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'The Crown' Actor Claire Foy Thinks Duchess Of Argyll Would Have 'Hated' Her

Photo credit: David M. Benett - Getty Images
Photo credit: David M. Benett - Getty Images

Claire Foy has revealed how she really feels about playing the scandalous Margaret, Duchess of Argyll in new BBC drama, A Very British Scandal.

The Crown actress has said she hopes viewers of the show, set to hit screens on December 26, will end up disliking her character, who is also known for being called the 'Dirty Duchess', for her salacious photographs, acrimonious divorces and hyper-promiscuity.

Foy, who played Queen Elizabeth II in seasons one, two and briefly also season four, of The Crown, for which she has won multiple awards, including two Emmys, has also said that the real-life duchess would have been mortified at the fact she was cast to play her.

'She would have hated me, she would have been appalled. I can just almost hear her, scathing, deeply, deeply disappointed that it’s me,' she told The Sun of the aristocrat, who, unlike Foy's 'low class' upbringing, acquired wealth from her parents.

Photo credit: Dan MacMedan
Photo credit: Dan MacMedan

Foy, who has also voiced that she prefers playing roles in dramas about dislikable people, has also given her own take on the late Duchess, whose explosive 1963 divorce court battle, against her former second husband Ian Douglas Campbell, exposed tales of dishonesty, theft and treachery,

When speaking of the duchess' 'belittled' character, she said: 'I think she had a fear of being dull, of being uninteresting. I think that the outcome of this programme should not be that people like her, I hope.'

However, getting into character of the duchess did present challenges for Foy, one of which included the late royal's stammer, which she had to master.

And she wondered whether that created a barrier between the duchess' actual being and the woman she wanted to be.

Foy, who is a mother to six-year-old daughter Ivy Rose, whom she shares with fellow actor Stephen Campbell Moore who she has since separated from, credits other dark points in the duchess' life for helping her to get into character.

One of those times being when the duchess devastatingly suffered a stillbirth during her second pregnancy.

Photo credit: Laurent Viteur - Getty Images
Photo credit: Laurent Viteur - Getty Images

This comes after the duchess had an abortion when she became pregnant at the tender age of 15.

And as much as Foy has faced challenges while playing the role of the late duchess, it's the drama and travesty surrounding the socialite's sexuality that attracted her to the role.

She previously expressed her excitement at the prospect of showing 'how often shame, judgement and controversy surrounds a woman's sexuality,' as per the BBC.

Foy's role in the highly anticipated series, alongside Marvel actor Paul Bettany, who plays her second husband the Duke of Argyll, comes at another pinnacle time in women's history, while we continue to fight for equal rights and control over our sexual and reproductive autonomy.

Foy, who also starred in 2018 astronomical drama First Man, alongside Ryan Gosling and crime drama The Girl in the Spider’s Web, previously took time off from acting to focus on motherhood, making it a topic of huge significance for the actor, when discussing women in the working environment.

At the time of taking a year-long acting hiatus, Foy mentioned that continuing her heavy work schedule would have been detrimental to her parenting. Speaking to Harper's Bazaar, she said: 'The guilt of it. The burden of it. It all seems too much.'

Photo credit: David M. Benett - Getty Images
Photo credit: David M. Benett - Getty Images

'I’m just breathing for the first time since I’ve been a mum,' she said to The Times about her acting career break.

As for now, she's clearly at the peak of her career. In the new drama, Foy is 'bold and brash', said scriptwriter, Sarah Phelps when speaking to The Sun.

We can't wait to see.

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