Never Again Will I Kneel to Any Man
In a higher place: BILLIE PIPER IN PENNY DREADFUL. Photo COURTESY OF SHOWTIME
In her abode land of England in the belatedly '90s, Billie Piper began her career as a Spears-esque, insouciant popular star, releasing tween-friendly hits such equally "Because We Desire To," "Girlfriend," and "Honey to the Bee" under the mononym Billie. She was xv years old. Piper released her second and final album in 2000 and officially retired from the music business concern, despite her popularity, in 2003. Two years later in a career switch-up, she joined the massively pop sci-fi show Doctor Who, quickly becoming a fan-favorite by playing Rose Tyler, the Doctor's headstrong and down-to-world companion, opposite Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant.
The Who-niverse bated, it'southward Piper's piece of work as an actress on phase and in television that has brought the now 32-year-old Brit international acclaim; especially her roles as prostitutes in ITV2's Secret Diary of a Call Girl and Beginning'south macabre-calorie-free horror-drama Penny Dreadful. Both roles, yet, accept transcended their seedy beginnings; Piper's portrayal of the high-stop call girl Belle de Jour was defined past intelligence, eloquence, and confidence, cheekily navigating the London call-girl scene with style and grace. On Penny Dreadful, Piper began season one as Brona Croft, a poor Irish immigrant working as a prostitute who, despite slowly dying of consumption and attempting to escape from a dark past, is equal parts vivacious and charming.
At the end of the season, however, Victor Frankenstein (1 of the many characters on the smorgasbord of 19th-century literary homages on the evidence) murdered Brona by suffocating her with a pillow, speeding up her seemingly eventual death in society to "create" a bride for his "Beast." Stored in a tub of water, she's awakened at the commencement of flavor two at the behest of an electrical surge from a thunderstorm, with no retention of her previous life (or perhaps some retentivity…) and a fresh British emphasis. She's at present Lily, the immortal bride of Frankenstein—an erratic and seductive force to exist reckoned with who brazenly goes through men while slowly revolting against her creator. "Never again volition I kneel to any human," she declares to the Brute, perhaps a premonition for how Lily fared in the finale. "Now they shall kneel to me."
Before the show's flavor 2 finale this past Dominicus, we called Piper to hash out her development from Brona to Lily. She was at home in London, we were in New York.
BILLIE PIPER: One minute, let me just permit my dog in. He keeps on shouting. [aside] Baxter! In!
DEVON IVIE: What'south your dog'south proper noun? Baxter?
PIPER: Baxter, yeah.
IVIE: That'south a bang-up name for a canis familiaris.
PIPER: I named him after Baxter from Anchorman. [laughs]
IVIE: I was just going to say! Ron Burgundy'southward domestic dog.
PIPER: That'due south ane of my favorite films.
IVIE: Mine likewise. Did you see Anchorman 2?
PIPER: It was skillful. If you lot watch information technology on a DVD, it's actually really good. Watching it in the movie theater, at that place was a lot of pressure for it, I think. Y'all're never going to shell the original, ever.
IVIE: Very true. So, how did you lot commencement hear almost Penny Dreadful?
PIPER: They sent me a script 3 or four months prior to anyone actually putting themselves on tape and auditioning. I didn't really know nigh the graphic symbol beyond the first script. I didn't know how it was likely to develop, but I was assured it was strong. And then I put myself on tape with a friend of mine, and that was that. John [Logan, the bear witness's creator] liked it. I met him in Covent Garden for a Caesar salad and nosotros talked virtually where he saw the graphic symbol going, and it was really bloody exciting.
IVIE: Were yous immediately aware that your grapheme would develop into the Bride of Frankenstein, or did it come every bit a surprise afterwards on?
PIPER: No, [John] told me that day. That'south how smart and up-forepart and on the ball he is. He could confidently give me a breakdown of every script. It was the same with him when we were shooting series one, he could tell us lots of things about the next series, and now we have a feeling of where it'south going. He's just ahead of himself. Serious mental agility.
IVIE: Did you prepare for the role in any item way, such as reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein?
