[title]
‘I think it’s a terrible idea.’
Over a cheese scone and a pot of rooibos tea, Claire Foy is not holding back on the news that an AI actress called Tilly Norwood is ‘in talks’ with Hollywood agencies.
‘If people want to watch a film with a fake human being in it, go for gold; I'll be out of a job and I'll just have to live with that, but it loses the point of why we do what we do.’
If you want to know what the point of acting is for her, Foy’s thorny, emotionally ruined performance as a grieving woman who bonds with a goshawk, Mabel, in H is for Hawk is a great place to start.
The adaptation of Helen Macdonald’s bestselling memoir, beloved by a small army of readers, gets its UK premiere at the BFI London Film Festival. The Crown and Wolf Hall actress had to learn to train Eurasian goshawks – ‘the perfectly evolved psychopath’, as someone notes in the film – and channel the author’s deep, spiralling grief when her dad (Brendan Gleeson) dies. In contrast with her roles in those two period worlds, where inscrutability and decorum were everything, H is For Hawk crackles with raw emotion. Tilly Norwood could never.
The adopted north Londoner has picked a Golborne Road café, round the corner from her old Notting Hill home, for our interview. She’s come from an acupuncture session, and before that a couple of days plugging the film in Switzerland, where she divulged her girlhood Leonardo DiCaprio obsession and chatted about playing a young Elizabeth II in The Crown, still her biggest role to date. She’s unguarded and self-effacing to the point where you’re almost tempted to remind her quite how good she is – with two Emmys to prove it – as we talk about training birds of prey, public encounters, and losing her head in Wolf Hall.
Is hawk training the most unexpected life skill you’ve picked up in your career so far?
(Laughs) ‘For sure. I never in a million years thought I’d be doing something like this. Lots of people would willingly spend two months with birds of prey – there is a human fascination for these incredible creatures – and I got to do it without even asking for it.’
How many birds did you work with?
'There were five, all radically different. Our producer bought two as chick eggs before the film was even a twinkle in anyone’s eye. One was the more wild Mabel and the other was the less wild Mabel, but they were both pretty wild. And then we had Jess, who’s an odd goshawk in that she tolerates human beings. I was projecting all sorts of stuff on that bird: “We’ve got a real connection!” I was protective of the birds to the point of militancy.’
H is For Hawk is a very female-led film. Is that a sign of positive change?
‘It's interesting that it’s mentionable that lots of the heads of department [on this film] are female, where it wouldn't be questioned if lots of them were male. If we get to the point where that's not a question, then, yeah, maybe, but by virtue of the fact you're asking it, then no, we’re still fucked.’
More than anything I've ever done, it feels like I'm like putting myself out there to be judged
What does it mean to you, to have this film at the LFF?
‘It's scary, really. I was there with Women Talking (in 2022) but I was with lots of other people in that film. More than anything I've ever done, it feels like I'm like putting myself out there to be judged. There's definitely a little bit of trepidation and vulnerability. A big buffer for me is that Denise Gough and Lindsay Duncan and Brendan Gleeson are in it too, but even that, there was a part of me that's like if I was being offered this film and I was in it, I don't think I'd say yes.’
How do you mean?
‘If I'd been Brendan Gleeson and they asked me to be in this film that Claire Foy was in, I’d be like: “Nah, I'm alright.”’
What do you want fans of the book to take from the film?
‘It's not really up to me to decide. We’re just honouring Helen’s work and honouring what they went through, and by virtue of that, honouring what other people are going through.’
You get through a lot of herbal cigarettes in this film. Did you ever wish Helen hadn’t been a smoker?
‘I got headaches because they've got marshmallow root in them. I gave up smoking 15 or so years ago in a very virtuous life choice and this reminded me why I did. By the end of each day, I just wanted to put my hands in bleach.’
You’ve recently talked about your teenage obsession with Leonardo DiCaprio and Titanic. Was he one of the first actors who made you aware of acting as something you might do?
‘Romeo + Juliet was a huge one as well. It was Technicolor and it was Shakespeare and it was cool, and it felt relevant to what I was experiencing as a teenager. I watched loads of old films as a kid – Calamity Jane and Breakfast at Tiffany’s – and [they were an entry into] this glamorous world of movie stars. I grew up in the countryside and the National Youth Theatre didn't exist for me. My experience of acting was doing drama at school. I wasn't confident or comfortable in my own skin. And then when I got to drama school, I was like: “None of these people are either! Everyone’s nuts!”’
Three of your recent films – First Man, All of Us Strangers and H is For Hawk – have tackled grief. Is it a theme you’re drawn to?
‘I don’t audition as much anymore so often it’s what people believe you can do. Maybe people believe I can do tough stuff, so I get sent those things. Doing Women Talking was addictive because it felt like something that genuinely touched people. All of Us Strangers as well. People said that it helped them deal with their grief. It's a totally egotistical thing to feel, but it’s genuinely like: “Oh my god! I've done some good”, as opposed to just being a turn and putting on a funny voice.’
