Claire Foy says that filming sex scenes is the ‘grimmest thing you can do’ and it makes her feel ‘exploited’ – ahead of racy drama A Very British Scandal
- Claire Foy, 37, told BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour she finds sex scenes unpleasant
- She plays Duchess of Argyll in A Very British Scandal during high-profile divorce
- The three-part series will air over three consecutive nights from Boxing Day
Claire Foy has said filming sex scenes makes her feel ‘exposed’ and ‘exploited’.
The 37-year-old actress stars in A Very British Scandal, about the Duchess of Argyll’s high-profile divorce in the 1960s, which featured explicit photographs and regularly made the front pages of newspapers.
Foy plays Margaret Campbell, the duchess, who was famed for her charisma, beauty and style.
Claire Foy says filming sex scenes make her feel ‘exposed’ and ‘exploited’ in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. Pictured at the launch of her new BBC drama, A Very British Scandal in November
Claire Foy, pictured in the 2011 drama, The Night Watch said that filming sex scenes is ‘grim’ and that ‘nobody in their right mind’ would enjoy it
However, the divorce proceedings brought to light accusations of forgery, theft, violence, drug-taking, secret recording, bribery and an explicit Polaroid picture.
Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, Foy explained why she finds filming sex scenes unpleasant.
The Crown star said: ‘It’s a really hard line because basically you do feel exploited when you are a woman and you are having to perform fake sex on screen. You can’t help but feel exploited.
‘It’s grim – it’s the grimmest thing you can do. You feel exposed. Everyone can make you try to not feel that way but it’s unfortunately the reality.
‘But my thing was that I felt very strongly that it had to be in it, but I wanted it to be female.
The 37-year-old actress stars in A Very British Scandal, about the Duchess of Argyll’s high-profile divorce in the 1960s, which featured explicit photographs and regularly made the front pages of newspapers
‘I did not want it be that sort of awful climactic sexual experience you often see on the cinema screen.’
Foy also filmed sex scenes as Erin Matthews in The Promise (2011), Anne Boleyn in Wolf Hall (2015), Dawn in Wreckers (2011) and Charlotte in TV show White Heat (2012).
Back in 2018, she told The Sun a similar tale: ‘If I never had to do a sex scene again, that would be the best thing in the world, because no one in their right mind would enjoy that.
‘You’re worried about what the crew are thinking, whether they’re really uncomfortable, whether you’re uncomfortable.
‘You’re just thinking, God, let this be over!’
And in this latest drama, her character, Margaret Campbell, the Duchess of Argyll, was branded as a nymphomaniac by her husband, the 11th Duke of Argyll.
Their divorce was the longest and most costly of the 20th century.
The Duke claimed Margaret had taken on 88 lovers during their marriage, which included cabinet ministers, Hollywood stars and royals.
In the Woman’s Hour interview, responding to the suggestion that the duchess was the first woman to be publicly ‘slut-shamed’ by the ‘mass media’, Foy dismissed the term.
She said: ‘I hate the phrase slut-shaming, I absolutely hate it.
‘But I think that women have basically been slut-shamed forever. I think Eve was probably slut-shamed.’
Tempestuous: Claire Foy and Paul Bettany share a kiss as the Duke and Duchess of Argyll
She added: ‘There is something about it that I just hate, the rephrasing of the ownership of that title, and it being used in a way that justifies it even more.
‘Just the word ‘slut’, I think, probably shouldn’t exist.’
The three-part series will air on BBC One over three consecutive nights, starting on Boxing Day.
‘It was made by Sarah Phelps, who previously wrote The Pale Horse, And Then There Were None and Dublin Murders, and directed by Norwegian film-maker Anne Sewitsky.
The programme comes from the team behind the BBC’s A Very English Scandal, which starred Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw as politician Jeremy Thorpe and his lover, Norman Scott.
The programme comes from the team behind the BBC’s A Very English Scandal, which starred Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw as politician Jeremy Thorpe and his lover, Norman Scott
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