Billie Piper
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Billie Piper is only 24 years old, but everything she does seems to make headlines. Whether offstage or on, she’s lived a life perpetually in the limelight, ever since her initial breakthrough as a teenage pop singer in 1998. As she currently enjoys her West End acting debut in a revival of Christopher Hampton’s 1976 play Treats, that situation remains unchanged. In fact, it’s been exacerbated by the fact that she’s reportedly dating one of her co-stars, Laurence Fox. This real-life state of affairs has added layers and frisson to her portrayal in Treats of a woman with a complicated personal life—her character, Ann, tries to choose between returning to an abusive but addictive relationship with a former boyfriend Dave (Kris Marshall) or staying with the tall, gawky office colleague Patrick (Fox) with which she has replaced him. She’s left her pop career behind her now and received praise upon her emergence as a television actress, particularly when she played the Doctor’s sidekick, Rose Tyler, in the hugely successful revival of Dr. Who. Now London critics have, for the most part, acclaimed the arrival of a major stage talent. In the words of the Sunday Telegraph critic, “Sometimes, startlingly and inexplicably, someone walks on to a stage from the most unlikely background and turns out to have it, that strange, elusive and indefinable quality that makes a star. Billie Piper, all of 24 years old, has it, undoubtedly, and she is—make no mistake about it—a real actor.” Theatre.com caught up with Piper before those glowing reviews came out and anxiety still clouded the lovely performer's eyes.
How do you feel about making your stage debut in this play?
I feel like the adrenalin and the nerves put you in this trance-like state, where you find it hard to judge what you’ve just done. I think that on reflection I’ll be able to decide what was good and what was bad, but at this point in the game I just feel like throwing up. But I think that’s normal, right?
It’s yet another first for you. You seem to keep reinventing yourself.
I am trying to have a go at a few different things and trying to stretch myself and give things a whirl and I hope that I can pull them off. But I think it’s important and I want to do it now, while I’m a bit younger. I don’t want to get too scared of doing things. I’m at a position in my life when I want to keep scaring myself, before I become a bit stale and maybe complacent.
Billie Piper in Treats
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There’s nothing complacent about being onstage in a play—or potentially more exposing.
I’m beginning to realise that. There’s nowhere to hide, but I don’t want to hide. I just want to have a go and hopefully be good. I’m working with two great actors and a great director, so I’m in good company. The boys have really helped me out massively—they’ve been very encouraging. Acting is what I always wanted to do. That’s always been my first love, but the pop career hijacked all of those plans. But I’m glad I did it in a way—it has opened many doors for me, though it closed a few, too.
You were the youngest person ever to debut at number one on the U.K. chart with "Because We Want To." How did you cope with the success?
I don’t know. I didn’t cope very well with it at all. It was fine initially, but then I found it a real struggle and it sent me slightly crazy. I knew I just had to do something I loved, or I would continue to feel like a charlatan for the rest of my life in the wrong career.
[AD]After you did two pop albums, you quit. Were you disillusioned with singing?
It wasn’t the singing, it was the industry. When you’re very young, it can stifle you, which is what it did to me. It’s very much about promotion rather than the craft or the art. I was not born with Mariah Carey’s voice—I don’t have a massive set of lungs on me and I can’t play instruments. So I always felt like I was lying. I’m the biggest fan of music, but I don’t have this urge or desire to write songs and perform them. I felt I was doing the wrong thing. But it taught me a lot about people and the world and travelling. So I took some time off, got married, and then I started thinking about the acting thing.
You married Chris Evans and your marriage was very much under the spotlight, as your life often is. How do you deal with all the attention?
I just ignore it. That’s my theory—I just forget about it and brush it off and pretend its not there. Otherwise, from past experience, it can eat you up and make you ill. Chris and I are still very good friends—we’ll always be mates. It was a difficult way to grow up. But, fortunately for me, I’ve had a great family and a great circle of friends who have kept me on the straight and narrow. But I’m not really interested in the fame and all that—I just like to keep working and grafting and trying new things and challenging my ideas.
Billie Piper in Treats
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How did you make the transition back to acting?
