Chalk this up as another victory for the Queen. “The Crown’s” Claire Foy has been named as this year’s recipient of the Britannia Award for British Artist of the Year, Deadline confirms. The honor celebrates British artists “whose outstanding performances in a year have demonstrated the high quality of their craftsmanship.” Earlier this year Foy won a Golden Globe and SAG Award — plus scored an Emmy nod — for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in “The Crown,” a Netflix period drama that chronicles the Queen’s early reign.
“Wolf Hall,” “Upstairs Downstairs,” and “Little Dorrit” are among Foy’s other credits.
“You’ve got to view her, in the first series especially, as a woman of her time,” Foy responded when she was asked if her character in “The Crown” is a feminist or not. “At that time, when she married Philip, she was marrying him to follow him in his career, and she knew that she would be Queen one day, but she thought that she would have time. It’s almost too easy to say she’s a feminist icon in the sense that she had no choice in anything that has happened to her,” she observed.
Foy elaborated, “The way which she has dealt with her situation, what she’s had to put up with, how she’s performed her job, and also been a mother, and a wife, is beyond commendable and something to be respected, but I don’t think you can speak for someone else in that department. I don’t think you can say that she is a feminist or not a feminist, that’s for her to decide, and I think as a person, regardless of her gender, she’s extraordinary and she is unique. There is no one alive today who has met more heads of state, more politicians, more people of the arts, or anything, than her. Heads of religion, than her. There is no one with her set of skills or her knowledge of those people. It’s extraordinary. I think the world will be a very, very different place when she’s no longer on the throne.”
“The Crown’s” sophomore season will debut on Netflix December 8.
“Claire is the perfect encapsulation of the enduring legacy of British talent succeeding on a global stage,” said BAFTA Los Angeles Chairman Kieran Breen. “Her performances this year have been nothing short of phenomenal, including of course her iconic role in ‘The Crown’ portraying the longest ever serving British monarch in history.”
The Britannia Award for British Artist of the Year will be presented to Foy at BAFTA’s Britannia Awards ceremony, set to be held October 27 in LA. It was previously announced that “Queen Sugar” co-creator and “13th” director Ava DuVernay will receive the John Schlesinger Britannia Award for Excellence in Directing at the event.
