In Netflix’s Wednesday, the titular character's first words to Isadora Capri, played by Billie Piper are: “I’ve always been fascinated by child prodigies. The focus, the talent, the unrelenting quest for excellence.” When I enter the Conde Nast office studio and find Piper kneeling on the floor in an expert pose for her shoot with Glamour magazine, this interaction takes on a new life.
Capri, the new head of music at Wednesday’s spooky school Nevermore, completed her first classical album at the age of 10 – but the sentiment works just as well for Piper in reality too. Since 1998, Piper has held the record as the youngest solo artist to debut at number one on the UK Singles Chart with Because We Want To (it is also still one of only a few CDs I played in my Walkman before society pivoted to mp3). “Why do you always hang around in crowds? Why do you always say what’s on your mind? The lyrics are really controlling for a 15-year-old,” laughs the entertainer, now 42. Consistently on the edge of infectious, and possibly nervous giggling, Piper is alarmingly relatable and self-reflective for a child star.
The TikTok singing sensation talks sisterhood, representing the younger Asian community and fighting for more female voices behind the scenes in the music world.
Almost 30 years into her career though and the Swindon-born multi-hyphenate is still topping charts. Season 2 of Wednesday was the most watched Netflix show last month, with 50 million viewers in the first week and 29.1 million the following. Dressed in a maroon suit from The Frankie Shop, it’s an early start after the premiere the night before. Still she’s brimming with energy as she runs us through her career playing Rose in Doctor Who (she’s not allowed to talk about whether she will take over from Ncuti) or Belle in Secret Diary of a Call Girl and what she’s learned from leaning into chaos both inside and outside of her impressive resume.
As the second part of the school-based murder mystery is dropping today, fans are beginning to speculate if the seemingly-friendly werewolf, Capri, will play an even larger role as the plot thickens in part 2. Not that tight-lipped Piper has much to offer other than a general overview of what roles she keeps attracting. “I was thinking the other day that I’ve been a wolf many times in my career,” she says. “I’m either a wolf or a prostitute.”
While this is a hilarious oversimplification, Netflix’s Wednesday has a knack for harking back to the real-life careers of its A-star cast. Christina Ricci’s prominent role in Season 1 was befitting of the most popular actress to portray Wednesday Addams in the 1991 version, Catherine Zeta Jones’ Morticia fences with the same ferocity we saw in Zorro, and Piper’s character was a musical child prodigy, which is why she bonds with Wednesday. “When she was a younger musician herself she was rigorous and militant so she wants to make Wednesday loosen up,” she explains.
Are there real world parallels there between the relationship Billie has with the real life younger stars on the show like Jenna Ortega? Piper shakes her head. “The young ones are really on it now. The cast of Wednesday are all in their early 20s and they're so much more together than I was at that age in this industry, they're way more focused. Jen is producing that show. They're not sloppy like me and my peers were. They should be advising me!” she laughs. “Maybe it’s a British thing [to be that messy] or maybe they’re mentalists behind the scenes.”
Even if she eschews taking on a mentorship role with her younger colleagues, I ask what she might warn her younger self of if she was given psychic abilities like Wednesday. Billie barely hesitates. “I'd say, start life later, start your professional life later and get into therapy earlier. That will cover a lot of ground.”
As a teen in the late '90s and early noughties, Billie would live on her own in Hammersmith in pursuit of her dreams of becoming a pop star. “We were completely reckless and visible everywhere,” she says. From smoking with the Spice Girls at 15, to a very tipsy married life from the age of 18 to radio DJ Chris Evans, she’s been the object of tabloid fascination which could be vicious and punitive. “The only person who can still act like that is Charli XCX. I’m so glad she gave us Brat, it's such a relief I don’t have to pretend to be into wellness.”
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The freedom to be messy in your youth is character-building but the downside, as she told The Standard recently, is that freedom and overexposure can prove “fatal”. She’s previously written about battling with anorexia and mental health crises in her teen years. A day before we sat down for this interview Sylvia Young passed away. Like Capri on Wednesday, she acted as a mentor to gifted girls at her performing arts school and was instrumental to the success of Piper and her “super bright” school friend Amy Winehouse. “It was so fun. I remember being in awe of the talent, especially the vocal ability. We only had to do school work for three days a week and the rest of the time it was singing, dancing and acting.”
Having navigated and witnessed such turbulence, Piper has made a habit of creating complex and messy characters since her drama school days. “I really resent the idea that you can only mean one thing as a woman. I cannot stand the binary nature that leads to people being shocked when you explore another part of your personality. I have a responsibility in my work to show that as a woman, you can be a mother, but also a mentalist. You can be together at work but love a night out. It’s more interesting and it’s more authentic.”
What Wednesday also offers audiences is an insight into the sometimes tricky dynamic between mothers and daughters that arise from adolescence. Wednesday is often cold towards her mother and struggles for control over her life outside of her mother’s expectations. When Morticia’s mother Hester is introduced we also see how daughters judge their mother’s choices: whether you’re a hands-on mother like Morticia or a working ambitious mother like Hester, there’s going to be conflict. Piper, whose working teen years led to a fractious relationship with her mum until she had her own kids, says this aspect of the show is relatable.
