Claire Foy

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. ”

As an Englishwoman, you pick up a lot through osmosis. I've been watching the Queen all my life. But, yes, I did watch news footage and was able to pick a couple of little tics. For instance, she plays with her hands a lot and has a certain way of holding them on her lap when she's in public. ”

Being really likeable all the time is just not real life, so it's your duty to make a well-rounded character. ”

I've worked in supermarkets, put tags in baseball caps and provided security during Wimbledon, but I never thought acting would be something I'd be any good at, or make a living from. ”

Any scene I've ever played where I've thought people who watch it had experienced something like that - for example, people who've had to deal with losing a parent - I want to do it as respectfully as possible for those people. ”

As an actor, there's nothing worse than the sound of 'seven years'. I'm sure to some people it sounds amazing, but to us, it's, like, seven years of playing the same person. ”

There is no first-hand account of what the Queen was saying or thinking, so my job as an actor is to interpret her circumstances. ”

You're more inclined to be cynical about your own country, and you romanticize it from the outside. And why not? It's much more interesting than thinking, 'Oh, everyone's struggling and normal.' ”

I thought she was just the Queen and he was Prince Philip, and that was just who they were, without thinking about them as a mother or a father or daughter. ”