Why The Crown’s Claire Foy Says She Was “A Lunatic” For Taking The Role Of Queen

The Crown is Netflix's latest impressive endeavor, out Friday, November 4. The series sets out to tell the real, uncensored, but still glamorous story of the beginning of Queen Elizabeth II's reign. In real life, the royal had her fair share of trying days when she floundered while trying to maintain a seemingly perfect image. Off-screen, the actress playing the queen, Claire Foy, had her own brief spells of feeling like "an idiot" as well. “I was an idiot — such a huge idiot," Foy told The Guardian about her time filming the series. The English actress accepted the role while she was pregnant, and wound up having to breast-feed on set, a decision she admits was rough at times. "Every morning I’d be hooked up to the pump and without fail someone would say, ‘Someone’s phone is going.’ I was a lunatic trying to breast-feed and be the queen. It was an odd thing to do." Now that's some commitment to a role. Foy surely felt the pressure to be the best team player she could leading the esteemed project. The show's budget topped even Baz Luhrmann's pricey series, The Get Down, by setting Netflix back about $150 million dollars. Even prior to its release, the series has already been picked up for another two seasons. Playing a royal, like playing a real mom, isn't easy. It's quite impressive that Foy was able to pull off both.