FEATURE:
Spotlighting Billie Piper and Florence Pugh
IN THIS PHOTO: Florence Pugh/PHOTO CREDIT: Erik Madigan Heck/Harper’s Bazaar
Two Amazing Who Could Offer Something Incredible to Music
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THIS might seem quite random…
IN THIS PHOTO: Billie Piper/PHOTO CREDIT: Manuel Vazquez/The Guardian
and pretty niche, but I have been reading new interviews from two incredible women in the entertainment industry. Both incredible actors. Maybe this extends beyond music or is a desire to see them act alongside one another. Billie Piper and Florence Pugh. Both hugely busy at the moment, Piper is working on a romantic comedy. Pugh is starring in some massive films. I feel they both have careers in acting beyond performing. Piper is a writer and has directed, though I feel we can see her move to directing big films. The same with the mighty Florence Pugh. Someone who I feel will write her own stuff and direct. Having Billie Piper and Florence Pugh write together or appear in a project would be wonderful! That is something that might well happen. I am going to go on to say why I feel both could offer something incredible to the music industry. Billie Piper is a former artist, so it is not new to her – Florence Pugh has sung on film. I am going to start with a couple of interviews: one with Florence Pugh and one with Billie Piper. I am starting out with one from The Guardian, where Billie Piper spoke to them ahead of a BAFTA special (she was also nominated for a BAFTA). Piper spoke about, among other things, “toxic masculinity, raising teens, and playing complex characters”:
“You’ve said one of your aims with your work is to ‘lift the lid on what it means and what it costs to be female’. Do you think that cost is increasing or decreasing?
Increasing. It feels like, in many ways, we’re going backwards. I wonder if there is a greater hostility from guys towards girls. There’s certainly a world available to men that violently rejects feminism or emancipation. It’s really frightening. Now that I’ve had a daughter, I can see violence against women more clearly. It’s like I couldn’t see it for myself, which is alarming, and I’ve had to do work reframing a lot that I’d normalised in my life. It’s a fine balance: how do we keep women safe while also nurturing boys, who are facing issues, too?
How do you deal with conversations about toxic masculinity with your kids?
Look, Iven’t got this down pat, but with my daughter and sons with whatever they’re facing, it’s about listening, holding your nerve when they say something that feels not quite right, and understanding they have to make mistakes. I can’t believe the pressures on them to have these political views all the time. There’s such expectation for young people to get it right immediately. And if they don’t, they’re written off. When I was their age, I was just, I don’t know, smoking cigarettes!
Does the idea of being a role model sit heavily with you?
I don’t like it. I’ve never liked it. It feels too frightening, and it doesn’t allow a lot of room for error. And I really struggled with that when I was a teenager, as a singer, I just hated that feeling. That’s been a bit of a hangover for me.
Tell us about the romcom you are working on.
If I watch 1990s romcoms now, I find them hard to understand. They just sit differently. Even though I love those movies, it’s a time that felt so radically different from the world we live in now. So I’m trying to do something that feels authentic to now, but still feels dreamy and hopeful.
How do you cope with writer’s block?
I panic! Luckily, I’m so green even the bad days seem achievable”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Erik Madigan Heck/Harper’s Bazaar
I am going to move on to an interview from Harper’s Bazaar that was published in April. Ahead of starring as a lead in the Marvel film, Thunderbolts*, she spoke about “fame, fertility and fighting for our futures”. It is another great interview that caught my eye and also connected with things that Billie Piper spoke about in her interview:
“She clearly also adores the process of making a big blockbuster. “I got to do a stunt that has never been done before,” she says, proudly. “My double, the female co-ordinator and I are all now Guinness World Record holders!” All I can reveal about this impressive achievement is that she jumps off something very, very high.
In one way or another, Pugh is always willingly throwing herself off heights for her career. She talks about putting herself through ‘trauma’ for Midsommar, picturing her entire family in coffins to tap into her character Dani’s grief (“I left the film feeling like I had abandoned myself in that field”). We joke about the apparent disregard she has for her hair, which she hacked to pieces on camera for her role in A Good Person and which Andrew Garfield shaved off for her in We Live in Time. “I give so much of my body to what I do,” she says.
This summer, Pugh will begin filming the third instalment of Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic Dune, in which she returns as the enigmatic Princess Irulan (“I hope we see more of her. I want more cool outfits!”). She has just come back from New Zealand, where she has been making a miniseries of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, playing the anti-heroine Cathy Ames. In many ways, the character is perfect for Pugh’s tastes – a woman Steinbeck himself describes as having a “malformed soul”. “People keep on saying to me, ‘I read the book. She’s a terrible person.’ But I get really arsey about that,” she says. “I can explain all the awful things that she does. It’s my responsibility to understand the character, because they can’t defend themselves.”
Pugh was first approached about the project by the show’s writer Zoe Kazan (the granddaughter of Elia Kazan, the director of the 1955 film starring James Dean), who also asked her to executive-produce. “I remember reading the scripts and thinking, ‘She wants to give me this power?’” It will be her second producer credit after A Good Person, and it has inspired her to do more behind the camera. “I love writing dialogue. It’s my second main enjoyment outside of acting,” she says. “I’ve got a couple of shows and a movie that I want to make. I know who I want to play, and I see how I want it shot.”
But her decade of stratospheric professional success has come at the expense of her personal life. “I’ve worked back-to-back since I started, and I’ve missed so much,” she says, listing family events, birthdays, barbecues with friends. “I’ve now come to terms with things that I don’t like about myself and want to change. I don’t want to have things just happen to me any more.”
