Interview: Billie Piper – Elsinore

Across her beginnings as a pop-star, to television and eventual transition to feature film and directing (2019’s Rare Birds), Billie Piper gravitates toward women who are messy, contradictory and frequently at odds with the versions of themselves. In Elsinore, we witness Ian Charleson landing his landmark performance as Hamlet, but behind the scenes Piper plays Patsy Pollock — a casting director who sustains artists beyond the stage. During a press junket at this year’s TIFF, I asked about her character being one of the people who sees Ian most clearly at precisely the moment when the wider industry is failing to see him. I wanted to know how she shaped the character.