Phoebe Fox: 'Why is it so unusual to see someone who's not a size eight on screen?'

She plays Catherine the Great's servant in the new Channel 4 hit series, but Phoebe Fox has stolen the show. She talks about unattainable waistlines and the insidious sexism of the acting industry.

Phoebe Fox says working for 12 hours a day in a corset was “literally a form of torture”. Picture: Arnold Jerocki/Getty Images

If you find yourself mourning the halcyon days of your hedonistic youth, consider this. You wake up to the sight of a woman brazenly defecating at the foot of your bedside (a particularly grim Freshers’ Week, perhaps?). Suffering rogue poopers, severed heads for dessert, and being “slapped down” in front of the gals — it’s all par for the course for Marial, Phoebe Fox’s ingenious interpretation of the empress’s aide in Channel 4’s new mini-series, The Great.

A former lady at the court of Emperor Peter III of Russia, Fox’s character Marial has been demoted to servile status. And for very good reason. Her father simulated sex with the mummified corpse of the emperor’s dead mother (ahem). The phrase “dying of shame” takes on new meaning.