Actress Claire Foy is speaking out about what she considers to be a peril of performing in Hollywood.
The 37-year-old star was interviewed about her role as British socialite Margaret Campbell in the limited series “A Very British Scandal.” The series centers on the period around the Duchess of Argyll’s 1963 divorce that saw her publicly maimed as the “dirty duchess” after sexually suggestive photographs were published in the media.
“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,” Foy told BBC Radio 4. “You can’t help but feel exploited. It’s grim – it’s the grimmest thing you can do.
“You feel exposed,” “The Crown” actress added. “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. I did not want it to be that sort of awful climactic sexual experience you often see on the cinema screen.”
‘LAW & ORDER’ ACTRESS CLAIMS CHRIS NOTH WAS ‘SEXUALLY INAPPROPRIATE’ TOWARD HER ON SET
“The Crown” alum Claire Foy stars in “A Very British Scandal,” which premieres Dec. 26.
(David M. Benett/Wireimage)
Foy was also outspoken in her distaste for “shaming” women in the media for being open in their sexuality.
“I hate the phrase slut-shaming, I absolutely hate it,” she said. “But I think that women have basically been slut-shamed forever. I think Eve probably was slut-shamed.
HOLLYWOOD SEX SCENES ARE CHANGING IN THE #METOO ERA THANKS TO INTIMACY COORDINATORS
“There is something about it that I just hate, the rephrasing of the ownership of that title and it being used in a way which justifies it even more. Just the word ‘slut’ shouldn’t probably exist.”
Despite the feeling of being exploited as a woman in show business, Foy said she sees a light at the far end of the tunnel but notes that the industry as a whole has much work ahead of it and appreciates that women’s voices are finally being heard and their opinions considered.
Claire Foy said she often feels “exploited” after performing fake sex scenes.
(Photo by Lia Toby)
“I can only speak from personal experience as opposed to like a cultural revolution kind of way, but I feel like there is a room and an acceptance now that I never would have had,” she said.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER
“There will be scenarios at work, for example, where things will be happening that I would feel were wrong, but I was told that I wasn’t right by society. And now what happens is there’s a forum for me and my friends and my colleagues where, if something’s wrong, there’s someone who goes, ‘Yes, I’m affirming that is actually wrong.'”