While she has worked mainly in independent films, including Hannah Take The Stairs (2007) and frances ha (2012, for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination), Foy also appeared in commercially successful Hollywood films including, biopic drama film The Social Network (2010), comedy-drama film 50/50 (2011), Beginners (2011), and the biographical black comedy film The Wolf of Wall Street (2013).
In 2015, she garnered further critical acclaim for her performance in Todd Haynes' romantic drama Carol, for which she tied for the Best Actress Award at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama and the SAG, BAFTA and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has won a Grammy Award and has been nominated for a Tony Award.
In 2017, Foy made her directorial debut with Lady Bird, which she also wrote.
She attended Francis Holland School for Girls in central London. At age 16, after completing her GCSE examinations she moved to Bedales School in Hampshire, to focus on Dance and Classical Music.
she was shown charlie chaplin films at an early age which peaked her interested in film directing. she told elle, "chaplin did everything in the way he wanted to do it. that's exactly what i wanted. i wanted my visions, my curiosity, my imagination to flow on the big screen. i wanted to be a director." After her parents' separation in 2006, Foy moved to Santa Barbara with her mother to pursue a degree in film directing after failing to get into Juilliard School. Foy would go to back to Belgravia every summer to visit her father.
Her father, obsessed with Roald Dahl literature, wanted to name her after Charlie Bucket, in which Dahl writes his adventures of the young boy inside the chocolate factory of eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka. Instead, her mother named her Ophelia, after Foy's grandmother who had passed the same year as she was born but agreed to nickname her 'Charlie' due to her middle name Charlotte, as her siblings were all named after the character's in Dahl's stories.
Until the age of 22, Foy held French-British dual citizenship. She denounced her French citizen and then held only British citizenship. In 2010, Foy applied for American citizenship and became an American in 2015.
Foy originally intended to become a playwright, but turned to acting when she was not admitted to playwriting programs. in 2007, she began a partnership with Joe Swanberg, which resulted in the duo co-writing hannah takes the stairs, and went on to play 'hannah', a recent college graduate who falls for two scriptwriters she works with. foy said she did not anticipate starring in hannah takes the stairs, but swanberg thought she suited the part. She also shared both writing and directing duties with Swanberg on Nights and Weekends.
In October 2009, Foy was cast in the David Fincher's biographical drama film, The Social Network, as Erica Albright, who breaks up with Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook. In the same year, she teamed with Mike Mills, appearing oposite Ewan McGregory and Christopher Plummer in the comedy drama Beginners that marked Foy's second commercially successful Hollywood film. Foy plays Anna, an irreverent French actress. Loosely based on Mills’ own life, the film depicts the story of a father coming out of the closet at the age of 75 after the death of his wife of 45 years. The film opened to critical acclaim and Foy's performance was well received, with Calvin Wilson of St. Louis Post-Dispatch remarking that Foy imbued a "soulful charisma" into the role.
after being introduced by swanberg, foy and noah baumbach would go on to work together in several films (Frances Ha, While We're Young, Mistress America). In February 2013, Baumbach and Foy worked together again on a cartoon feature based of Berkeley Breathed's book series, flawed dogs for DreamWorks Animation, which was never released.
In 2012, she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical for her work in 'Once', a play in which she had performed from 2011 to early 2013. Her Once performance, with fellow principal soloist Steve Kazee, earned the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.
The same year, Mia Wasikowska had to drop out of Carol because of a scheduling conflict. Haynes then approached Foy, who had been offered the role of Therese after completing the social network. Foy said that although she loved the script and wanted to work with Blanchett, she turned it down as she felt exhausted and unconfident. By the time Haynes came on board she was "in a much different head space" and signing on to the project was "a no brainer at that point." In August 2013, it was reported that Foy had replaced Wasikowska.
