Olivia Colman and Claire Foy had a "handover" for ‘The Crown’.
Olivia, 45, has taken over the role of Queen Elizabeth from Claire for season three of the Netflix series based on the life of the British monarch and she revealed that the pair met up to talk about the series when she was considering taking on the part.
Olivia told the Daily Mail: "Claire and I had a sort of handover before I took the role, because when the producers offered it to me they very sweetly said, ‘Why don’t you speak to her, she might tell you not to do it?’
"Luckily she didn’t. She just said, ‘Congratulations, you’ll love it!’ She handed over the mantle, and was incredibly encouraging."
And Olivia admitted she spent the first few weeks trying to emulate Claire’s portrayal of the Queen.
Olivia said: "She didn’t give me any actual advice – and certainly didn’t say anything like, ‘Well, I did this very well and I’d like you to keep doing that!’ But because I was such a fan of the show, and of Claire, I spent the first couple of weeks trying to imagine how she’d do it and more or less copying everything she’d done. But eventually you have to find your own way, which I did."
Olivia also revealed that the show was a challenge because "with the present Queen everyone knows her voice, what she looks like".
She explained: "So to a degree you do have to do things at least a bit like she does.
"But then on the other hand, this series is a piece of drama rather than a documentary, and it was the beautiful writing of Peter Morgan that gave me an insight into what might have been going on in her private life.
‘After that, it’s just imagining it and playing with it… and doing a bit of an impression of Claire along the way."
Olivia Colman and Claire Foy’s The Crown handover
