WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
It’s funny to think that I was only 5 years old when Billie Piper released her debut single Because We Want To back in 1998! I remember listening to it so much but never actually taking an interest in any of her other songs. Nowadays, she would be remembered more as an actress and people probably wouldn’t even be able to tell that the song was hers if you played it to them!
Rare Beasts
Not only is this a film where Billie Piper does not sing, it is also her directorial debut. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this as my only introduction to Billie’s acting prior to writing this article was Doctor Who and I wasn’t exactly impressed at first – but this was pretty funny right from the outset. The audience are dropped in to what could only be considered as the most awkward first date and it really sets you up for the rest of the film! What I was curious about was when Mandy was hearing other women performing the same affirmations as her – was that in her head or are more women genuinely performing the same things. I love the fact that her character, Mandy, is so unapologetically herself, it’s as if her internal monologue isn’t so internal! The write-up for the film describes it as being Fleabag-esque. Now, I haven’t watched Fleabag but the one thing I do know is that there is a lot of breaking the fourth wall, which doesn’t happen at all in this film. This is a reminder that no matter what you do in life, nothing is ever perfect – but that’s OK.
City of Tiny Lights
Now on to a film was a much more serious tone. The story revolves around the search for a Russian prostitute named Natasha who goes missing in London. Oddly, I thought this might have been the role that Billie would play – depending on whether the girl was found or not by the end of the film – but this turned out not to be the case. In weird kind of way, I feel like her character of Shelley was a tool to expand the character of Tommy Akthar, the symbol of his unrequited love and an insight to part of his childhood as our introduction to her sparks a flashback. Outside of that, she doesn’t really have much impact on the story and I say this because she is in so little in the grand scheme of things. I actually think that the actress that plays the young Shelley is in the film for longer than Billie is. What I will say though is that even though Billie is in the film so little, I’m glad I chose to cover this as it’s not the typical style of film I would go out of my way to watch but I genuinely really enjoyed it.
Catherine Called Birdy
Once again, we have an ancillary role for Billie, starring as Lady Aislinn – mother to Bella Ramsey’s Lady Catherine. It’s quite hard to discuss her character as we see her much less than we do Andrew Scott, who plays Lord Rollo, or Bella Ramsey but I wonder if this is because it would have been the father’s main duty to vet the suitors for his 14 year old daughter. It did make me wonder however, as this film is based on a 1994 children’s book of the same name, whether her character was written just as small. She spends the majority of the film pregnant, which could be why her role is so small as she needs to rest and the main interaction she has with the plot of the film is trying to protect Birdy from her suitors. This time unfortunately I didn’t feel so good about having to watch this film. It reminded me a lot of Enola Holmes, just without the breaking of the fourth wall, as Lady Catherine’s character feels just as weak as Millie Bobby Brown’s Enola Holmes.
Honorary Mentions
I mentioned earlier in this article that my first introduction to Billie Piper as an actress was when she took up the role of Rose Tyler alongside Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor Who – and I’ll be honest I couldn’t stand this series in general as I didn’t think Eccleston was a great doctor so it was a bit harsh of me to put that directly on Billie as I think David Tennant may have brought out a better side to her character. Following this, along with other film work such as The Calcium Kid and Spirit Trap, Billie made a TV career of all her own including taking on leading roles in A Secret Diary of Call Girl and I Hate Suzie.