Claire Foy hates filming sex scenes as they always leave her feeling "exploited".
The actress was able to avoid intimate scenes when playing Queen Elizabeth II in her breakout role in The Crown. However, her latest part, as Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll in the BBC miniseries A Very British Scandal, is a different matter.
The British socialite gained notoriety in 1963 due to the admittance in court of explicit photographs of her and a lover as evidence in her divorce proceedings.
In an interview on BBC Radio 4's Women's Hour, Claire confessed she wasn't keen on shooting sex scenes, but realised they were essential to the plot.
"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," she explained. "You can’t help but feel exploited. It’s grim – it’s the grimmest thing you can do."
The star went on to say that she was happy director Anne Sewitsky made sure they were shot with a female perspective in mind.
"Everyone can make you try to not feel that way but it’s unfortunately the reality," the First Man star added. "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 be that sort of awful climactic sexual experience you often see on the cinema screen."
During the Duchess of Argyll's infamous divorce, accusations of violence, drug-taking, and bribery were made public - with an explicit Polaroid picture sparking public uproar.
