‘The Crown’: Claire Foy Speaks out on Cameo in Controversial Season 5

Claire Foy is “really proud” to continue being a part of The Crown. Foy starred as the young Queen Elizabeth II in the first two seasons of the Netflix show and returned for a flashback sequence in Season 5. The two-time Emmy winner also had a cameo in Season 4.

After being told about the overwhelmingly positive response to her Season 5 appearances, Foy told E! News she was unaware of the reaction. “I’m just really proud,” Foy told E! News at the Chanel x Academy Luncheon on Nov. 16. “I’m really proud to have been part of the show ever so, yeah, it’s a great thing.”

Since that interview, Foy definitely has become aware of Nicki Minaj’s response to her performance. During a stop on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last week, Fallon read Minaj’s viral 2021 comment about Foy. “I can’t get enough of Claire Foy’s perfect face. I want to eat it. It just does the right thing in every single scene. Lmao,” Minaj wrote in a post after she watched Season 4.

As Fallon read the quote, Foy called it ridiculous. “Aw, she loves your face,” Fallon said. “Nicki Minaj wants to eat your face.”
“I would totally let her eat my face,” Foy said. “She could try… I mean, she’d gnaw a bit.”

Foy’s performance as Queen Elizabeth II in the first two seasons of The Crown served as her breakthrough performance. She won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Season 2 in 2018. Her cameo appearance in the Season 4 episode “48:1” earned her an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress last year. Foy’s newest project is Sarah Polley’s acclaimed Women Talking, which hits theaters on Dec. 23, following a festival run this past fall.

While everyone loved seeing Foy in The Crown Season 5, it is the most controversial season of the show yet. The latest episodes of Peter Morgan’s saga are set during the tumultuous 1990s, a difficult decade for the royal family. Imelda Staunton stars as Queen Elizabeth, with Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip, Dominic West as Prince Charles, and Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana. A sixth and final season with the same cast is also in development.

One of the most controversial aspects of season 5 comes immediately in the premiere, “Queen Victoria Syndrome.” Charles is shown asking U.K. Prime Minister John Major (Jonny Lee Miller) to convince his mother to abdicate after learning of a poll showing the people believe Queen Elizabeth has been on the throne too long. Majors denied such a meeting ever occurred in reality. Dame Judi Dench also called out the series for including this fictitious scene.

After news of this scene leaked, Netflix was pushed to add a disclaimer warning that the show was fictionalized. When the trailer was released on YouTube, the streamer did refer to the show as a “fictional dramatization.” However, no disclaimer was included at the beginning of the episodes, once they were released on Nov. 9.

“I think it’s a dangerous area to get into when we whack disclaimers on art,” Claudia Harrison, who plays Princess Anne, said during the Season 5 premiere in London last month. “This is a show made by an exceptional dramatist and the role of the dramatist is perhaps to imagine conversations and imagine how things might have felt. And I think that’s why we watch, and I think it does come back to the audience intelligence thing. Don’t underestimate that ever.”