LIFE & CULTURE

5 Fascinating Things You Didn’t Know About Claire Foy

Calling all ‘The Crown’ obsessives…
claire foy the crown
Netflix

Can’t get enough of Claire Foy? After watching her star turn as Queen Elizabeth II in seasons one and two of The Crown, neither can we. But there’s more than tweed and tea to this 33-year-old British actress, who already has a string of new projects in the works. Here’s five fascinating facts about Claire Foy.

RELATED: Everything You Need To Know About ‘The Crown’ Season Three

1/ She was five months’ pregnant when she auditioned for The Crown

And breastfeeding while they filmed the first season. When her agent called with news of the audition, Foy says she wasn’t too interested as she knew she’d have a newborn baby to deal with, according to The Blonde Salad, and assumed she wouldn’t get the role. “It was pretty odd when I was asked if I wanted the part, because I never really thought I could be what they were looking for,” she admits.

claire foy stephen campbell moore
Claire Foy and Stephen Campbell Moore. (Credit: Getty)

2/ She met her husband, also an actor, on set

Foy met British actor Stephen Campbell Moore on the set of Season of the Witch in 2011. They married in 2014 and had a baby girl in February 2015. Campbell Moore recently opened up about his battle with brain cancer, for which he underwent surgery while Foy was filming season two of The Crown.

3/ She battled juvenile arthritis as a child

Foy has also opened up about her own health issues, revealing she was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis that put an end to her dreams of becoming a professional ballet dancer, and had a benign tumour removed from her eye at the age of 17.

“It was horrible and debilitating, but it made me realise that I needed to grab the life I wanted,” she recently told The Sun. “If that hadn’t happened, I don’t know if I would have been brave enough to throw my cards on the table and say I wanted to study drama…. I’m quite lucky to have a face. I was a bit like Cyclops and it was all a bit scary. I was on steroids for about a year and a half afterwards that makes you put on a lot of weight and have really bad skin.”

claire foy
Claire Foy with her Best Actress Golden Globe in 2017. (Credit: Getty)

4/ She’s about to star in a psychological thriller

Swapping her clipped British tones for an American accent, Foy will next appear as the lead in Steven Soderbergh’s psychological horror film, Unsane (if you’re feeling brave, you can watch the trailer here). And after that, she takes on the iconic role of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl in The Spider’s Web. 

5/ She calls herself “a massive commoner”

Raised in Stockport, Greater Manchester by a single working mum (her parents divorced when she was eight), Foy “was always very, very aware of money and not having any.” The Sun reports she had a slew of odd jobs throughout her teens, from working in a pub to telesales, handing out magazines at tube stations and – somewhat bizarrely – on security at Wimbledon.

claire foy
(Credit: Getty)

RELATED: Claire Foy’s Replacement In ‘The Crown’ Has Been Revealed

Related stories