Claire Foy

“I think we should all have a private audience with Helen Mirren.”

“The monarchy is thousands of years old and has experienced many things like 'The Crown' in the past. They're always changing and evolving; that's the thing. They have to.”

“When someone is 90, and you've seen their entire life, you just think you know everything about them and that they must live a straight-laced life.”

“With the royal family, you don't want to see them as people because it takes the sheen off. They're distant; you can idealize them. But there's room to have compassion for people and see them as human beings. Just because they're royalty, it doesn't mean they don't love or feel loss or feel pain.”

“You never know what state you're going to be in after giving birth.”

“As an Englishwoman, you pick up a lot through osmosis. I've been watching the Queen all my life. But, yes, I did watch news footage and was able to pick a couple of little tics. For instance, she plays with her hands a lot and has a certain way of holding them on her lap when she's in public.”

“In the first two episodes, before she becomes Queen, I could be a lot freer with my emotions, but as the series goes on, she develops an armour in order to cope with her circumstances. She has to be a sphinx, which must be so hard. Imagine never being able to shout, 'Shut up,' or cry, even in front of your own family.”

“Being really likeable all the time is just not real life, so it's your duty to make a well-rounded character.”

“Growing up, I was obsessed with Leonardo DiCaprio.”

“Celebrities choose fame. Royals have it thrust on them.”

“I love home, any home really - my mum's, and of course my own. I love eating food there and chilling in bed with a cup of tea.”

“I think, generally, British people are more culturally cynical about the things that involve our own country. Especially the royals.”

“You're more inclined to be cynical about your own country, and you romanticize it from the outside. And why not? It's much more interesting than thinking, 'Oh, everyone's struggling and normal.'”

“History has done a great disservice to Anne Boleyn.”

“I think, whenever you're doing anything, you don't want anyone anywhere to watch it and think that what your character is doing is ridiculous. You don't want anyone to watch it and go, 'Oh my God, that's just fortuitous.'”

“The Queen has stayed with me in the sense that she lets people come to her. She doesn't feel like she has to go out. I mean, she doesn't have to anyway because of her rank and her position, but she doesn't have to overdo it.”

“I wouldn't have been able to go to drama school when I was 19. I don't think I was even conscious of life... I was like a zombie. But when I finished uni' I just realised... just go and do it, stop being a knob.”

“As an actor, there's nothing worse than the sound of 'seven years'. I'm sure to some people it sounds amazing, but to us, it's, like, seven years of playing the same person.”

“Philip's story is the most interesting in the royal family - his background is the opposite of what you'd think. Everyone has this idea that Philip is this bumbling, deliberately posh sort of man who says the wrong thing.”

“I hate having to pose for photos. It's just so embarrassing. Everyone is expecting you to know what to do because you're an actor, but I haven't a clue.”