Claire Foy opened up about her career at Zurich Film Festival.
The British actor, in town also to pick up the Golden Eye Award, presented her latest feature “H Is for Hawk,” fresh off screenings at Telluride.
In the film, her character Helen unexpectedly loses her father (Brendan Gleeson). To cope with his death, she takes in a hawk: Mabel. Directed by Philippa Lowthorpe, it’s based on Helen MacDonald’s memoir. Variety’s Peter Debruge called it an “unconventional yet moving grief drama.”
“I had a strong, visceral reaction when I read it,” she said, discussing her character and her way of grieving.
“It was there for everybody to see. People still weren’t brave to say: ‘What do you need?’ It’s also a real story of friendship and not abandoning people when they are being very difficult.”
Foy had to learn falconry for the role.
Previously, she worked with an elephant in “Breathe” – “I don’t know if I ‘worked’ with an elephant. The elephant was just there,” she joked. She got to know “these incredible birds” before we started shooting.
“The training is basically to allow the bird to trust you and get used to you. You just have to be patient and kind, and compassionate. It’s like a house spider – you are terrified of it but it’s more terrified of you. In the book, there’s so much humanity in the way Helen talks about it. That was the key to it. As soon as I knew it was vulnerable, I wasn’t afraid of it.”
She added: “They all had different personalities and I loved all of them.”
Foy drew attention already in 2008 thanks to “Little Dorrit” and “Upstairs Downstairs.” “Wolf Hall” was a “job of a lifetime.” “I met Hilary Mantel and asked her what she had for lunch. I just thought: ‘Say something, say something.’ I think she went: ‘Oh dear.’”
“I didn’t think I could ‘make it’. But as a child, I got used to being ignored and then not wanting to be ignored. I was very loud. As a teenager, I went the opposite direction – I avoided anything that involved anyone looking at me. But I loved theater and saw ‘Titanic’ 12 times or something obscene like that. Mostly because of Leonardo DiCaprio.”
She also opened up about 2011 curio “Season of the Witch” – “With Nicolas Cage! I was in Budapest with him, thinking: ‘What on earth?!’ People were getting helicopters and private jets, and that doesn’t exist anymore. To work with an absolute living legend… It was extraordinary.”
But it was Netflix smash “The Crown,” where she played Queen Elizabeth II, that introduced her to mass audiences. She won two Emmy Awards for her portrayal.
She was heavily pregnant at the time.
“[Stephen Daldry] had me flirting with Winston Churchill as a very pregnant queen. He likes to see how you can stretch a character. I loved it – it felt like someone was paying attention.” She still remained caution, though. “I was convinced it was going to be a bit silly. Me, pretending to be the queen.”
She noted: “She was much more unguarded [as a younger woman]. I could see her as a person, not as a figurehead.” They never interacted.
“That’s the point of the institution: you don’t engage in that. Also, it’s not like ‘H Is for Hawk’ when Helen was on board from the beginning. They didn’t want this to be made. I wasn’t expecting to hear from her.”
She wasn’t afraid of being typecast. “There are not that many queens,” she laughed. Now, an adaptation of Enid Blyton’s children’s novel “Magic Faraway Tree” is also looming on the horizon, also starring Andrew Garfield.
“I was at Zurich before, with ‘Breathe,’ but it was Andrew Garfield who won the Golden Eye,” she deadpanned.
“With [lifetime achievement] awards, you always think you don’t really deserve that. It’s other people who get these things.”
Not anymore.