PIPER: No, I didn't. I use to do that a lot, but I felt like I was going to get at it totally based on an instinct. Because, to me, it's newly imagined and it'south kind of a different realm, and I call back there's something liberating about stepping into something blindly. With a grapheme that's really iconic you lot tin really cling to things that accept come before, so I was a scrap stressed about doing that. Too, the origins of Lily Frankenstein are totally different to the original. It's near like a new person entirely.
IVIE: What was virtually challenging almost transitioning from Brona to Lily?
PIPER: I think what was really challenging was non "Brona to Lily," but rather the beginnings of Lily. Existence the renaissance or birth of something brand new and seeing everything for the first time, almost similar being a baby. I institute that really hard to get my head effectually. It's wonderfully challenging. I call back you kind of encounter the stress of that after. I do, anyway, thank God.
IVIE: Lily has very complex relationships with different men—including Dorian, the Beast, Ethan, and Victor. Which relationship have y'all found almost interesting in seeing evolve?
PIPER: I sound like a existent tramp when I say this, simply all of them. [laughs] They're all unique and wonderful in their own way. I like the punky element of Frankenstein and I think that it's fun to work opposite Harry [Treadaway], who's a friend. At that place'south something brilliantly gothic most him, so I relish their weird, weird human relationship. It'due south really smart. I also really love working aslope the mad, perverse, age-quondam Dorian. As Brona, to play opposite Josh [Hartnett] and his Ethan was great. And so I'grand being really bland and proverb I bask them all. Simply I too dear working opposite the Animate being, considering he's a really complex graphic symbol. He has his wild, nature strengths but he'due south very English language and poetic. That'due south how you lot sort of imagine those erstwhile English characters to exist.
IVIE: What do you find nearly fulfilling in your portrayal of Lily this season?
PIPER: When she loses it and becomes this wildly loose catechism, who you really don't know what to expect from. In all of her feminist ranting I love it.
IVIE: Do yous think that Lily has turned into a monster in her ain right?
PIPER: Yeah. In the aforementioned way that nosotros…well, as a woman myself, y'all tin exist totally driven mad by men and vice-versa. I think she turned at the hands of her maker, actually, and at that place's something so assuming nigh that in terms of the story. I dear her for that.
IVIE: Did yous enjoy existence immersed in the neo-Victorian setting? I feel there are two common means that people look at the Victorian era: either as sublime and romantic, or dark and mystic.
PIPER: Yeah, I actually honey it. What I love about John'due south portrayal is that, autonomously from all of the supernatural elements, I call back that information technology's quite, from what I've read, an accurate account of the dirty and polluted and lawless environs from that time period. It's prissy to see a period drama not looking sort of stiff and mannered and pretty and light.
IVIE: Did you lot piece of work with the evidence's costume designer to help create Lily's new aesthetic? Information technology'southward certainly a more than polished and refined look than Brona.
PIPER: The thing about working with the team is that they're almost similar specialists. They have a very stiff vision and your task is to inhabit what they select for yous. What they know well-nigh me every bit an player is that there are piddling colorful character traits. Like with Brona, she'd always accept beads and fingerless gloves and little fake flowers on her apparel, and they know that I honey stuff like that. And then I think they get excited when we play effectually with stuff like that. And so with Lily, they were playing with the softness and florals and things that you don't run across with whatsoever of the other women on the prove. Then, they come with a very stiff vision, and y'all're either on their side or not.
IVIE: Yous now have many different television genres under your belt—sci-fi, drama, horror. Do you discover yourself preferring 1 genre to another?
PIPER: No, I'm thrilled to accept done all of them. I remember my favorite thing almost all of those genres is that I find the humanity within them all. Even if you're travelling effectually space and time, there is still something crucial about finding humanity within that and the same thing with a high-class escort. They're people before anything else. That has been the mutual thread; I'thou totally blest to have a crack at them all.
IVIE: Do you have any other projects that are currently in evolution?
PIPER: I just finished this British film called City of Tiny Lights, which is sort of similar a noir thriller, then that'due south exciting. There are also a few things that I'm working work in early developmental stages. In that location'due south always something chugging along.
PENNY DREADFUL WILL Render FOR A Third Flavour IN 2016. SEASONS 1 AND Ii OF PENNY DREADFUL ARE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE VIA Starting time.
Source: https://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/billie-piper
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