In pictures: The Crown star Claire Foy films H is for Hawk with goshawk on streets of Cambridge
Claire Foy, star of The Crown, was spotted walking through the streets of Cambridge with a bird of prey on her arm.
The 40-year-old actress held the Eurasian goshawk as she filmed scenes for H is for Hawk – an adaptation of Cambridge author Helen Macdonald’s book.
Ms Foy is believed to have spent two weeks training with the hawk in preparation for her role, in which she plays Helen, who dealt with the grief of their father’s death by forming an unlikely friendship with a goshawk named Mabel.
Helen’s memoir about training Mabel won the Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction and the Costa Book of the Year award for 2014, and made The Sunday Times Bestsellers List within two weeks of publication.
In 2017, a Natural TV World special on the story was shown on BBC Two, in which Helen told of how she was drawn to the large and rarely-seen birds of prey following the sudden death of her father, the renowned photojournalist Alisdair Macdonald a decade earlier.
Helen told the programme: “Stricken with grief, I fled from humanity. I ran towards things of death and difficulty and spooky pale-eyed feathered ghosts that lived in woodland thickets.
“I ran toward goshawks. The story of how I trained my goshawk Mabel became a best selling book, H is For Hawk.”
Helen, a writer, poet and naturalist and advocate for biodiversity, read English at Murray Edwards College and was a research fellow at Jesus College from 2004-07, working in the history and philosophy of science. It was while at Jesus that Helen bought and trained Mabel.
The film adaptation from Plan B Entertainment and Film4 is directed by Bafta-winning UK director Philippa Lowthorpe, who also worked on the hit Netflix drama The Crown, in which Golden Globe and Emmy Award winner Ms Foy portrayed Queen Elizabeth II.
Written by Emma Donoghue, known for Room and The Wonder, the role of Helen’s father will be played by Brendan Gleeson, the Academy Award nominee known for The Banshees of Inisherin and In Bruges.
Protagonist Pictures has struck a distribution deal for the film in the UK and Ireland with Lionsgate, and production began in Wales earlier this month.