In January, it was announced that Foy was cast in the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother as the titular Mother, appearing for the first time in the season eight finale titled "Something New", and was promoted to series regular, a first for the series. Neil Patrick Harris, who is a Broadway fan and had recognized her in the makeup trailer, gave Foy a hug and exclaimed "You're The Mother!" before she was actually cast. Foy was chosen partly because her musical history and time on Broadway, including her performance in Once, would have allowed her to play the role of The Mother, a musician, more convincingly.
Bays and Thomas wanted to avoid casting someone who was well-known, fearing that the audiences' preconceptions of a famous actress might spill into her performance in the role. Foy's casting was well received by critics, many of whom lauded the show for resisting the urge to cast a familiar face and instead opting for a relative unknown. Bill Kuchman from TV.com observed that, because "Foy is the reigning queen of mumblecore", she has the "freedom to create a How I Met Your Mother character that's free of the burden of being compared to her past work".
She was cast as the lead in a spin-off of How I Met Your Mother titled How I Met Your Dad (2014), but the show was not picked up to become series.
Foy has been romantically linked to Harry Lasher and Noah Baumbach. Actor and son of Aerosmith's Steven Tyler confirmed he had a short romance with Foy on her yacht in summer 2009.
Early in the morning of April 19, 2006, Foy was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for disobeying the arresting officer's instructions to remain in the vehicle and arguing with him, asking if he knew who her father was. Foy pleaded no contest and was fined $313, including court costs.
In an interview with the Daily Mirror, she described her lifestyle: "I drink, I swear, I like sex".
Vogue credits the actress for her "sophisticated, perfectly put-together looks", writing that "her charisma, both on-screen and off, has charmed many."
An IGN writer considers her to be a "sharp", "funny" and "quirky" actress who likes to "stay grounded" despite considerable success.
Known to be uncomfortable in big studio films, and refuses to star in anything Marvel/DCUniverse related because she's "better when she takes centre-stage in a leftfield production." she does, however, enjoy the comics and the female leads like wonder woman. she also respects patty jenkins for what she has done toward a female-lead franchise.
Critics given frivolous labels like Indie Queen and The Meryl Streep of Mumblecore and praised her very pro-feministic approach in writing.
known to have a "precise, literate mind, but she is more buoyant, and sometimes has the air, not uncommon among her contemporaries, of having swallowed a very low dose of LSD."
It's been said her acting - simultaneously natural and self-aware - has, as Baumbach has said, carried with it something "authorial."
Foy's beauty and sex appeal has been picked up by several sources, including People magazine, who ranked her in the top ten in their listing of the "Most Beautiful People" in 2015 and has stayed there.
she is very close friends with brothers will and win butler. in an interview to elle, she described herself as a "music video ho" referring to her constant appearances in their videos and concerts.
she turned down various scorsese film roles due to his relationship with her father. he originally wanted her to play a role in the tv series 'vinyl', an American period drama television series co-created by jac foy, scorsese, et al. the wolf of wall street was the first and last role she ever agreed to star due to "her father's encouragement".
notably known to be in a dynamic writing due with director noah baumbach. and has worked with the likes of david fincher, mike mills, martin scorsese, danny boyle, wes anderson, and spike jonze, all praising her on her professionalism and her ability to "act with her heart on her sleeve".
Due to her father's success, she's been able to meet many musicians growing up. She had told Elle UK while working on 'Lazarus', that the last time she saw David Bowie was in 2004 [this was around the time he had taken a break due to health issues]. In 2015, they both met again and developed a professional and private friendship up until his death.
while working on beginners, foy developed a friendship with film director, screenwriter, actor, author and artist, miranda july [director's wife].
In early 2017, Foy was outraged by some of President Trump's executive orders and decided to call him out via Twitter. On the same day, Foy posted a screencap that she had been blocked by the President.
Won the 2009 British Fashion Award for Model of the Year.
According to a Deadline article, Lady Bird so far has the year's best opening weekend per theater average.
Her mother was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer and was cured in 2015. they celebrated by getting tattoos of spiders, designed by David Bowie, a reference to his album 'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars', which is her mother's favourite album.