Claire Foy said she never thought she would live past the age of 40, after a run of health problems early in her life.
The 41-year-old actor, best known for playing Queen Elizabeth II in the Netflix drama The Crown, opened up about mortality in a new interview with The Times.
Foy had multiple medical problems as a child, including juvenile arthritis at the age of 13, which meant she required the use of crutches, and a benign tumour behind one eye at 17 that required surgery and steroids.
She recalled that her health problems left her in “horrible, debilitating” pain at times, and changed her outlook on life and death.
“I mean, death? The fact we’re all on our way out? It’s something we just don’t want to think about while we’re alive. But I have thought about death my whole life,” she told the outlet. “I just presumed that it was going to happen, especially through my childhood.
“My thing was that I was never going to make it past 40 – ever,” she continued. “I have had many medical things in my life. But, yes, I’m still here and someone once told me, ‘You know, most people live?’ They meant most people live quite a long and lovely life. Well, not necessarily lovely. But people do tend to live. That’s what humans want to do. We want to survive, and that’s quite reassuring.”
Foy went on to explain that being “morbid” helped her live life with a greater sense of immediacy.
“Being morbid isn’t necessarily negative,” she continued. “It can mean that you are quite immediate, like ‘Live every day as if it’s your last!’
“Because I was ill when I was younger, I just thought, ‘Let’s crack on!’ And then, later, a panic sets in, that middle-class idea of what people are meant to do; have children, get to a certain stage in a job. That can be quite dangerous because you get used to momentous things happening all the time – big moments.”
Her latest project, H is for Hawk, is adapted from the hit 2014 memoir about grief by Helen Macdonald. Foy stars in the film alongside Brendan Gleeson, Sam Spruell and Denise Gough.
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Foy’s work in The Crown earned her two Emmy Awards; she is also known for roles in films such as Unsane, Women Talking, All of Us Strangers and The Girl in the Spider’s Web.