I went and did some classes in L.A., where I could be completely anonymous and become a student again, which was great. I didn’t do a great deal, but I was there for about three months about four or five years ago, and as soon as I came home, I got myself an agent and started working.
Is singing a thing of the past now?
I don’t think I would sing again now, no. I have really bad associations with singing now. I may do, but I’m just not ready to do it now.
What about a musical?
I’m a big fan of them, but I’d rather watch them than be up there. But who knows? I change my mind so quickly and so often that maybe that will become an option one day.
Dr. Who co-stars David Tennant and Billie Piper
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You made a big impact with Dr. Who. What was it like being in such an iconic series?
It was great. It was completely mad, but I was in such good company with David Tennant, Christopher Ecclestone and Russell T. Davies, who is, frankly, a genius. Dr. Who taught me how to do things, basically. I had a vague idea, but until you are actually doing things, that’s when you start learning, I think. It’s all very well to sit there listening to people in acting classes telling you what to do and how to work through things, but when you’re there—under that pressure and spotlight—that’s when the learning really happens.
And now you’re learning to do theatre.
I really wanted to do theatre, but I knew at the beginning of my career that I just wasn’t ready for it. Then I was working with David Tennant, who is an incredible actor, and he would tell me tales of the stage and it just sounded so great. He kind of encouraged me to have a stab at it, so I have him to blame or to thank. He gave me my taste for it.
How did this particular part in this play come up?
I said to my agent that I wanted to do a play shortly after leaving Dr. Who, and then I went around to meet a few people and discussed a few different options. And this one I really, really loved. Christopher Hampton is obviously crème de la crème, and it seemed the obvious choice.
What’s your take on Ann?
She is a young, incredibly smart woman who is very confused about love. She’s been with the impossible man for two and a half years, since leaving Uni, who has abused her—mentally, physically and emotionally, and she is trying to find her way and decide whether she wants it. Those relationships are addictive and they break you as women—they make you weak. For someone that’s so smart, so witty and so decisive, it really brings her down. It’s about her battle with knowing what’s right and how to make the right choices, but she is all over the place.
Laurence Fox and Bill Piper in Treats
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What’s it like working with Kris and Laurence?
I was very nervous at first because they’ve done theatre before—Kris has done loads—and also I’m the only girl. I hoped that the dynamic would work in the rehearsal space and it has. We get on really well, and they’re really good to me. They’ve been very generous with their knowledge and spirit.
As a newcomer to this world, though, you are at least coming to it fresh.
Because this is the first time I’ve ever done this, in a way I quite enjoy being green because I don’t really know what’s going to happen. I always think when I watch people doing TV for the first time that I wish I could be as green as them. There are so many things they are blissfully unaware of, and so they can just enjoy it and work really hard, instead of thinking, “Am I doing this right? Are they happy? Am I happy?” Things bother Kris and Laurence more than me, because they know the pitfalls. But I’m just going to enjoy feeling like this for the moment. And as scared as I am, I am so looking forward to playing it to an audience, just to know what it’s like. When you’ve been doing it over and over again, studying the text in such great detail, you kind of forget the meaning of what you are trying to say. I think that now it’s going to take an audience to feel it out a bit more.
Do you draw on your own experiences in relationships for the part?
I know relationships quite well. Or I think I do, and then I still make the same bloody errors. But that’s love—it’s not a tangible thing, you can’t fathom it. Everyone’s different and things work differently with every new person you meet.
[AD]How different are you finding theatre to TV acting?
I find it a lot harder. The level of concentration is like nothing I have ever known before. And studying text, which I have never done before to that extent, is intense. You have to work over and over at things, and sometimes things are great and sometimes they don’t work. It’s all about building layers, I’m realising that you can go around in circles for a while, and sometimes you have grey days, and other days you make breakthroughs and it’s really encouraging. When it’s great, it’s the best feeling I’ve ever experienced.
Things have worked out well recently, haven’t they?
I’ve been lucky, and it has been great. The last two years of my career have been awesome and completely overwhelming. I hope that I can continue that, and that is why I have to keep trying other things.