Famed actor Claire Foy has opened up about filming sex scenes, saying that while the work of intimacy coordinators on sets is useful, she still felt "exposed" and "exploited."
The actress made the remarks during an interview with BBC Radio 4’s "Woman’s Hour" podcast while promoting her latest series, "A Very British Scandal." Foy had to perform intimate scenes while filming for the show in which she plays Duchess of Argyll— a woman best remembered for a highly publicized divorce case in 1963 from her husband the 11th Duke of Argyll, which featured salacious photographs and scandalous stories. The duchess was unfairly branded as a nymphomaniac and adulterer.
"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 onscreen," Foy said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "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."
Foy explained that she chose to do the sex scenes for "A Very British Scandal" because she did not want them to come across as what people are traditionally accustomed to seeing in films and series.
"My thing was that I felt very strongly that it had to be in it, but I wanted it to be female," she said. "I did not want it to be that sort of awful climactic sexual experience you often see on the cinema screen."
Also this week Foy spoke about a mental breakdown she suffered while in her 20s during an appearance on the podcast "Reign." Foy recalled how she was 23 and her career had just started to take off.
"I basically was one of those people who was very much ... I think it’s a lot to do with my upbringing, like 'I don’t need help. I can sort it out myself. It’s not that big of a problem,'" she said, according to the Independent.
"In my mid-20s, I sort of had a breakdown, and I remember my sister saying, 'I can’t help you. You need to see someone professional.' That was the first time that I sort of went, The problem is bigger than me being able to figure it out."
Foy added that it was only when she opened up to friends and sought professional help that things began to improve for her.