When she’s in town for Venice Film Festival, Claire Foy loves making a pitstop at the legendary Harry’s Bar because she “can imagine Elizabeth Taylor going there”. But while the Stockport-born, Golden Globe, SAG and Emmy award-winning actor gravitates towards the old-school glamour of the intimate establishment, beloved by Ernest Hemingway, Truman Capote and Peggy Guggenheim for its martinis in icy beakers, Foy does not recommend stopping there a red-carpet premiere. “Definitely don’t drink. It’s not a good idea,” she laughs.
What Foy recommend before touching down at Marco Polo airport is “some lasers on the face” at Sciene in North London’s Muswell Hill. “A facial always helps,” she smiles. “Then at least I’ve done something to help myself in front of the cameras”.
Foy is speaking to the afternoon before facing the cameras at the premiere of her latest film: the Danny Boyle-directed , an adaptation of the biographical James Graham stage play, which charts the rise of , after it was acquired by Rupert Murdoch. Foy plays the tenacious journalist Jules Davies, a character Foy describes as “ambitious, driven, talented and down to earth.” Davies works in a newsroom of men (including Jack O’Connell as ferocious editor Larry Lamb), reinventing media for the masses. “At the time, those editors didn’t know they were creating tabloid culture,” she explains. “There was so much vision, excitement and loyalty.”
Foy, of course, is known for tackling some serious biographical roles – she played a young Queen Elizabeth II in the first and second series of The Crown, Anne Boleyn in and Janet Armstrong, the first wife of astronaut Neil Armstrong in First Man. While her most recent character wasn’t based on one specific woman, she immersed herself in first-hand accounts of renegade Fleet Street female journalists, and met with Eve Pollard, who edited , News of the World’s , and The Daily Mail’s You (and is the mother of Claudia Winkleman!) “Her character really pays homage to those women,” she says. “She’s good and she knows it”.
Foy attended Bottega Veneta’s latest show in February during Milan Fashion Week, and confesses “it’s a dream come true” that creative director Louise Trotter has worked alongside stylist Jonathan Huguet on her premiere look. “The brand threads the line amazingly between cool and classic,” she says of the draped blood-red dress with a knotted waist and striking matching leather gloves. As for the finishing jewellery touches? A smattering of sculptural Swarovski pieces from the brand’s Classica collection, including sparkling ear cuffs. “Load them up!” she laughs.
Foy emphasises that working with her “absolute faves” – make-up artist Kelly Cornwell and hair stylist Gareth Bromell – “makes her feel quite confident actually.” After that? “Try not to pull too many silly faces, take a deep breath, and then its over.”
