Professionally at least, she’s riding the crest of a wave that shows no sign of breaking any time soon.
Indeed, Claire Foy is in her prime as she looks ahead to the release of two new films; Enid Blyton fantasy The Magic Faraway Tree, and black comedy Savage Garden, in which she stars alongside Richard E. Grant.
But the actress readily admits that every achievement is a bonus after spending much of her youth struggling with a myriad of medical issues that left her morbidly convinced she would not live beyond the age of 40.
Stockport born, Foy – who will celebrate her 42nd birthday in April – was raised in mid-counties Buckinghamshire with two younger siblings before leaving to study film and drama at Liverpool John Moores University.
But her childhood was blighted by a series of unforeseen issues, including a benign tumour behind one eye and juvenile arthritis that left her unable to walk without the aid of crutches when she was just 13.
And Foy concedes her spate of illnesses led to an unhealthy preoccupation with her own mortality, to the point where she believed her life would end before she reached middle age.
Claire Foy says she spent much of her youth struggling with a myriad of medical issues that left her morbidly convinced she would not live beyond the age of 40
Foy’s childhood was blighted by a series of unforeseen issues, including a benign tumour behind one eye and juvenile arthritis that left her unable to walk without the aid of crutches
She told Sunday Times Culture: ‘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.
‘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. 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 suffered “horrible, debilitating” pain as a consequence of juvenile arthritis, which typically affects children under the age of 16, and she believes the condition helped give her positive outlook as she grew into adulthood.
‘Being morbid isn’t necessarily negative,’ she said. ‘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.’
The actress is set to star alongside Andrew Garfield In The Magic Faraway Tree (pictured), an adaptation of author Enid Blyton’s famous book series of the same name
She recently starred in biographical drama H Is For Hawk (pictured), playing writer and naturalist Helen Macdonald
She added: ‘Just appreciate your life and the fact you’ve got it. Though I’ll always make it a bit of a palaver?’
Foy will star alongside Andrew Garfield in The Magic Faraway Tree, a special effects filled fantasy adventure based on author Enid Blyton’s popular book series of the same name.
But while CGI has always been a fundamental part of filmmaking, the actress would be reluctant to put her name to anything that relied on artificial intelligence,
‘I just find it very sad. I have no interest in watching or reading anything by AI,’ she explained at a New York Q&A for her recent release, the biographical drama H Is For Hawk, in which she plays writer and naturalist Helen Macdonald.
When asked about her fears of becoming ‘obsolete,’ the two-time Emmy winner said that it was up to audiences to decide what the future of entertainment should look like.
‘Well, only if there is an appetite for people to watch that stuff, if the younger generation say this is just the world we live in’, she told The Sunday Times.
‘But I don’t get it. And I’ll be very disappointed in my fellow humans if that happens — if they want to watch glorified animation.’
