STELLAR PALS
Separation in various forms has become a recurring theme for actress Claire Foy. She made herself a household name as a grieving Elizabeth II in The Crown.
And after splitting from her husband in February, she is hitting the big screen as Neil Armstrong’s wife in Hollywood blockbuster First Man, out tomorrow.
The film tells the story of the Apollo 11 astronaut’s historic 1969 moon landing – and how partner Janet coped with his absence as she cared for their children back on Earth.
Claire, 34, felt a special connection with this quiet, strong woman who spent long periods apart from her husband in their 38 years together.
She says: “Janet and Neil’s separation was complex, just like anyone who chooses to separate in a marriage.
“It’s incredibly complex... but that’s as far as I’m willing to go.”
The actress and her ex, actor Stephen Campbell Moore, 38, now share custody of daughter Ivy Rose, three. And as she gets used to life as a single mother, it is something else she shares with Janet – who was a founding member of the Astronaut Wives Club.
Although Claire got help from the Armstrongs’ sons Eric and Mark for the role, she never got to meet Janet, who died of cancer in June, aged 84. Neil died in 2012.
Telling of her admiration for Janet and what she put into the character, Claire says: “Janet is many things – she’s strong, vulnerable, incredibly courageous, resilient to the extreme, fiercely intelligent, she has huge amounts of energy.”
Painfully aware of the misery family splits cause, Claire recently revealed she suffered anxiety disorder as a child, brought on, in part, by her parents’ separation.
“I suffer really badly with anxiety,” she says. “Not about work but life in general. There’s a thing of thinking somebody’s life on the outside looks amazing, how wonderful, and that’s such dog s**t.
“Internally, everyone’s struggling. A few weeks ago, I saw someone crying on the side of the road and I thought, Oh my God, I want to give them a cuddle.”
However, there is little sign of anxiety as she speaks at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Claire, born in Stockport, also says she had no time to be starstruck when she met First Man co-star Ryan Gosling, 37, who plays Neil, while auditioning with Oscar-winning director Damien Chazelle.
“It all happened so quickly,” she recalls. “He said, ‘Let’s go and meet Ryan’. And I was like, ‘What, now?’. We had breakfast together and there was no time for me to be weird about it. I think he’s awesome. He’s such an incredible actor.
“Ryan is so like Neil in that it’s not about him, it’s about everybody else and it takes a very kind person to make it like that, especially with the career he’s had.”
After making three films in quick succession – Unsane, First Man and The