“I didn’t just want to read about that era — I wanted to live and breathe it,” she said
Some of Claire Foy’s roles may have been inspired by her love of historical properties.
In an as-told-to essay for the Wall Street Journal, the H Is for Hawk actress spoke about her love of historical dramas and homes. Growing up, Foy, 41, spent four years in a “barn conversion” in Buckinghamshire. “It had a massive garden, but there was nothing planted, just grass.”
When she was 11, after her parents divorced, she and her siblings moved out with her mother into a “smaller house in the village.”
She remembers watching the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice series with her mom and sister, “captivated by the energy of the romance.”
“I already loved historic National Trust properties and walking around their estates,” she said. “In my imagination, I wanted to live back then during those time periods.”
Taking her passion to another level, The Crown star would avoid using electricity when journaling. “I even wrote my diary entries by candlelight,” she said.
“I didn’t just want to read about that era — I wanted to live and breathe it.”
Foy studied film and theater at Liverpool John Moores University and then attended the Oxford School of Drama for its one-year postgraduate program.
Among her early roles was Little Dorrit. “I loved being in Charles Dickens’ world,” she recalled. Foy also starred as Queen Elizabeth in The Crown and as Anne Boleyn in Wolf Hall, which takes audiences back in time.
“I researched Queen Elizabeth through archives and tapes to learn how she spoke and physically carried herself,” Foy recalled of her preparation for the Netflix series.
“But most important, I had to build the character. I wanted her to be someone who evolved slowly through experiences and found her way. That I certainly understood.” Foy ultimately won two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for her role.
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In H Is for Hawk, Foy stars as Helen, “who, after the sudden death of her father (Brendan Gleeson), loses herself in the memories of their time birding and exploring the natural world together and turns the ancient art of falconry — rooted in European tradition — training a wild goshawk named Mabel to navigate her profound loss,” per an official synpopsis.
While teaching Mabel how to hunt and fly, Helen “discovers how deeply she has neglected her own emotions and life. What begins as an act of endurance transforms into an intimate journey of resilience and healing.”
H is for Hawk is now in theaters.
