BILLIE Piper admits sex scenes for Secret Diary Of A Call Girl sometimes leave
her desperate for a shower.
And the sexy 28-year-old confesses she worries about what son Winston, two,
will think of the steamy show when he grows up.
In today’s interview with The Sun’s Buzz magazine, Billie admits: “There is a
part of me that thinks: ‘I have to go home and feed my son now, and I’m
going to need several showers before that. And a lot of praying.
“I just hope I raise my son to become someone who’s really open-minded. And
forgiving.”
Billie’s role as high-class escort Belle de Jour in the ITV2 series has
brought her a legion of fans and this fourth and final season promises to be
the most risqué yet.
But in today’s Buzz TV-listings magazine, Piper says she feels the time has
come to say goodbye to the tart with a heart.
“I think we’ve been everywhere with the storylines,” she says. “We’ve
certainly reached a point where the stories could potentially peter out if
we carried on.”
Escort
The acclaimed drama, based on the bestselling real-life diaries of an upmarket
escort, has been a career high for Billie.
“Arguably I’d play Belle forever if there was less sex and three-day weeks,”
she laughs. “Oh, and a body-double on standby the entire time, so I could
feast on good food and not worry about turning into a beached whale!”
She adds: “Filming the sex stuff is fine, but sometimes you just want to sit
in your tracksuit bottoms instead of prancing around in lingerie trying to
be sexy when you feel like rubbish.”
This season will require Belle to wear the skimpiest of outfits for sex scenes
with a line-up of clients who include a man fond of dressing up as Dracula –
and who pays to suck her neck. Not an easy call, even for an actress as bold
as Billie.
She explains: “You start by feeling awkward about the sex stuff, but three
hours later you are still sitting there in your pants and it becomes more
like choreography, as opposed to something seedy, dirty and sexual.”
Sex scenes aside, Billie admits that the seven-month shoot for this series of
Secret Diary took its toll on her home and social life. Being a wife and mum
means Billie’s priorities have changed, and she has missed being at home in
her West Sussex cottage with her husband, Lewis actor Laurence Fox, 32, and
their two-year-old son, Winston.
“When you’re filming, you don’t see your family – or you very rarely see your
family,” she reveals. “Instead, the cast and crew become your family. But
now, with a child and a husband, I find that incredibly hard.”
Playing assistant Rose Tyler in Doctor Who may have kick-started the former
pop star’s acting career, but her role as Belle de Jour has made Billie a
household name.
So she was thrilled when she got to meet Bristol-based research scientist Dr
Brooke Magnanti, 35, the woman whose story provided the inspiration for
Secret Diary.
“There was a sense of freedom, and I felt like I could ask Brooke things I’ve
never asked anybody about sex,” admits Billie, who interviewed Brooke for
documentary Billie And The Real Belle Bare All. “It was strange, but also
incredibly exciting and liberating.”
For all its popularity, Secret Diary has proved to be a controversial
programme, criticised in some quarters for “glamorising prostitution”.
Billie herself took some flak as a result, and hit back saying she was
offended by the suggestion that Belle was a victim. That’s not how Billie
sees her.
“Belle found it exciting and thrilling – it was very different to what other
prostitutes are exposed to,” she says. “But I wonder how it must be for her
to now walk into a room and know that everyone’s aware you’re a whore.”
Regardless, Billie’s delighted that the show she’s about to say goodbye to is
a worldwide hit and has been shown in America, Australia and Europe – but
she’s also aware of its limitations.
“The fact that Secret Diary Of A Call Girl has enjoyed success around the
world tells us that people enjoy it, that it makes them laugh and that it
ticks a few boxes,” she says. “It’s not a piece of realism and it’s not a
gritty drama. It simply is what it is.”
So what does the world hold for Billie, post-Belle? She thinks, pauses, then
with a big smile says: “I will endeavour to be a good mother and a good wife
and see my friends. I’ll have time to catch up with them now!”
* Read the full interview with Billie in Britain’s best TV magazine – Buzz
– available free with The Sun today, and every Saturday.