“And snacks! I’m always snacking. It’s difficult obviously because when you’re dancing I can’t always have a huge lunch because then I’m jumping around. I love bananas, I love almond butter, nuts, and definitely chocolate. Everyone knows that I’m not very nice when I’m hungry.”
And the rewards for her work are fun. The fanciest part is the clothes. “I’ve been very fortunate to be wearing some Chanel lately, that was like my Pretty Woman moment, walking out of Chanel with some bags of clothes,” she says. “And a lot of Bottega Veneta, which is one of my favorite designer right now. And I wore a Simone Rocha dress to the Fashion Awards in London.”
And what about, you know, the fact that she just filmed a movie with an entire awards season’s worth of celebrities? I asked Hayward who made her the most star-struck, and I expected her to spit out some platitude, like “They were all so impressive!” or “I can’t choose!”
“Definitely Dame Judi Dench,” she said, immediately. “I remember her walking in with Ian McKellan, they walked in together in rehearsals, and the whole room, all the dancers and the actors, everyone made this line, to kind of curtsy or bow to royalty.” She paused, seemingly in wonder, and I imagined Jason Derulo curtsying to Judi Dench.
“There’s something about them, especially in England, they’re like the royal family, they’re legendary. And they’ve earned that legendary status,” she said, reverently. And Taylor, too—“She’s just the sweetest and most humble person,” Hayward said. “To be one of the most famous people in the world and make you feel very comfortable is quite a talent I think.”
To be fair, Hayward’s sense of comfort around A-list celebrities may be skewed. One day on the set of Cats, she received a phone call from British Vogue editor Edward Enninful, asking if she would be one of 15 women on a cover with the theme “a force for change.”
“It was one of the hardest secrets ever, I think I only told my grandma, and she was sworn to secrecy,” she says, laughing. She did the shoot, in which she spoke decisively about feeling pride in being a woman of color in the ballet world, while adding, “I think it will be great for the next mixed-race or black female principal dancer if she doesn’t have to be asked about that. In ballet, it doesn’t matter who you are.”
Later, Enninful called her while she was at a noisy restaurant in Covent Garden, and told her there was someone who wanted to speak to her. It was Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle, who had personally chosen Hayward for the cover and wanted to say thank you. “She really made me feel like she wanted me to be a part of it and had chosen me as one of this amazing group of women herself,” Hayward said. “It was incredible.”
And if there’s anyone you could not resent for being personally thanked by Meghan Markle for agreeing to be on the cover of Vogue, it’s Francesca Hayward, who gets up before dawn to pursue her dreams, leaves behind no regrets, goes to the pub, and bows before Judi Dench. We wish her good snacks—and plenty of sleep.
Jenny Singer is a staff writer at Glamour.
