Claire Foy has revealed that she was kept on her toes by the “electric” Richard E. Grant while filming Savage House.
The Emmy-winning star of The Crown joked that working with Grant in the 18th-century period romp was like “constantly teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown.”
In an interview at SXSW London, where Savage House premiered, Foy said that her co-star would bring an unpredictable energy to their scenes that made him “really exciting to act opposite.”
“He’s incredibly warm and loving,” she added. “He’s just straight to the point, and he’s able to see people very clearly.”
Foy said she was enjoying being in a period of her career where she can embrace “lighter” roles, including her recent turn in The Magic Faraway Tree.
“It’s made me feel a bit more vulnerable, actually, weirdly, doing things that are supposed to be funny, because what if they’re not?” she laughed.
Reflecting on her career, the British actress credited casting director Nina Gold with championing her before she broke out in The Crown. “Nina never gave up on me,” she said.
It’s been 10 years since her debut in The Crown as Queen Elizabeth II, and Foy talked about the essence of the character that she attempted to keep in mind during filming.
“Stephen Daldry once said something about the fact that she was an ordinary woman who became extraordinary because of all the ideas that people projected onto her. I was like, well, I won’t lose sight of the fact that she’s just ordinary,” she explained. “It created that friction internally, I suppose.”
One of Foy’s next projects is Ink, Danny Boyle‘s feature about the rise of the Rupert Murdoch empire.
Foy said she was playing a fictional character called Jules, who represents the female journalists who “clawed their way” into Murdoch’s newspaper business. “The film would have suffered if it didn’t have a homage to those women,” Foy said.
