Bye Bye Belle

Billie Piper’s not feeling well and she’s blaming her two-year old son Winston. “When you have a child it’s really hard to shift illness because they’re continuously bringing it into the house,” says Piper coughing.
Even on an ‘off’ day she’s managing to look glamorous in a short T-shirt style dress, over-the-knee boots and a long woollen cardi.
She’s shorter, more petite, than you’d expect and even the wide mouth and strong brows seem softer in the flesh. Winston aside, it’s understandable Piper’s feeling exhausted. She’s just finished a seven-month shoot filming the fourth and final series of Secret Diary Of A Call Girl — the successful TV show based on the diaries of real-life escort Belle De Jour. Her performance as Belle has been applauded, but when it was first announced in 2007 that Piper, former pop princess turned Doctor Who assistant, was to play the high-class hooker, people were up in arms.
“Outraged,” says Piper, sipping a cup of tea. “I didn’t think it would be as shocking as it was, and I didn’t really think that me being in it would be shocking. I just thought I’m an actor and it’s just acting.” She admits the furore hit her hard. “Yeah, it always does. It really upsets me that people go, ‘What is she thinking’? And also that they think it’s slightly distasteful and insensitive.
“There are loads of women out there who have a horrid time of it (prostitution) but in my mind, it’s a very different thing because there are women out there who genuinely enjoy it.
“Women go out and have casual sex and talk about it endlessly and Sex And The City is a really good example of that. That show’s sometimes quite shocking and yet people also applaud it, but as soon as money changes hands then that changes everything.” It was the chance to address these double standards that interested Piper in the first place.
“To play a prostitute who doesn’t see herself as a victim and hasn’t been forced into it but has chosen to do it, I find all of that quite interesting.” Given Belle’s profession, it’s little wonder Piper’s had to spend the majority of her time in compromising positions — as she puts it “endlessly prancing around in your knickers trying to be sexy”.She’s now so comfortable doing sex scenes that at times she’s had to remind herself that the actors cast as her numerous clients can require a little cajoling.

“I have to remember to be sensitive and tactful because they don’t know the crew and I obviously know and love the crew and have a big support system. But then at the end of a really hard week on set you’re just like, ‘C’mon, mount me’!” she laughs. As for preparing to strip off, she says she “works out a bit”, adding: “I also really watch what I eat when I’m filming so I don’t have those moments where I think ‘I can’t do this’ because I don’t feel physically confident enough’.” The final series may, as she says, be “less about flesh”, but the client requests are no less shocking, with ‘Adult Baby’ and ‘Count Dracula’ among the upcoming scenarios. Even after three years, Piper admits to being “a bit shocked” when she first reads the script.

“I mean I like to have fun but I find some of these ideas…” she says, trailing off. I just think, ‘Well that seems a bit far- fetched’, and then I meet the people who are telling their stories and it would be rude to go, ‘Well, that’s a bit much, don’t you think’? It’s someone’s life (so you can’t) suddenly be sitting there going, ‘I think you need to go to a doctor’.” The sense that the series has explored all the potential client/ escort avenues is largely why it’s been decided to bring Belle’s tale to an end. She says: “I think we’ve pretty much been everywhere with the stories and as that’s at the heart of every episode, you wouldn’t want to exhaust it to the point of just complete ridiculousness and seediness. I really like this job but you always want the story to have legs and not be that you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel. I think if we go any further then we might be guilty of that.” Since the first episode, viewers have witnessed Belle’s attempt to keep her professional and personal life, including her potential relationship with best-friend Ben, separate. But in this final series those two worlds merge. So what’s next for Piper? She’s not yet 30 but has managed to cram more than most into her life. Born in Reading, she came to prominence as a 15-year-old pop star after being spotted on a Smash Hits campaign. Her marriage to Chris Evans in 2001 raised eyebrows due to their 16-year age gap. After their amicable divorce six years later they have remained resolutely good friends. Professionally, she’s made the seemingly smooth transition from singing to acting and has received rave reviews for her performances on stage in Treats, where she met husband Laurence Fox, and on screen in the likes of The Ruby In The Smoke, Mansfield Park and A Passionate Woman. She adds:

“I think I’ve chosen things that have interested me and then kept trying new and different things. It has worked out well and I can thank Doctor Who for all of that really. It was wholly responsible for giving me a great opportunity.” She wouldn’t mind doing more theatre, she says, and her name has been linked to the lead role in a stage adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion.

“I’ve been approached about it but I certainly haven’t said yes to it,” is all she’ll say on the matter. “I just want to do something radically different and I don’t know what that is yet.