Claire Foy Has payo For New reyna Elizabeth II, Olivia Coleman 

Claire Foy was five months pregnant when she first auditioned for 

— and she started filming four months after giving birth.

In the wake of her Emmy-nominated and Golden Globe–winning turn as Queen Elizabeth, the actress — who welcomed her first child, a daughter, with husband Stephen Campbell Moore in February 2015 — is on the cover of this month’s issue of 

 magazine (out Nov. 21), and PEOPLE can reveal an exclusive First Look at the interview.

“In what profession am I allowed to have a child, breastfeed my child on set and have them say, ‘It’s great. Good for you. You are working and you have a baby’? ” she marvels. “I was very, very fortunate they supported me in doing that.”

Cindy Holland, Netflix’s vice-president of original series, tells the magazine that watching Foy, 33, juggle being a new mother with a demanding production schedule was impressive.

“We were visiting [set] and she had just recently given birth and was going from being the queen and having a quite stirring conversation to running downstairs to deal with her child,” she says. “To see that quick transformation underscored the talent that she had.”

Nowadays, Foy and Moore are trying to balance acting with parenting. Unlike Elizabeth and Prince Philip — who consigned their children to nannies while traveling for months at a time — the couple alternate the child-minding while the other is on set.

“I can’t imagine anything worse than being away from my child for six months,” says Foy. “I couldn’t.”

Still, she feels the guilt that saddles many working parents.

“You get to the point where you go, ‘I’m really sorry that you feel like that and I really appreciate what you feel and I’m really sorry that Mommy had to go to work,’ ” she says. “But there’s an equality and an understanding that both Mommy and Daddy go to work, and we take turns and we share.”

And with season 2 of the hit series approaching, Foy’s turn as the young queen is coming to an end. The plan was always for her to play Elizabeth for two seasons, and Netflix has tapped British actress Olivia Colman for the show’s third and fourth seasons, playing Elizabeth a decade later — a choice Foy applauds.

The two actresses have spoken a few times since Colman was cast, and Foy says she has mostly tried to keep her opinions to herself.

“It’s not mine anymore,” she says of the role. “It’s someone else’s.”

But she does have one wise piece of advice: “Make sure you take care of yourself and don’t get too tired,” she says.

“When you are doing a long-run show like that and it’s nine months per season, it’s hard work, long hours, long weeks, long months,” she adds. “It’s important to take time to get sleep.”

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