With over two decades of acting experience under her belt, Billie Piper is stepping behind the camera. The former “Secret Diary of a Call Girl” and “Doctor Who” star will make her directorial debut with “anti-rom-com” “Rare Beasts,” Screen Daily confirms. Piper penned the script and will star. Western Edge Pictures (WEP) is producing.
Scheduled to shoot in London and Spain in September, “Rare Beasts” sees Piper playing Mandy, “a career-driven single mother who falls in love with the charming, traditionalist Paul.”
“We’re massively excited about bringing Billie’s wickedly funny and incisive film to the screen,” said WEP and Gennaker CEO Vaughan Sivell. “Her relevance and modernity are only outweighed by her charm, talent and riotous sense of fun.”
Piper added, “I have been looking for a home for this film for a long time now, and I’ve definitely found it with Vaughan and WEP. I’m so excited to shoot this year.”
Last seen in BBC Two’s Carey Mulligan-starrer “Collateral,” Piper’s other recent screen credits include “Penny Dreadful” and “City of Tiny Lights.” She just earned rave reviews for the New York run of “Yerma,” a play about a journalist who is desperate to have a child. She earned an Olivier Award for Best Actress for the role.
Piper and her fellow “Yerma” cast members helped launch Safe Space, an initiative to fight sexual harassment in the theater industry.
Other actresses with feature directorial debuts on the way include Amy Poehler, Kirsten Dunst, and Romola Garai.
