The Crown: 7 Reasons Why Claire Foy Is The Best Queen Elizabeth (& 7 Why It’s Olivia Colman)

One of the more interesting creative choices by those responsible for making the Netflix series The Crown has been the recasting of the main characters. Though it could have ended up being a real fumble in less capable hands, it’s actually worked quite well, particularly since Claire Foy and Olivia Colman are such amazing actresses, able to bring out the complexities and complications of this most fascinating monarch.

What’s more, both can convincingly lay claim to being the best person to portray Queen Elizabeth, a woman who has reigned for over half a century. But what makes each of their performances so memorable?

Updated January 11th, 2022 by Hilary Elizabeth: Elizabeth II is undoubtedly one of the most complex and interesting real-life historical figures of her era. Portraying the realities of her experiences is no easy task, and Claire Foy and Olivia Colman both stand out in different ways as their performances are so dimensional and unique.

Claire Foy Is The Best Queen Elizabeth Because

She Captures The Angst Of A Young Monarch

The first two seasons of the series largely focused on Elizabeth’s efforts to negotiate the fraught territory of the monarchy in a period of remarkable transition. This was, after all, an England still grappling with the effects of the Second World War.

What makes Foy such an excellent choice for the role is that she manages to embody so much of the anxiety and worry that Elizabeth must have felt as she grappled with both her position and a rapidly changing nation.

She embodies the duality of Elizabeth learning how to be queen and presenting a capable image to the world

What’s interesting about Queen Elizabeth isn’t just that she ascended to the throne in a time of great upheaval for the UK, but that the experience in itself upended her life as well.

The abdication of King Edward VIII obviously radically changed the course of Windsor history, and Elizabeth had been raised to be a lady more than a ruler. She was very young when she became queen, and she largely didn’t know what she was doing, but she had to present herself as strong and self-assured.

She captures the complexity of being a young woman ruling

Elizabeth was really thrown into the deep end of the pool without a life preserver when she became queen so young. But what further complicated matters was that, to put it simply, she was forced to become a commanding presence in an arena that women, especially women her age, were not expected to occupy.

Presenting herself as a force to be reckoned with among older men who were not accustomed to listening to younger ladies was tough, and Foy nailed that discomfort.

She Has Steely Delivery And Determination

In the early years of her reign, Elizabeth has to contend with all sorts of trials, both personally and publicly, which The Crown depicts with varying accuracy. Among other things, she has to deal with the disintegration of the British Empire and the numerous challenges to her authority, particularly from her irascible husband Philip.

A lesser actress might have been overwhelmed by the demands of this role, but Claire Foy rises to the challenge, again and again, giving audiences an Elizabeth with a steel spine and an iron soul.

She Has A Strange Chemistry With Matt Smith

Though Philip might be a bit of a jerk in the first two seasons, there’s no doubt that Matt Smith is truly magnificent in the role, allowing the consort to be more than just a caricature.

There’s also undeniable chemistry between Smith and Foy, and the audience can well believe that these are two people that are truly in love with one another, even if they do have to overcome some truly great obstacles to their relationship and the proper functioning of their marriage.

She Captures The Complications Of A Monarch In The Postwar Era

There’s no question that Britain went through quite a lot in the years after World War II. After all, that conflict had shaken almost everything that the world believed in. As the series shows, Elizabeth was more than capable of handling this, though it would no doubt have crushed someone less able.

In Claire Foy’s equally capable hands, the viewer gets to see how determined Elizabeth is to do her duty, no matter how much of a personal cost it may take.

She Conveys Strength And Vulnerability

It takes a pretty special sort of actress to be able to capture both strength and vulnerability. It’s a tough trick to pull off, and it’s even harder to do well. How fortunate for viewers, then, that Claire Foy was chosen to portray the young Elizabeth.

Time and again as the first and second seasons unfold, the series shows Elizabeth as a woman contending with the difficulties in her marriage yet strong enough to handle the various public crises that affect her country.

Olivia Colman Is The Best Queen Elizabeth Because

She Has The Ability To Capture Elizabeth’s Sadness

As the years go by, Elizabeth has to contend with the fact that not only is she aging, but her country is aging with her. At one point, she even remarks that under her tenure, the nation that she loves and has devoted her life to has begun a slow and steady decline.

One core aspect of Colman’s performance is that she allows the audience to see beneath Elizabeth’s strong facade to the sadness that often lurks beneath, a reminder of just how much she’s given up for her nation (and it helps that Colman looks quite a lot like middle-aged Elizabeth).

She Has The Ability To Convey Elizabeth’s Relationships With Her Children

Though Elizabeth’s children are largely off-screen for most of the first two seasons (with some exceptions), they become a more central part of the drama in the third and fourth seasons. As a result, the audience sees a great deal more of their interactions with their mother.

Olivia Colman invites the audience to understand the vexed relationship that she has with her children, for while she clearly loves them, she can’t help but also feel a bit distant from them (and they from her).

She Captures The Struggle Of Raising Children To Be Monarchs

The Crown isn’t shy about examining Queen Elizabeth’s less-than-maternal nature, but what makes her position infinitely more complex is that she isn’t just tasked with raising her kids. She is responsible for building up Charles and the rest of her children to be the public face of English royalty.

The series makes it clear that she doesn’t necessarily handle this deftly, and Colman does a brilliant job of portraying the conflict between her feelings as a mother and a monarch.

She Has Great Chemistry With Tobias Menzies

If there’s one person in the cast who can match Olivia Colman’s Elizabeth, it’s Tobias Menzies as Philip, who gives one of his best performances. Watching the two of them on-screen, viewers can well believe that these are two people who have spent a significant part of their lives together.

It’s more than just seeming to inhabit the characters, however. There’s a warmth to their relationship that, when it shows up, makes fans almost believe that they are actually watching the royal couple together in their most intimate and tender moments.

She Has The Ability To Capture Elizabeth’s Inflexibility

It’s not really surprising that as she gets older, Elizabeth would find it more and more difficult to change and adapt to the times (especially since she was never really known for her flexibility in most aspects of her life).

It would have been very easy for Colman to make Elizabeth unlikable or unsympathetic, but instead, she allows the viewer to gain at least some understanding of Elizabeth, even as she also forces an acknowledgment of some of Elizabeth’s most egregious mistakes.

She Shows The Complications Of Being Queen In A Constantly Changing Country

Elizabeth ascended to the throne when the status of the English monarchy was already in flux, and it seems like that instability never stopped.

Although it was difficult in the era that Foy portrayed, Colman was saddled with the intense responsibility of conveying the experience of being the reigning queen when the meaning of that position was constantly changing and being questioned. Colman depicts the dual sides of this conflict at the same time, which is impressive.

She Conveys Elizabeth’s Durability

One thing can be said of Queen Elizabeth, and that is that she is an institution. No matter what happens in the series, she knows that she is the embodiment of the Crown, something that the rest of her people look up to.

A less capable actress would no doubt have made her into something of a caricature, a relic from a bygone era. While Colman does allow the viewer to see Elizabeth’s inflexibility, she also emphasizes the fact that the Queen is nothing if not enduring.

Both Are Great As Queen Elizabeth Because

There’s Continuity Between Their Versions Of Elizabeth

Both Foy and Colman are excellent in their performances of Queen Elizabeth, but the success of The Crown as a whole relies on one utterly vital component. That these two different people can believably play the same person.

And, not only do the two actresses look similar enough to convincingly appear like the same person, but the details that they both add into the depiction of Elizabeth really make the continuity work despite the huge time jump.

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