Billie
Piper
Dressing
as a high class escort for her role as Belle in Secret Diary of
a Call Girl has helped Billie Piper realise a new found love of
high heels and beautiful underwear.
“As most people
probably know I’m happiest in trampy clothes, just being comfortable.
I’m a real tomboy and at first putting on those glam clothes felt
alien to me. I didn’t feel 100 percent comfortable but very quickly
I grew to love my costumes and often I wouldn’t take my heels
off even when I was on the way to the catering van for some sausages,”
laughs Billie.
“Costumes
are so important when acting, I never used to understand it but the
minute I put on one of those sharp tailored suits and a pair of stilettos
I instantly felt different. Personally I dress for my mood every single
day. If I want to feel strong and empowered I’ll wear something
that suits that mood, when I feel slightly romantic and chilled, or
a bit dipsy I’d wear something floaty and have bare feet. These
things do have an effect on the way you behave and the way you see yourself.”
Admitting that she
has kept all her clothes from the series, Billie adds: “What I’ve
discovered about great underwear is that you can wear it secretly. No
one else needs to know you’re wearing something fabulous under
your clothes. You just do it for yourself and it makes you feel great
– empowered and body-confident.”
Billie says she
was immediately drawn to the character of Belle when she read the infamous
book.
“It was Belle,
the person portrayed in the book that drew me to the project. I found
her absolutely fascinating and some of her ideas quite romantic plus
I liked her style of writing. I thought she was funny, witty, sharp
and intelligent and I liked the idea of playing her.
“This is such
a taboo subject, no one really ever speaks about it except the horror
stories about the nature of the work. It was certainly a very different
story to every other one I’d heard about prostitution.”
To get to grips
with the role Billie met the real life Belle, who as a rule fiercely
guards her anonymity.
“Meeting
Belle was really helpful,” says Billie. “There is so much
speculation surrounding the book; is it true? Does she really exist?
Have these things really happened? Is she romanticising something quite
controversial? Meeting her took the fear out of the part I was venturing
into.
“She
explained exactly how she got into it for reasons I could completely
understand. I couldn’t do it myself per se but I can understand
how she found herself in that situation and why she continued to do
it. It was good to see her, watch her behaviour and mannerisms. We spoke
about the music she likes, she’s so incredibly well read and cultured,
a fascinating woman. It was good to sit down with her one-on-one and
ignore all the shit that surrounds the subject mater and have a very
honest and frank conversation.”
Billie continues:
“She likes sex this woman, she loves it and she found herself
living in London with about £20 to get through the month. One
night she was at a dinner party that turned into an orgy, she left and
discovered she had cash in her hand. The job she does isn’t for
everyone but you have to try and understand why somebody does this and
what effect it has on their life. I’m sure there are many down
sides but Belle enjoyed what she did and felt very much in control of
it.
“That is a
major point, being a prostitute was her choice, she wasn’t forced
into it. It’s not about sex trafficking and it’s not drug
related at all. Obviously these things go on but I’m just telling
this one person’s story. Everyone knows that prostitution can
be hideous, abusive and destructive. We’re often told about it
in the media but I’m playing the woman who wrote this book, and
she has a very different story to tell.”
So how does the
character created by Lucy Prebble and brought to life on screen by Billie
compare to the real Belle?
“The
obvious differences are that our Belle is a touch younger and a lot
greener. She’s not been in the game that long, 18 months into
it and she’s still learning about the down side of her chosen
profession – spending a lot of time alone and finding it hard
to form relationships. Belle from Secret Diary of a Call Girl is
still new to her work but has the same kind of energy and thought process
that the original Belle does.
“I think it’s
always better watching something that is a real story; it makes it more
fascinating. Sex is interesting, the way people behave in that situation
especially when money is being parted with. It’s something we
know nothing about unless we’ve taken part in it.”
Naturally the series
contains many sexy bedroom scenes and even when filming on a closed
set these can be exhausting for the actors taking part.
“It’s
tiring filming sex scenes. Those days when you maybe have two sex scenes
to do, you just want to be over and done with but they are vital to
the piece. We’re telling the story of a hooker, you can’t
be shy about the sex!
“But
there are two different kinds of sex scenes – the comedy sex,
which is entertaining and funny and the emotional sex with regular clients
like Ashok, who is someone that she cares about and could quite possibly
be her boyfriend. Those are harder. I just had to get on with it and
not be shy. What I do is channel my thoughts, turn into bit of a robot.
You have to be quite frank and a bit mechanical about it at times –
‘I’m going to put my hand here, can you put yours there.
I don’t want to show this bit of my body’ and so on. You
have to be honest about it and sometimes quite crude. But like anything
those things become very normal very quickly – well they do to
me!”
And for the S&M
episode Billie benefited from lessons with a professional.
“We had a
genuine dominatrix on set, she was really sweet and cool and fascinating.
I just kept thinking whereabouts in London do these things take place
and who do they take place with? What drives a person to do that and
what do you get out of it? Our ‘domme’ was open and candid,
really insightful. I had quite an education. Like with most of these
things it’s all about control and ego, whether letting go of control
or acquiring control. It’s quite easy to understand once you work
out the premise of the whole thing.
“I know I
couldn’t do the job, I’d be endlessly concerned about hurting
them, what effect it would have on me or would I scar them for life
- emotional or literally. Sometimes it is about handing over complete
control to someone else, letting them make every single choice for you
and I can understand that theory and it must be quite liberating.”
Talking of her strongly
female-led production team, Billie concludes: “I’ve never
worked with such a big female contingent before and I must say it’s
nice having them there. It’s a tricky subject matter and you need
to know you have the right people behind you who understand the female
mind and emotions.
“If
it was just a male crew making the show people, I’m sure, would
be slightly sceptical about the piece and what it means and women could
get slightly feminist about the whole thing. But these are really strong
independent women who know their stuff and have heavily researched this.
It’s a responsibility to take on and tough to handle and these
women are very clever and are not exploitative, they are just telling
one woman’s story.”
Secret
Diary of a Call Girl
About the Show
Episode Guide
The Real Belle de Jour
Secret Diary of a Call Girl
Interviews
Cherie Lunghi
Iddo Goldberg
