Claire Foy says playing Queen Elizabeth II felt like ‘just another role’

The Crown star Claire Foy has said playing Queen Elizabeth II in the hit Netflix show felt like “just another role”.

The actress, 41, won two Emmy awards and a Golden Globe for her role as the late monarch in the royal drama.

She told Harper’s Bazaar UK: “I’d been acting for a good 10 years before then, so I had a decent gauge on how it all worked and enough experience under my belt to know that it was just another role.

“Of course, it’s very rare that you’d ever have that amount of people watch something you do, so I’m really proud of it, but I also thought, ‘I’m still the same actor I was six months ago, doing the same acting’.

“That was good for me because it meant I was willing just to be amazed about these extraordinary experiences I was having, as opposed to believing the hype.”

Foy also reflected on her “vitriolic” hatred for social media and said she tends to “shut up” when it comes to public discourse.

“What I believe and who I am and where I stand on things is constantly in flux, as much as it is for everyone else, and I have absolutely no authority to discuss or proclaim about anything other than what I do as an actor”, she told the magazine.

“If you’re just making noise for the sake of it, then you should probably shut up – so I tend to shut up.”

Speaking about social media, she added: “I am vitriolic in my hatred of it. There has to be some sort of medium where it enhances and makes life better, not just much worse – and I don’t really think that’s happening at the moment.

“It’s very strange to watch these things happen from the outside – to see that everything is changing, and I don’t feel I’m changing with it.”

Foy has starred in shows including Wolf Hall and A Very British Scandal and is currently promoting the film H Is For Hawk, about a woman who attempts to tame a goshawk following the death of her father.

The February issue of Harper’s Bazaar UK is on sale from January 2.