Part of this reckoning – brought on, she says, by the themes of mortality in We Live in Time – was her desire to take control of her romantic life. Following her amicable break-up in 2022 with her partner of nearly three years, the actor and director Zach Braff, Pugh embarked upon a relationship (she won’t be drawn on the question of who it was with) that ended as the film began shooting. “It was a scary break-up,” she says, “and I think that movie forced me to realise I can’t wait for people any more. I can’t accept this version of love. I have to help myself.”
She tells me she is currently in love and is approaching her new relationship very differently. “I’m more sympathetic to the people who are in love with me, because it’s not easy! I’m tricky – I’m always busy, I can never make dates,” she admits. “But it’s not good enough for me to ask someone to just accept that. I’ll just end up alone. I don’t want that – I want a family.”
Having being diagnosed with endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome, she has begun the process of freezing her eggs which she describes as “tiring and horrible”, though she recognises she is lucky in being able to afford the procedure. “There was a clickbait article about me doing it,” she says. “I know you shouldn’t read the comments but... urgh. I wish there was a little more tenderness and understanding.”
Recently, Pugh deleted Instagram for five months which she describes as “bliss” (her dream, she later tells me, is eventually to leave London for a quieter rural existence), but she was compelled to come back on to post about the LA fires, feeling that her platform could be useful for spreading information. After all, she does have more Instagram followers than the entire population of Austria, I tell her. “Wait, what?” Pugh is flabbergasted. “Wow, that’s funny.”
Nonetheless, she displays a healthy degree of scepticism about social media, increasingly feeling a responsibility to move beyond armchair activism. “Instagram posts can only go so far. Yes, they make you aware, yes, they can change a few opinions, but I want to make sure that I’m awake to what’s going on and feel like I’m a part of the change.” At a time when, as she puts it, “plenty of unstable, powerful men are dictating our futures”, she would like to be on the front line of the resistance movement. “Being more active in this very aggressive change in the world right now feels correct to me,” she explains. “At least I know that my energy is going somewhere.”
A few hours later, I watch her perform on the catwalk. “Be determined,” she says to the crowd. “Be fearless... but always, always be yourself.” It is an apt description of Pugh’s compelling career thus far; and the rallying cry of a woman prepared to fight for what she believes in”.
Two incredible actors who are role models and inspiring figures. People who want to make changes and bring about difference through their work. One might feel they could be less effective and progressive through music than film. The former is predominantly an audio format – unless you watch a gig or a music video – whilst the latter is almost entirely visual. The power and effect you get from a picture compared to a sound. The scope of cinema and a single film compared to an album. However, there is a reason why I would love to hear music from Billie Piper and Florence Pugh. Maybe neither has it is in their sights. Billie Piper, trading as Billie, was a massive Pop artist in the 1990s/early-2000s. Releasing a string of brilliant singles – including Because We Want To – and a fabulous debut album in the form of 1998’s Honey to the B (her second and final album was 2000’s Walk of Life). One might think, at forty-two, would she want to go back into music. I am about to write a feature that looks at artists who were popular in the 1990s and are returning now or have endured since that time and are releasing amazing new work – including Robbie Williams, Skunk Anansie and Pulp. I do think that a Billie 2.0 would add the surname and the music would probably sound different to what she was producing as a teenager. However, given how she is this activist, vital voice and hugely loved person, she would have a lot to offer! Beyond songs about love and the ordinary – though it is very important -, she could genuinely offer something moving and challenging. Whether that is something that would ever appeal or is something she wants to leave in the past. Someone who does have this incredible voice – both in the literal sense and when it comes to her work -, I do imagine a new Billie Piper album. She is going to busy writing a new film and appearing in other projects. She works alongside the charity, Refuge, and she is someone who has multiple commitments. However, given the fact there is this wave of artists from the 1990s entering a new phase of their career, it would be awesome to have new Billie Piper music! I could imagine it would blend subjects like toxic masculinity and female empowerment, though she would also reflect on relationships and life in her forties. If Piper retired from music in 2001, there is this gap in the market that she could fill. I do feel these inspirational and wonderful women have something really valuable to offer. So it would be a dream if she were to come back into music – if only for one more album.
I do know that there is this chance that Florence Pugh could release an album at some point. Again, I could see her using that platform to write these songs that address big themes. Those that also have a personal edge and perspective. She has said how she would like to record music soon. She has appeared on songs, thought she has not as yet released a studio album. One of the busiest people around, hearing her speak about her life, where she is now and where she wants to head. That could be incredible translated into music. She may well write her own film or launch this project that is very personal to her, though I feel there is this desire in her to release music. Many scoff when actors go into music but, for many, it is their first and true love. We have seen recent and successful transition from the likes of Kate Hudson. Florence Pugh will also prioritise acting and that side of her career. However, as someone who has recorded songs and has been active in that world for a little while now, it is very much a moment when someone with her gift, voice and passion could really do something good. In terms or themes explored through music, many do not go beyond their own lives. That is all well and good; though there is something about Florence Pugh and Billie Piper and what they have been talking about in recent interviews that got me thinking about music. One who has had a former career in the industry and the other who has not as yet. It will be interesting watching this space. In the meantime, I think Billie Piper will appear as a character in the U.S. series, Wednesday, and she is also going to feature in another T.V. show, Coming Undone (currently in development). Florence Pugh has filmed her part in T.V. adaptation of East of Eden (that will broadcast in 2026) and she will also appear in Avengers: Doomsday. I do hope Billie Piper and Florence Pugh collide at some point as I can see Pugh being perfect in Piper’s romantic comedy – as Pugh is a wonderful comic actor and does not get as many roles in that genre. I shall leave it there. I was compelled to write because I admire both of these women but I sort of hope, in a selfish way, that they record music in the future. It would be wonderful. I wanted to shine a spotlight on these…
PEERLESS talents.