Claire Foy has revealed that she initially had doubts over whether ‘The Crown’ would be a success, and admitted that she and the rest of the show’s cast were taken aback when it proved to be so popular.

33 year old Foy won Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe awards for her portrayal of the young Queen Elizabeth II in ‘The Crown’ when it debuted on Netflix in 2016. Now, ahead of its return to the streaming service for its second season, its star has revealed that many of the cast doubted whether a drama about the “posh and privileged” Windsors would catch on at all.

“The first series was some sort of wonderful experiment; none of us knew if it would be a success, none of us knew if people would take these characters, who are incredibly posh and privileged, to their hearts. There was a huge risk involved,” she told the Evening Standard.

Claire FoyClaire Foy with her Screen Actors' Guild award for 'The Crown'

“We all felt that ‘The Audience’ [the 2013 play] and The Queen [the 2006 film] had gone so well and we thought suddenly our one would be the one that brought the house down and was terrible.”

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“When it came out it was lovely to be involved in something people really enjoyed,” Foy continued. “Whether it was a critical success or not the audiences really loved it. It was weird and we were all a bit like ‘wow’. It was a surprise — we didn’t know why it had gone down so well.”

Foy returns as the British monarch in its second season on December 8th, alongside Matt Smith as Prince Philip. However, for its third season, she will be replaced by English actress Olivia Colman, to reflect that the version of the Queen they need to portray will be older – something that Foy has said she “can’t wait to watch”.

She also spoke about how she and 35 year old Smith, a former ‘Doctor Who’ actor, tried to dial back their affected accents for the second series – but that their voice coach wouldn’t let them.

“We have a dialect coach cracking the whip who would never let it slip,” she said. “We tried every once in a while to ‘common’ it up a bit, but he was there going ‘No!’.”

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