Claire Foy says filming sex scenes as a woman is the ‘grimmest thing you can do’

entertainment
Claire Foy Says Filming Sex Scenes As A Woman Is The ‘Grimmest Thing You Can Do’
Claire Foy as Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, in the new BBC drama A Very British Scandal. Foy along with Paul Bettany will play the Duke and Duchess of Argyll in the drama series about the couple's high-profile divorce in the 1960s. Photo: PA
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By Alex Green, PA Senior Entertainment Reporter

Claire Foy has said filming sex scenes makes her feel “exposed” and “exploited”.

The 37-year-old actress stars in A Very British Scandal, about the Duchess of Argyll’s high-profile divorce in the 1960s, which featured explicit photographs and regularly made the front pages of newspapers.

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Foy plays Margaret Campbell, the duchess, who was famed for her charisma, beauty and style.

However, the divorce proceedings brought to light accusations of forgery, theft, violence, drug-taking, secret recording, bribery and an explicit Polaroid picture.

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Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, Foy explained why she finds filming sex scenes unpleasant.

The Crown star said: “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.

“You can’t help but feel exploited. It’s grim – it’s the grimmest thing you can do.

“You feel exposed. 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.

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“I did not want it be that sort of awful climactic sexual experience you often see on the cinema screen.”

A Very British Scandal
Claire Foy as the Duchess of Argyll in A Very British Scandal. Photo: Chris Raphael/BBC/PA

Responding to the suggestion that the duchess was the first woman to be publicly “slut-shamed” by the “mass media”, Foy dismissed the term.

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She said: “I hate the phrase slut-shaming, I absolutely hate it. But I think that women have basically been slut-shamed forever. I think Eve was probably slut-shamed.”

She added: “There is something about it that I just hate, the rephrasing of the ownership of that title, and it being used in a way that justifies it even more.

“Just the word ‘slut’, I think, probably shouldn’t exist.”

Entertainment
First look at Claire Foy and Paul Bettany in drama...
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The three-part series will air on BBC One over three consecutive nights, starting on St Stephen's Day.

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It was made by Sarah Phelps, who previously wrote The Pale Horse, And Then There Were None and Dublin Murders, and directed by Norwegian film-maker Anne Sewitsky.

The programme comes from the team behind the BBC’s A Very English Scandal, which starred Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw as politician Jeremy Thorpe and his lover, Norman Scott.

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