether she believes the Queen is a feminist, and what she thinks of another complex heroine she’s rumored to be circling, Lisbeth Salander.

Vanity Fair: We are talking in a space that Netflix has built that houses props and costumes from many of its shows, including some from The Crown, like the giant crown you wear in the coronation episode. What did it feel like wearing it on your head?

Claire Foy: When I wore it in the coronation there was a lot of other stuff going on as well. The dress was also ginormous, and I had loads of scepters, and an orb, and a giant cape . . . and I was wearing platform shoes, and so it was all a bit too much, to be honest. I just sort of thought, “I’m walking straight ahead, and I’m not going to stop.” Then luckily it didn’t plop off my head . . . I always feel more like [Queen Elizabeth] when I’ve got the wellies on, and the tartan skirts, and the headscarves, because that, to me, is who she really is. When she’s got the big gowns on and stuff, I think she’s probably quite uncomfortable in them, and I am, so it sort of makes a lot of sense, really.

You’re playing someone who has basically made it her job to keep her feelings to herself. How do you find an interior life for this person? It’s not like you have her diaries, it’s not like she did some big Oprah confessional.

Imagine if she did . . . There’s always people wanting something from her. She never meets anyone and it’s just a non-transactional relationship. Someone always wants something out of that meeting, or that audience, or whatever it is. I think she’s constantly trying to gauge what her input could be and how it could be useful, and how she can alter what she says in order to remain impartial . . . I’ve always felt that she’s a very thinking character, I suppose.

The Queen has apparently watched all 10 episodes, according to a royal source.

What royal source?

Well, it was in the British press, which is never wrong, as you know.

I can’t believe, I hadn’t heard anything about it, and I will believe it when I see it is all I’ll say.

Source

By Julie Miller

I you have not yet watched Netflix’s The Crown, the upcoming holiday weekend is the perfect chance to start. The sumptuous 10-episode series, from Stephen Daldry and Peter Morgan, stars British actress Claire Foy as a young Queen Elizabeth ascending the throne decades before she expected to. Foy does a brilliant job portraying the long-reigning monarch as viewers have never seen her—fallible, unsure of herself, and struggling to balance her domestic life with her divine duty as the whole world watches.

To celebrate the series, we spoke to Foy earlier this week about the challenges of playing Queen Elizabeth, whether or not she’s heard from the palace, and what viewers can expect when the series returns for its second season. Our edited conversation follows.

V.F. Hollywood: I have so enjoyed watching you on The Crown, and was sad to finish the first 10 episodes. Was the series as fun to make as it was to watch?

Claire Foy: It really, really was. It was definitely a feat, a bit of an achievement, because it’s so vast, and there’s so much of it, and the story goes so far in such a short space of time. But we [the cast and crew] all absolutely love each other.

We’re all so acquainted with Queen Elizabeth the public figure, but what research gave you the best insight into what she’s like behind closed doors?

The palace released quite a lot of her home videos, actually. She has that video camera [that was given to her by her father]. A lot of the home videos were actually shot by her. She has done that through her entire reign.

The palace did this thing [for the Queen’s 90th birthday] where the royal family sat down and watched the home videos together [for a BBC documentary]. William and Harry sat down and watched some. The Queen and Prince Charles watched some. It was the most amazing thing, watching them watch these home videos. A lot of these home videos are of her and Margaret and Philip and, at that point, Charles and Anne—them messing about and rolling down hills. That was very very early on in her reign . . . Those were really amazing, because even then she had such a reserved quality. She wasn’t, obviously, as frivolous as Margaret.

There are documentaries of her now, in her 70s, 80s, and 90s—that’s really useful. But you have to realize she’s not the same at 90 as she was at 25. As good as that is, to see her and how she moves and how she is with people naturally, you have to imagine her as a seed of a person as opposed to full character.
Continue reading Claire Foy on Queen Elizabeth’s Corgis, Season 2 and More