Claire Foy and Richard E. Grant: ‘There’s more to our film than rimming’

Claire Foy and Richard E. Grant are going to raise eyebrows with their new film Savage House, which includes everything from brimming chamber pots and C-bombs to sex scenes with a healthy dose of rimming.

One could call it ‘earthy’, while Foy, 42, also describes it as ‘gross’ – but gets a bit flustered after I point out it’s one of very few period dramas – if not, the only – to include what’s technically referred to as analingus.

‘Is that the technical term?’ she asks, with an amused Grant, 69, also admitting he was unaware that it was the formal term for ‘bum licking’. 

‘You can’t lead with the licking of the bum guys, that can’t be the go-to – watch this film, there’s bum licking in it!’ she laughs.

But the pair agree that it’s this unexpected side of black comedy, Savage House, written and directed by Peter Glanz, which appealed to them.

They play an eccentric and impoverished upper-class couple, lowborn Sir Chauncey and his wife Lady Savage, who drive themselves to the brink of ruin in a bid to climb the slippery eighteenth-century social ladder.

‘It’s not Merchant Ivory and beautiful, with everything immaculate and perfect and great table manners. This is far more raucous and rough-edged,’ explains Grant, which Foy points out is ‘probably more like real life’ anyway.

There’s been a clear move away from the more prim and proper British period dramas of 20 and 30 years ago recently, with the likes of Bridgerton, Harlots and Mary & George. Savage House also delights in duelling, gangrene and a pox outbreak.

‘The BBC Pride and Prejudice series still remains my Holy Grail, eternally, but I think there’s room for both,’ says Foy.

Both stars are old pros when it comes to period dramas too, following the idea that it’s a particularly British phenomenon.

Foy was Bafta nominated for her work as Anne Boleyn in Wolf Hall before she scooped a Golden Globe and two Emmys thanks to her turn as a young Queen Elizabeth II across two seasons of Netflix’s The Crown. Grant, meanwhile, has been in Gosford Park, Downton Abbey, The Scarlet Pimpernel and – most recently – The Other Bennet Sister.

‘It’s really weird, that,’ says Foy of why Brits have become so famous for period dramas.

‘I remember at drama school, the principal going around all our names and saying, “No, you’ll never be in a period drama with that name, you need to change it.” He tried to make me change my name, to my middle name – Elizabeth Foy.

‘It’s not the same, you need that Claire to really make it special!’ she laughs. ‘But I think it’s probably Merchant Ivory.’

The fact that her breakthrough came in the lead role of 2008 BBC Dickens adaptation Little Dorrit – as Claire – lends a delicious irony to her anecdote.

‘We have lots of castles and lots of history and National Trust places and an amazing history. It’s logical,’ Grant adds.

Speaking of castles, the Oscar nominee is recently back from filming Celebrity Traitors at Ardross Castle in the Scottish Highlands.

He won’t give anything away about the upcoming season, which also stars James Blunt, Miranda Hart and Leigh-Anne Pinnock – even to super-fan Foy – but calls it ‘a unique experience’.

‘This is the thing, I only found out when we’re doing press and I obviously can’t ask him – and I don’t think you’ll tell me anything anyway, will you? But he will be amazing in it. I mean, it is really exciting!’ enthuses Foy.

‘I was thrilled to be asked,’ he agrees.

But while Foy can’t wait to tune in like the rest of us, she won’t be tempted herself to sign up for the series, admitting: ‘Oh no, I would be absolutely cancelled!’

‘In the same way that in Traitors you are required by the nature of the game to be two-faced, in Savage House all the characters lead double lives,’ adds Grant, valiantly bringing it back around to the film they’re promoting – and a fair comparison.

‘We’re married to each other, we have a great love relationship,’ he says of their characters, ‘but we’re also shagging the servants. Claire included. So there is this double life that goes on the whole time.’ 

Foy also enjoys the Savages’ ‘totally unconventional’ relationship.

‘I really liked the idea that their marriage and love for each other wasn’t a sort of romantic, twee version of what that is. They’re just totally committed to each other, even though it seems that they’re not. They’d die for each other.’

Savage House is in cinemas from today.

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