Wolf Hall star Claire Foy has told how – unlike her alter-ego Anne Boleyn – she had to work hard to hold her emotions in check while filming her character’s death scene.
Anne’s execution is played out in the popular BBC2 drama, starring Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell and Damian Lewis as Henry VIII.
Claire, 30, told Radio Times magazine that the execution scene, in front of 200 extras, was a difficult experience.
“I had to have a bit of a word with myself, because I was feeling very emotional about the whole thing whereas Anne, by all accounts, really kept it all together,” she said.
“She takes her death sentence on the chin and that’s what I find really heartbreaking.”
Claire added: “She obviously had real moments of desperation while she was in the Tower, but I think she genuinely believed that if she had been accused falsely in this life, she would find justice in the next.”
The actress, who was in the early stages of pregnancy when she filmed the series, added: “We used her own words, verbatim, for the scaffold speech and shot the whole thing a bit like a documentary. So for the audience it feels like you’re watching the whole thing live.”
She said of filming the scenes while pregnant: “It was too early to tell anyone and it’s quite unpleasant when you can’t sit down or drink any water but, if I’m honest, all costumes, unless I’m in pyjamas, end up p***ing me off a bit.”
The adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s historical novel has become BBC2′s biggest new drama series for a decade, attracting an average audience of 3.9 million viewers.
Claire said of her character: “For the amount that she achieved, and given the limited role of women in her time, Anne really had massive balls – bigger balls, I think, than anyone at Henry’s court. If she had been born in a man’s body, I think she would have made an extraordinary ruler.”
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