“Growing up, I saw a lot of women not being able to express all these facets of their personality, and I didn't really realise at the time, but I really resented that. I resented them although it’s a social problem.” Even in adulthood as you continue to shape who you are, the idea of perfection in womanhood that comes from older generations is a source of frustration. “It's just bullshit. Sometimes I find it hard to have compassion but I also do understand that it was a different time for them.”
Still her later years have brought her and her mum closer together, and the pair found endless enjoyment celebrity spotting on set as Piper takes her rightful place among icons like Joanna Lumley and Catherine Zeta Jones. “My mum and Joanna hung out at the wrap party chain smoking cigs in the garden,” laughs Piper. “She drinks and smokes like a brat, however she’s not as free.”
Being in a child-friendly project has also allowed her some bonding time with her children, who love the series and are too young to watch Piper’s racier projects. “They didn't like watching Doctor Who either because they couldn't quite separate Billie from Rose Tyler,” she says. “My son is starting to watch the first episode of season 2 of I Hate Suzie when I’m kicked out of the dance competition but he found it upsetting.”
Another magical world awaits.
Billie has two sons with Laurence Fox (her team flag he is not to be discussed) as well as a younger daughter with Tribes singer Johnny Lloyd. She’s gone on record about being “worried sick” about steering her sons away from toxic online wormholes. However, TV is a medium she thinks brings them closer together. “I'm genuinely okay with my kids mainlining TV and film because as a kid I know that that was the reason I got into what I did. I just have an obsession with them watching longform stuff rather than TikTok,” she says. “I’m like those parents who were like ‘you can't listen to rock and roll it’ll poison you’. Or when we were younger ‘you can't watch MTV, it's brain rot’. Maybe I’m stifling something quite fun and modern but it’s so unpoliced.”
For her own screen habits she admits to loving “trash”. “Mostly old Kardashians where they used to fight and Kim used to cry more. They were vile to each other. I’ve got two sisters so I can relate,” she says. “The wealth is awful and fascinating. [The storylines aren’t as good anymore because] you can't go through your life exposing yourself in that way forever, at some point you're going to want to hold something back. That comes with age, and it comes with knowing that you're a parent and there's some responsibility there. I think it makes total sense to me that they're not punching each other anymore.”
In contrast, her taste in film is as dark as you’d expect for someone in a Tim Burton project. “I’m not a goth chick but I lean towards the absurdity of life, dark humour. It's where my tastes naturally sit. While I watch trash on TV, if I watch movies my desire is to watch heavy, sad, dark movies. It’s a heavy kitchen sink drama, the Ken Loach world. Very gritty Britty.”
Wednesday is after all a celebration of outcasts, a category Piper feels great affinity with. “I've definitely spent a lot of my life trying to be a mainstream girl, which has its merits. But internally I am naturally more drawn to the darkness, and I'm only really expressing that with my work in the last 10 years,” she explains.
Now she’s raising teens of a similar age to the Nevermore characters. Piper says that painful puberty whirlwind where you’re burdened heavily with a fear of being social pariahs or worried you might be a freak hits harder as an adult onlooker.
“It's harder to actually watch than it is to experience yourself, because at least when you're in the middle of it yourself, you feel like maybe you have some control over what's going on with you. But as a parent watching it, it is so out of your control,” she says. “There's things that are just part of life that you sort of have to let happen. You have to allow sad moments, conflict, all the stuff that's natural that builds your character. You just have to sit on your hands and watch.”
So what’s next for Billie who has conquered music, dance, and international television? “I’m probably not going to go back into music but I’ve been thinking recently about how I could merge the worlds. I love dancing, and want to find if there is a way for me to dance and sing but not live, and have it sort of married with a movie. So basically a musical,” she explains.
As most IMDB-proficient fans will know, the combination of Piper and her friend Lucy Prebble (writer on Succession and the critically acclaimed play The Effect) usually results in cult classics like Secret Diary of a Call Girl and I Hate Suzie. Piper reveals that the pair are thinking about their next collaboration. “We’re meeting tomorrow to talk about something that is really early days, but I think we'll always work together. We are obviously besties but we see each other less since she had a child and never leaves the house… like the rest of us.”
While she’s having a big couple of years on Netflix via Wednesday, Prince Andrew interview-based drama Scoop and Greek myth-inspired Kaos she’s thinking of having a crack at the big screen. “I’ve just written a film that I hope to direct next year. It’s heavy but I want to score it with dance music. To me, there is no difference between dance music and classical music except the beat. It still moves you in the same way.”
We’re keeping our eyes peeled to see what Piper does next.
Netflix will drop Wednesday season 2 part 2 on 3 September.
Photographer: Sirui Ma
Stylist: Thea Byrne
Hair: Joe Kelly
Make-Up: Mona Leanne
Interview: Kemi Alemoru
