Billie Piper: playing prostitute Belle de Jour while pregnant was hard

Billie Piper's call girl Belle de Jour.

A pregnant Billie Piper returns to her role as high-class prostitute Belle de Jour.

A second series of Secret Diary of a Call Girl changes the feel of the show slightly.

There’s less sex and its clear the production team have hidden Billie’s condition.
Also, Belle has an unexpected encounter with a dashing doctor called Alex.
Billie said:
“One of the biggest changes is that Belle manages to fall in love.
This puts pressure on her to change profession and I think it really freaks her out.
It starts to dictate everything she does and she finds that overwhelming.”

Billie Piper has spoken of the difficulties she faced playing
the role of a seductive prostitute while heavily pregnant.
The former Doctor Who star, who is due to give birth in two months,
said she struggled to step into the role of Belle de Jour because she could not stop eating.

Billie Piper is back as Belle de Jour in the second series of Secret Diary of a Call Girl

Piper takes the starring role of a high-class prostitute in the Secret Diary of a Call Girl,
the second series of which starts on ITV2 next week.

She said that during filming of the drama she had to be shot in a particular way
to hide the fact that she was pregnant.
"The camera and lighting crew and directors had to work a lot harder -
we were shooting around my torso, basically," she said in an interview with the Radio Times.

"Towards the end it was really tricky. I was showing big time.
I wear tight clothes in this show, so it's obvious. Plus I was eating like a horse.
Being pregnant and filming scenes where you're having to be sexually provocative -
when all you want to do is sit in a corner and eat - that was hard for me."

Piper, who is best known for portraying Doctor Who's companion Rose Tyler
in the popular BBC series, said she had no idea whether her character
would be resurrected in the next series of the sci-fi show.


"I really don't know, and that's not a lie," she said.
"People love Doctor Who and I love being there but at some point you've just got to let go.
The only thing that's stressful is walking down the street when schools are out.
I don't know how David [Tennant] does it.
Sweet as they are, kids en masse are kind of frightening.

Every child just thinks you're Rose and you don't want to spoil the illusion.
I really feel for David because that's his life - everywhere he goes is slightly chaotic."

(Telegraph)


Secret Diary of a Call Girl (Paperback)