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“I’ve had so many coffees, I feel hysterical,” says Billie Piper. The 42-year-old actor has set up camp in a caff in Camden, London, while she finishes the final draft of a romcom she’s working on – a follow-up to her 2021 directorial debut, Rare Beasts. Piper shot to fame at 15 as a pop star, then transitioned into acting, becoming a household name as Rose Tyler in Doctor Who. Since then, she’s carved out a niche playing women at breaking point (like Suzie Pickles in I Hate Suzie). Now, she’s ready to do less acting and more work behind the scenes. Not that her on-screen career is slowing down – she just bagged her fifth Bafta nomination, for playing journalist Sam McAlister in Scoop, the dramatisation of the BBC Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew about Jeffrey Epstein. She will also appear in the Netflix mega-hit and Addams family spin-off, Wednesday, later this year.
You’re an expert at playing a woman on the edge. What’s the secret?
I’ve seen it a lot, I’ve been it, and I’m not afraid of it! You can be a woman on the edge, but also be a soulful woman, a playful woman and a funny woman. You can be all those things at once.
What drew you to Scoop?
That interview was one of the most shocking things I’ve seen on TV. I’d followed the Epstein story very closely, with huge rage – the size, the scale, the privilege and the bullshitting, it’s just too disturbing. So there was a bit of an axe to grind. Then, on top of that, I met Sam, and she’s a truly formidable woman.
You’ve said one of your aims with your work is to ‘lift the lid on what it means and what it costs to be female’. Do you think that cost is increasing or decreasing?
Increasing. It feels like, in many ways, we’re going backwards. I wonder if there is a greater hostility from guys towards girls. There’s certainly a world available to men that violently rejects feminism or emancipation. It’s really frightening. Now that I’ve had a daughter, I can see violence against women more clearly. It’s like I couldn’t see it for myself, which is alarming, and I’ve had to do work reframing a lot that I’d normalised in my life. It’s a fine balance: how do we keep women safe while also nurturing boys, who are facing issues, too?
How do you deal with conversations about toxic masculinity with your kids?
Look, I haven’t got this down pat, but with my daughter and sons with whatever they’re facing, it’s about listening, holding your nerve when they say something that feels not quite right, and understanding they have to make mistakes. I can’t believe the pressures on them to have these political views all the time. There’s such expectation for young people to get it right immediately. And if they don’t, they’re written off. When I was their age, I was just, I don’t know, smoking cigarettes!
Secret Diary of a Call Girl – the series you and Lucy Prebble made about sex worker Belle de Jour – went up on Netflix last year, 17 years after it first aired, and shot into the UK top three most viewed. How do you feel about people watching it again?
I don’t know! It got so critically panned when it came out, and I was not that deep into my acting career, so I just thought: “Well, everyone says it’s shit, so maybe it is.” I think the fallout critically, even though it was a numbers success, made me feel very vulnerable. It being on TV again can’t be easy for my kids, because there’s a lot of sex. It makes me feel a bit anxious. Now I have a family, it’s not as simple as: “Oh, you just do a part, and everyone has to accept it’s a bit of acting.” Rightly or wrongly, it has repercussions.
Do you two have plans for an I Hate Suzie season 3?
I would love to do it again, but I think that I think she needs a bit more story in her. So I think the story would be served better from a bit more age, maybe menopause, a few more years off camera.
Does the idea of being a role model sit heavily with you?
I don’t like it. I’ve never liked it. It feels too frightening, and it doesn’t allow a lot of room for error. And I really struggled with that when I was a teenager, as a singer, I just hated that feeling. That’s been a bit of a hangover for me.
You recently played Cassandra in Kaos. Fans were gutted when it was cancelled after season one. Do you think TV has become more ruthless in terms of what gets cut? Do you feel the pressure of that as an actor?
I don’t feel as if I’m aware of that pressure, but there must be something speaking to me, because I don’t just want to be an actor for hire any more. It feels too frightening. But then, you know, what am I going into? Writing things that also may never get made? People want to make massive things for loads of money, and then the expectation is that those numbers reflect that spend, and if they don’t then they’re gone. It’s really sad.
Tell us about the romcom you are working on.
If I watch 1990s romcoms now, I find them hard to understand. They just sit differently. Even though I love those movies, it’s a time that felt so radically different from the world we live in now. So I’m trying to do something that feels authentic to now, but still feels dreamy and hopeful.
How do you cope with writer’s block?
I panic! Luckily, I’m so green even the bad days seem achievable.
What have you watched this year?
I’m such a snob around films, but with TV I’m completely different. I really love reality TV, Kardashians and the mindless stuff. I only just started watching Colin from Accounts.
The Bafta Television Awards with P&O Cruises is on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on 11 May at 7pm.
Watch this space …
Catch the full lineup of our Bafta TV special launching across the weekend and starring best actor nominees David Tennant, Lennie James, Monica Dolan, Billie Piper, Richard Gadd, Marisa Abela and Sharon D Clarke