I watch the BBC Pride and Prejudice at least once a year. I could probably act out the entire series
Do you have a go-to weepy?
‘I have ones that I watch when I'm ill. When I was a kid it was 101 Dalmatians. Now it's the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. I watch it at least once a year. I could probably act out the entire series. When Greta Gerwig had Sad Barbie sitting and watching the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice in Barbie, I couldn't love her more. I felt so seen.’
You’re watching a movie in a London cinema: which cinema and what's your snack of choice?
‘I'm a frequent visitor to the Muswell Hill Everyman. My dream snack would be a bucket with Maltesers, Minstrels, Peanut M&Ms and Raisinets. I'd go without the popcorn. But in reality I'm not allowed any of those things because I shouldn't eat sugar, so I'll just have a cup of tea and some sort of faux chocolate.’
I heard you’re a fan of Green Lanes. Do you have a Turkish of choice?
‘Big fan of Gozleme House. My order? Obviously hummus, pitta, some sort of mixed grill meats, tzatziki, if it's available, and rice. Just basically a lot. I'm an over-orderer of food at all times.’
Have you always felt like a Londoner?
‘When I was at school in Aylesbury, London was the place to go. I wish I’d played truant more; I was too much of a goodie two shoes. It's just a vibrant, exciting, cultural place. Going to the theatre in London is like nowhere else. But I don't think I consider myself a Londoner, necessarily. I was born in Manchester and I went to uni in Liverpool, so I don't think I totally identify with any one place.’
Did you have a London nightlight heyday?
‘I didn't really have a heyday because I was working as soon as I moved to London and I had no money. We used to have lots of house parties. We did used to go to Salvador & Amanda in Covent Garden and get sweaty and have ringing ears from the music. All of our birthdays ended up in there. (Googling it) It’s permanently closed! Oh my god, that's so sad. There's nostalgia.’
Speaking of nostalgia, you're starring in Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree. Was that a big childhood book for you?
‘We were more of a Mr Men house, it just wasn't in our world. As someone who didn't read it as a kid, it's so imaginative and colourful and nuts, but also really sweet and very English. Our version is a modern telling of it, but the essence of it is family, nature, love and childhood.’
Do you get to sing?
‘I think I had to do some ADR singing, but luckily they can layer on everyone else's voices so you don't really hear me in the background. I would never openly choose to sing in anything.’
You once did The Sugar Hill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight on the Jimmy Fallon show. Was that legacy of a bygone karaoke era?
‘Well, they thrust a microphone at me! My brother was absolutely obsessed with hip hop, and specifically The Sugar Hill Gang, so I knew all the lyrics by osmosis. I did become proficient at Foreigner’s I Want to Know What Love Is on SingStar.’
Your H is For Hawk director Philippa Lowthorpe also directed you on The Crown. How was that reunion?
‘She was the first female director I'd worked with on that show and I really enjoyed her presence and how she thought about things. She's done lots of documentaries, and I often find that I get on well with documentary-style directors. It's a different vibe.’
Is there a world in which you, Olivia Colman and Imelda Staunton get together for a cheeky catch-up on playing the Queen?
‘They're both extraordinary women and amazing actresses but much to people’s disappointment, I think the Queen would be the last thing on the list. I instantly fell in love with Imelda when I worked with her (on season 6). I had an earpiece in – I was essentially playing a ghost – and had her voice in my head all day from three rooms away. To have Imelda Staunton going: “What are you having for lunch?” in my ear was wonderful.’
Nothing will be like The Crown ever, ever again
Do people still bring up The Crown?
‘Yeah, which is wonderful. It's not like, “Oh God” and me rolling my eyes. Nothing will be like The Crown ever, ever again. It was like being in like a blockbuster film, and none of us were prepared for it to be that. It was hard to make sense of it, so I didn't try.’
Do strangers curtsey to you in public?
‘People say that they feel like they should. [Public encounters are] always awkward. I was in Portugal this summer and a man pointed at me in a supermarket and said: “You're an actress!”. I feel quite bruised by it, which is not people's intention at all. I want to take this opportunity to apologise to people I meet, because I really struggle with it.’
Did The Crown feel multiples bigger than Wolf Hall at the time?
‘Yeah. Wolf Hall was directed by Peter Kosminsky, who was from a documentary background and everything was about the truth, the interior life. The costumes were extraordinary, they were all made to fit me and took forever to put on because everything was pinned, nothing was poppered. Everything was exactly as it was [in Tudor times].’
Your death scene was extraordinary.
‘You don't see the actual chopping off of my head, but there was a “stunt” Anne Boleyn head. We didn't have the money to have my own head cast so we used Julianne Moore's head from Children of Men, because we have a similar skin tone. I took that as a huge compliment. I've still got a photo of her head in a box.’
H is for Hawk is screening at the BFI London Film Festival. It’s in UK and Ireland cinemas in 2026.