‘Dragon’ reborn
Foy plays tattooed Lisbeth Salander in ‘Girl in the Spider’s Web’
As Claire Foy slips into the skin of leather-clad, motorcycling Swedish female avenger Lisbeth Salander for “The Girl in the Spider’s Web,” it might seem the English actress couldn’t be farther from her star-making role as Queen Elizabeth II in “The Crown.”
Yet aren’t both women gifted with steely grit?
“They are made of steel. For very different reasons, I think. They have fire inside,” Foy, 34, said from Rome and the world premiere of “Spider’s Web.”
A “pansexual cybergoth hacker,” Lisbeth Salander was created by the late Stieg Larsson in a best-selling global trilogy. First came three Swedish films with Noomi Rapace, then David Fincher’s 2011 American take on “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” with Rooney Mara.
Foy, an Emmy and Golden Globe winner for her queen, is Salander in “Spider’s Web,” a best-selling continuation of the series by David Lagercrantz following Larsson’s death.
“There’s a huge risk me doing it. But there’s a reason why with Salander I’m the third actress playing it: There’s so much in there to play her.
“She’s truly,” Foy continued, “a unique character. Infinite. There’s so much there to understand.”
The $43 million “Spider’s Web” hopes to launch a global action franchise with its Robin Hood-like heroine.
“Righting injustice is what she’s all about,” Foy said. “She’s motivated to action because she feels the system isn’t bringing people to account as they should be.”
Had she ever ridden a motorcycle before this?
“I’ve ridden on a moped, if that counts,” she quipped. “No, I did lots of physical training. Lots of just getting fit for the part. There were a lot of choreographed fight sequences, quite tense shooting, quite extreme conditions you’re working under.
“But also she required a physical transformation from me. How I move, how I walk, how I hold myself together. I wanted her to be introverted but quite physically fit and strong at the same time.”
Foy employs lightly Swedish-accented English and revered Larsson.
“It was the first three books that were really important. I kept them with me all the time, reread them over and over again.
“You could say that much of the film is action-based, but so much of my work was about making sure I carried her (traumatized, violent) past with me into the film. It was important to me to bring that element into it.”
(“The Girl in the Spider’s Web” opens Friday.)