Claire Foy v. the Color Blue
The actress doesn’t want to be in a situation for even an hour where she's doing blue.
I went to see Madonna’s Celebration tour at Barclays. I finally had the tapioca pearl pie at Superiority Burger. I baked thousands of cookies for my and my friend’s third-annual holiday cookie bake. I thought about reviewing the concert or the pie or detailing the months-long process of making, packaging and delivering the cookies, but then, a new entry in the X celeb doesn’t do X entered the chat. To review: Lady Gaga doesn’t speak German — but she can if you like. Kim Cattrall doesn’t want to be in a situation for even an hour where she’s not enjoying herself. And now, in case you hadn’t heard, Claire Foy does not do blue.
You wouldn’t know it from a cursory Google. The headlines and accompanying stories don’t just bury such a lead, but fail to mention it entirely. “Foy, Colman or Staunton: which Queen Elizabeth II ruled The Crown?” “Claire Foy, 39, puts on an elegant display in a black blazer as she appears on Jimmy Fallon's The Tonight Show.” “All About Claire Foy's Daughter Ivy Rose.” But the reality, as confirmed by Foy on Friday, is that she does not “do” the color blue — “do” meaning signing autographs with a blue Sharpie.
The video, posted by photojournalist Michal Blank, shows the two-time Emmy Award-winner being ushered into Rockefeller Center to continue doing press for her new film, All of Us Strangers (a film covered here via interviews with Foy’s director, Andrew Haigh, and her co-stars, Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal). The clip was posted Friday but made the ascent to gay group chat fodder over the weekend thanks to the iconography of Foy’s delivery. You want to say “queen” before remembering that in her case there’s a double meaning with her playing the actual Queen, so in this case, we’ll use a synonym: Mother.
Naturally, I made a meme of the moment.
The comments were a mixture of deranged and “Good for her”-esque sentiments. “Why does she hate Beyoncé’s daughter?” wrote ballet dancer Harper Waters. “I mean she’s not wrong,” wrote artist Richard Haines. “Anti Tory and pro black!!!! That's my girl!!!!” wrote one particularly funny commentator. Iconography aside, what’s the deal here? While it’s fun to imagine Foy’s disdain for the color blue is a spiritual contemporary to Madonna’s loathing of hydrangeas, it’s sadly not that. In fact, I’ve seen four theories floating around online.
Theory 1: Most celebrities and athletes are taught not to do blue ink because autograph hounds and scalpers use blue Sharpie to lift the signature and duplicate it over multiple photos. Legit fans don’t use blue. Theory 2: Blue ink is used to sign legal documents. Theory 3: Blue Sharpie autographs sell for more money than black. Theory 4: Claire Foy was bit by a radioactive spider as a young girl and developed a disdain which later grew into an unfettered abhorrence of the color blue, one that is triggered most when a blue Sharpie is pointed in her direction.
According to an unnamed source with knowledge of Foy’s policy, it is (of course) Theory 1. It’s a topic that’s been spoken about before. “I was taught maybe after my third year that you’re not supposed to use a blue pen because they can use that signature and slap it on another jersey and sell that, but you can’t do that with a black pen or gray pen,” Philadelphia 76ers player Patrick Beverly explained during an interview.
I’ve actually long been fascinated by autographs since 12-year-old me received a photocopied “signed” Sarah Michelle Gellar glossy print. I’d come to learn it was fake, but it held significance for me because it gave me insight into what her signature looked like, which felt, at that time, significant. These days, selfie culture has usurped the autograph (largely but not entirely) which has overall made the autograph less desirable, but more rare and therefore more covetable for some. That is, if you can get one.
Now, it’s important to note that Foy is not anti-autograph. After expressing her stance — ”I don’t do blue” — she clarifies by simply repeating herself verbatim and then goes and signs an autograph with a black Sharpie. This is important context that highlights the fact that Foy wasn’t being cold or withholding, but simply honoring her boundary. She doesn’t do blue, but she does do autographs — unlike some of her peers.
Bryan Cranstron, for instance, is famously pro-selfie and anti-autograph. “Friends, after 18 years of signing everything for fans — I’m retiring,” he wrote on Facebook in 2018. “Overwhelmed by requests and I just can’t do it anymore. I love meeting fans and will personalize pix in person, but that’s all. Thanks for your understanding. See you on the street - we’ll take a selfie!” Emma Watson is the opposite. “I will sit here and answer every single Harry Potter fandom question you have, but I just can’t do a picture,” she told Vanity Fair in 2017. Ringo Starr, meanwhile, is famously “too busy” to sign autographs. Tea!
TL;DR (but somehow found your way to the bottom of this story): When approaching Claire Foy for an autograph, choose your pen color wisely.
I would genuinely love to know from an expert whether blue sharpie is easier to copy. I just can't see how it would make a difference these days, a photo from a phone is good enough to copy the autograph no matter what the colour. Maybe back in the days they had to use a photocopier machine it made a difference?
I live for BTS factoids like this