The Girl In The Spider’s Web is in cinemas next Wednesday
to share this part with them but at the same time we are all playing a different woman because we are all different women.
“Of what I know about them and have heard about them, I think everybody has an amount of respect for what we all do. We all do the same job and we are all aware of how it works and what it is and so I think we would all be pretty much (she gives a nod of recognition), ‘Hi, how are you doing?’.
Did she try to discuss the role with either of them? “Dear God no, of course not!”
But one thing that marks Foy’s performance apart is the timeliness of the film’s release. The film follows Salander as she tries to rescue and exact vengeance for battered women. It’s the first movie of the series released since the scandal surrounding disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein rocked Hollywood, and the image of a woman taking revenge on abusive men takes on a more loaded meaning.
“Weirdly, since we have made the film, and in the process of making the film, the conversations that people are having are very different and what is in the news is very different.
“Just by the pure nature of it, it is of the moment and that is interesting because we haven’t made the film with that in mind at all.
“Lisbeth, and what she stands for and what she’s been through in her life, has been around for such a long time and the books were written over a decade ago. Stieg Larsson wasn’t writing anything that people didn’t already know so we will just have to see what effect that has.”
But timeliness aside, taking on the part did give her the chance to learn a whole new skill set, talents she had not previously had a chance to accrue in Little Dorrit, Upstairs Downstairs, Wolf Hall and, of course, The Crown.
“I learned lots of new things to do in the gym and lots of fight moves. But I can only do it if I stop my fist an inch away from someone’s face, so it’s not very good in everyday life. “But it wasn’t just those elements. My approach to this film was very different to anything else so it’s been a learning process.”
The one thing she did not quite master was the world of computer hacking. “There is no way,” she says, looking baffled. “It’s a whole world of intelligence.
“Coding, that’s a thing. I don’t even know what that is! There is a dark web out there though!”