Claire Foy has said she feared that taking on the role of Lisbeth Salander would be seen as an “obvious” attempt to shake off her role in The Crown.
The actress, who is best known for playing a young Queen Elizabeth II in the big-budget Netflix series, takes over the role of the vigilante hacker from Rooney Mara in The Girl In The Spider’s Web, a sequel to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
A Dragon Tattoo story. Experience #GirlintheSpidersWeb At Cinemas November 21. pic.twitter.com/2f8i7AoSOJ
— Sony Pictures UK 🎬 (@SonyPicturesUK) November 10, 2018
Foy has previously said she felt trepidation about taking on a role in the film Breathe, because it was too similar to that of the monarch.
She told the Press Association: “When I did Breathe that was in my head, but I did it anyway because I loved it and that is the same sort of thing.
“If something else like that had come along I wouldn’t have turned it down purely because I didn’t want to repeat the same thing.
“If I love something I’m doomed, I’m like ‘Oh God, I’ve got to do it’ and it was sort of the same with this.
“In a way I was a bit worried everyone was going to be like ‘God it’s a bit obvious that you’ve gone ‘No! I throw off the shackles of being the Queen and want to shave my head off!”
Enter the web. Claire Foy is Lisbeth Salander in #GirlintheSpidersWeb. At Cinemas November 21.https://t.co/eZkIUxjPFx pic.twitter.com/1RAAr26Gbk
— Sony Pictures UK 🎬 (@SonyPicturesUK) November 9, 2018
“That wasn’t it at all, if anything, I thought this could be a bit extreme, but I loved it so couldn’t not do it.
“I’m not like that. If it’s in front of me I am like ‘That is what I will do’ but other than that I can’t think a day ahead really.”
Discussing how she feels about other actresses having played the role (Noomi Rapace also played Salander in the Swedish language version), she said: “It’s not ideal is it?
“Hopefully at some point I will be able to meet both of them and say ‘I think you’re amazing and great’ but it’s a weird thing, isn’t it?
“I feel very, very honoured to share this part with them but at the same time we are all playing a different woman, because we are all different women, but of what I know about them and have heard about them, I think everybody has an amount of respect for what we all do.
“We all do the same job and we are all aware of how it works and what it is.”
The Girl In The Spider’s Web is released in UK cinemas on November 21.