In new TV show I Hate Suzie, Billie Piper plays a former teen pop sensation who becomes an actress in a popular sci-fi series before marrying a man-child and having kids.
But the star – who topped the charts as a teenager, shot to fame in Doctor Who and married hellraisers Chris Evans and Laurence Fox – is adamant the new show is not autobiographical.
Billie, 37, who co-created the series with Succession writer and best friend Lucy Prebble, said she would be horrified if viewers took the eight-part drama too literally.
The mum-of-three, who plays actor Suzie Pickles, added: “There are lots of moments I really wouldn’t want people to think were autobiographical.”
The story begins with Suzie’s iCloud being hacked and a photo of her starkers and having a tryst with her lover being made public.
Each episode then deals with her responses to the scandal – from shock, denial and fear through to anger and eventually acceptance.
Billie said: “They are real feelings Lucy and I discussed but the actual narrative is completely made up.
"The temptation is to say, ‘That must be autobiographical’ but hopefully people will get over that quite quickly.
“We talked a lot about Lily Allen, Charlotte Church and Britney Spears – people who suddenly became visible and were quite psychologically affected by it.
“So it’s not even me we’re drawing on, it’s looking at it in quite a winking way.”
Despite that, Billie, now 37, admits that drawing on her own fame as a child and the anxiety she has felt since – she was the youngest artist to reach No1 in the charts with her debut single Because We Want To, aged 15 in 1998 – was key to the emotional heart of the piece.
Billie, who has two sons – Winston, 11, and Eugene, eight – with second husband Fox and last year gave birth to Tallulah, her daughter with musician Johnny Lloyd, said: “I know exactly what that feels like and I’m sure it feeds into my performance.
“I’m only coming to terms with a lot of it right now.
“In my 20s, a lot of my stress from that period was buried and I still struggle to remember a lot of it.
"I know what it means to live your life publicly. I don’t regret it. I love what I do and where I’m at personally.
"But I wouldn’t want my children to go that way. There’s an anxiety of me as a child that I probably on some levels smother my children with.”
Over the last few years Billie has approached Lucy with numerous ideas for telly shows which were rejected.
Although Billie joked she was offended at being turned down so many times, she said Prebble was right to wait for I Hate Suzie to come along.
She added: “Because I’ve got kids, if I’m going in to work it has to be something I feel really bowled over by.
“Something I was really interested in was trying to honestly portray a woman. That’s hard and takes balls.
“You have to find a broadcaster who doesn’t want to make the female experience more palatable.”
The pair met when Prebble wrote Secret Diary of a Call Girl, the 2007 ITV series based on the blogs by Belle de Jour, in which Piper played a high-class prostitute.
For Billie, it was the project that helped her make the leap from sweet parts such as Doctor Who companion Rose Tyler and Fanny Price in Mansfield Park to the far grittier roles she is known for today.
In some ways, Secret Diary was a test run for I Hate Suzie and they both agree they finally have the autonomy to make the series they always wanted – thanks to the changing landscape of TV.
Billie said: “This probably wouldn’t have been made five years ago.
“Things have changed dramatically, although in some ways we’re only scratching the surface.”
They wanted a lead character who is unashamedly flawed and messy.
Billie said: “She’s not always likeable or a great mother. She’s quite often monstrous, hysterical and tightly wound. But that’s in all of us.
“I find it incredibly frustrating when I watch anything and I’m not getting that from a female character. It p***es me off.”
I Hate Suzie is about working out who you really are and Billie admitted her Olivier Award-winning turn in the Young Vic’s Yerma in 2016 helped her overcome insecurity.
She said: “Yerma was a turning point for me as it came at a really good time in my life. I needed it.
“I don’t feel that imposter syndrome so much any more. I felt it very strongly until Yerma, so that was a big moment for my confidence.”
Billie added that she is only beginning to know herself properly now – just like her character Suzie at the end of the series.
She said: “It’s both enlightening and really terrifying but it’s happening now.
“As a woman, you are so many things to so many people, it takes a long time to find your way back to yourself.
“The last few months have been bonkers and we’re tired but I do feel fulfilled and I’m looking forward to feeling it a bit more.”
● I Hate Suzie is on Sky Atlantic on Thursday at 9pm.
