Shes requested a quiet corner and a certain degree of tact.
Who can blame her.
And yet she smiles.
Billie Piper as Sam McAlister inScoop, streaming on Netflix from April 5.
The hug is warm, the eyes kind, the laughter throaty and frequent.
Shes not seen the final cut ofScoopyet, and is touchingly nervous to hear what I thought of it.
Itsoworks, I reply.
Piper and the real Sam McAlister on the set ofScoop.
What a treat to see you on screen again.
Surely you get sent plenty?
While not underhyped, exactly, her peripatetic celebrity is unusual enough for some to forget her powers.
UnlikeThe Crown, however, the kid gloves are off.
Work, for me anyway, at this point in my life, has to mean something.
I have to really want in on that female character, Piper explains.
She is an absolute force, says Piper of McAlister.
I didnt know anything about her and yet I knew everything about that interview, she continues.
I was obsessed with it.
I was obsessed with the whole Epstein/Maxwell story, even though thats not what this is.
I had spent hours reading and watching and getting furious.
Fury fueled her mission, though as filming approached last year she was anxious.
Everyone has seen that interviewits been ripped and memed to fuck.
We know that the interview is going to happen.
How is the story interesting?
Piper and the real Sam McAlister on the set ofScoop.
As for the actual Prince Andrew, well…
I think by this point we all agree not good, dont we?
she says, evenly.
In terms of monarchy more generally she sits on theantiside of ambivalence.
[My views] have changed over the years, lets say.
[MakingScoop] felt quite heavy in that senseheavily British.
Its getting funnierand less funny.
She pauses for a moment, tiling her head.
You know that line where funny-haha meets fucking hell?
Piper knows that line.
Too well, one supposes.
Her default setting is honesty and soon our conversation drifts to her mind-blowing life.
I just hate it, but I want to know about what has happened, too.
This goes no little way to explaining her specific power as an actor in recent years.
She recalls the moment the shift took hold.
I became incredibly frustrated and angry about that.
Piper speaks slowly, considering each syllable.
I felt very unhinged in my early 30s and kind of mentally not well.
Unfortunately, a lot of that has been in relation to men, I suppose.
The reset had been a long time coming.
Id grown up in a world that was dominated by men, she explains.
They always had the last word at home, which could be frightening.
Sometimes I wanted to appeal to them so that I could feel safe.
Sometimes I wanted to be them because it looked like they were having a better time than I was.
It was a period of time in the 1990s where it was just very, very male-heavy.
I felt a huge amount of frustration about that.
She sighs: And I carried that into my romantic relationships.
They werent all bad.
Chris EvansDJ and entrepreneur, whom she married when she was 18, he 35still gets a glowing review.
Did people lose their minds about the age difference then as they would now?
Oh, yeah, sure, people would shout things about the age gap at us in the street.
Street trolling, she says, laughing at the idea of a pre-Twitter world, before catching herself.
I mean it was pretty terrifying actually.
The eternal interest in her first marriage mystifies her though.
People still ask me about it at parties.
It was 20 years ago.
She is willing for the first time to speak a little about Laurence Fox, however.
It feels like a uniquely modern nightmare.
Or at least it should!
Her laughing sets me off too, before I immediately apologize.
Dont worry, you have to laugh because its a lot, she says.
Its a good way of kind of soothing yourself.
They might have a more interesting take.
Meanwhile Piper says her entire focus is the kids.
What is paramount for me is the privacy and anonymity of my children.
They deserve not to be extensions of the parents and to forge their own identities.
But how do you go about coparenting in a situation like this?
With enormous difficulty, replies Billie, solemnly.
What happens when a storm of his creation explodes?
I close everything down and keep a very strict routine with the kids so that theres consistency.
I keep them close.
Thats all I can do.
Even friends and acquaintances can get annoying by the sounds of it.
I make a run at keep people from telling me stuff but its really, really hard.
I dont read it but everyone wants to talk about it.
Sometimes I have to say to people: kindly dont bring this to me, now or ever.
Understandably, having lingered on the L word for several minutes now, Billie is starting to bleak out.
She catches herself and laughs.
Whats a positive spin on this?
she says, hitting the table in jest, before answering her own question earnestly.
Its made me feel stronger in many ways.
Ive learned I have a lot of resilience I didnt know I had.
Its really fucking hard, she says, with admirable calm.
After the school run, most mornings Piper can be found in the study of her Camden townhouse.
She is considering taking up a barre class.
There is peace amid the chaos.
It does concern me.
she says, then cackles.
She pauses a final time.
Because these days I really do give a shit, you know.
