Claire Foy

Growing up, I was obsessed with Leonardo DiCaprio.

The monarchy is thousands of years old and has experienced many things like 'The Crown' in the past. They're always changing and evolving; that's the thing. They have to.

I think I need to play somebody who expresses themselves and is able to communicate on a more open level, something really different.

In the first two episodes, before she becomes Queen, I could be a lot freer with my emotions, but as the series goes on, she develops an armour in order to cope with her circumstances. She has to be a sphinx, which must be so hard. Imagine never being able to shout, 'Shut up,' or cry, even in front of your own family.

I haven't really given much thought to the whole 'working mother' thing.

The Queen has stayed with me in the sense that she lets people come to her. She doesn't feel like she has to go out. I mean, she doesn't have to anyway because of her rank and her position, but she doesn't have to overdo it.

The idea of your younger sibling being in pain and realizing you are the cause of that pain is unbearable.

With the royal family, you don't want to see them as people because it takes the sheen off. They're distant; you can idealize them. But there's room to have compassion for people and see them as human beings. Just because they're royalty, it doesn't mean they don't love or feel loss or feel pain.

I love home, any home really - my mum's, and of course my own. I love eating food there and chilling in bed with a cup of tea.

I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to bring Peter Morgan's Princess Elizabeth to life; she is a gift of a role and a challenge I am so grateful for - a young woman trying to navigate a path through an extraordinary situation.

I wouldn't have been able to go to drama school when I was 19. I don't think I was even conscious of life... I was like a zombie. But when I finished uni' I just realised... just go and do it, stop being a knob.

When someone is 90, and you've seen their entire life, you just think you know everything about them and that they must live a straight-laced life.