Wolf Hall’s Claire Foy will get to grips with an enormous HAWK for her newest appearing job

She’s best known for stately regal roles, but Claire Foy swapped glamour for gauntlets as she got to grips with a massive hawk for her latest acting job.

The 40-year-old was last week seen nervously strolling through Cambridge with the bird of prey perched on her gloved arm.

Ms Foy, who previously played Queen Elizabeth in The Crown and Anne Boleyn in Wolf Hall, is believed to have spent two weeks training with the Eurasian goshawk – the largest species of hawk in Europe – for her new film role.

In H Is For Hawk, she plays Cambridge academic Helen Macdonald, who formed an unlikely friendship with a bird called Mabel following the sudden death of her photojournalist father, Alisdair, from a heart attack. 

Claire Foy pictured in the centre of Cambridge with a bird of prey on her arm for her latest acting role

Ms Foy is believed to have spent two weeks training for the European goshawk

Ms Foy plays Cambridge academic Helen Macdonald in her upcoming film H is For Hawk

The film is based on Macdonald’s best-selling 2014 memoir which told how her relationship with the hawk helped her deal with the ensuing grief.

Brendan Gleeson, who starred in The Banshees of Inisherin, will play the father, while the film marks a reunion between Ms Foy and director Philippa Lowthorpe, who shot the second series of The Crown. 

Game of Thrones actor Lena Headey is a producer, having snapped up the film rights to the story.