'I felt defenseless'. Actress Claire Foy complained about the bed scenes in her work
Date: 2023-09-19 Author: Karina Ziganova Categories: CELEBRITY
In the upcoming drama, Foy plays Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, a British aristocrat who made history with her sexual exploits and high-profile divorce proceedings in 1963.
Margaret was married to the 11th Duke of Argyll, Ian Campbell. Despite the fact that the couple agreed on a free union, which, as it turned out during public hearings, the Duke also willingly took advantage of, the court and the press were focused exclusively on the moral character of the Duchess.
She is believed to have become the first noble woman to be publicly labeled a whore.
"I hate the word 'slut,' but I think that epithet will stay with this woman forever. [Biblical] Eve would probably be branded a whore, too," actress Claire Foy says of her character.
Intimate scenes in this movie were very difficult for her, because, according to her, it is enough to be a woman to feel subordinate, and when you also have to depict sex, it is doubly difficult.
"It's overwhelming. It's the hardest thing of all. You feel vulnerable. And even though everyone around you is trying to give you confidence, unfortunately it doesn't help," Foy said.
According to the actress, she understood that such scenes should be present in the story about the Duchess, but she wanted to make them special.
"I wanted to show these moments as something deeply feminine, and not just another sexual climax, which is full of them on screen," Claire told the BBC radio program Woman's Hour.
Scandalous Duchess
Margaret Campbell, née Whigham, was not an aristocrat by blood - her parents were Scottish millionaires Helen and George Whigham.
She entered the aristocratic circles of Great Britain thanks to her second marriage to the Duke of Argyll.
Judging by the surviving diaries, the husband knew about Margaret’s penchant for numerous novels and sexual experiments. An open relationship was established between the spouses, and both were happy with it.
The Duchess of Argyll's personal life would never have become public if her husband had not provided incriminating material to the court during a high-profile trial, which he started, as far as can be judged by a number of evidence, after Margaret refused to pay his bills.
He stole letters and racy Polaroid photographs from her home and handed them over to the judge. During the trial, he also named the number of men with whom his wife had relationships, but did not explain where these numbers came from.
The trial, which attracted much media attention, also included mutual accusations of document forgery, theft, violence, drug use and bribery. However, the full weight of the judging fell only on the duchess.
In his verdict of divorce on the grounds of adultery, the judge described her as a woman with a high sexual addiction.
“She was not satisfied with normal relationships and began to engage in disgusting things of a sexual nature to satisfy her base appetite,” the court decision said.
After the divorce, Margaret Whigham lived for another 30 years. She died in 1993 at the age of 80.
The Duchess of Argyll's story has been called the first known case of revenge porn.
