Do you think the Queen of England enjoyed The Crown, the grandiose Netflix series about her own life? Claire Foy sincerely hopes she didn't. Foy, who portrays Elizabeth on the show, worries that the Queen would find her performance "ghoulish."
"I would hate the idea of [the Queen] watching it," Foy, 33, told Town and Country. "When you're playing a real person, you never want to be ghoulish."
For the show, Foy treads a delicate line: Does she perform a detailed impression of Britain's most beloved monarch, or does she concoct her own sort of queen, a half-imagined character for the sake of television? The British actress wants to do the latter.
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"I don't want to pick apart a person. I want to invent someone. So I would hate for her to watch it and think I overdramatized anything," Foy added.
It's not that Foy doesn't want her Majesty watching the show; it's more that Foy can't bear the thought that her character's real life counterpart might be observing. In fact, when presented with the rumor that the Queen has viewed the show, Foy heads straight into denial.
"I decided a long time ago that she'd never see it," she said.
The Crown is one of Netflix's most celebrated shows. It has 13 Emmy nominations to its name, and with the second season premiering in December, it isn't losing steam anytime soon. Who's to deny the Queen of England the joy of such good television? If Queen Elizabeth likes good TV, she'll have watched The Crown. And, the Royal Household is keenly aware that the show is not a documentary or reenactment.
When the first season premiered, the Household gave this statement to Bustle: "The Crown is a fictional drama. The Royal Household has had no involvement."
So, invent away, Claire Foy!
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