Billie Piper Special: Rare Beasts and rom coms

Actor, writer and director Billie Piper talks to Gemma Gracewood about the filmic influences behind her ‘anti-rom-com’ directorial debut, Rare Beasts, a black comedy about dysfunction, misogyny, grief and tap-dancing also starring Leo Bill, Kerry Fox, Toby Woolf, David Thewlis and Lily James. Plus: the movies that got Piper’s family through multiple lockdowns, the chaotic splendour of Paul Thomas Anderson, her love of Busby Berkeley and Pina Bausch, plus Cassavetes, Curtis, Dunham, Beyoncé, and the only celebrity she has ever been starstruck by. Rare Beasts is now in select US theaters and on demand, as of August 20, 2021.

Related links:

• Letterboxd list of films mentioned
• The films of Mike Leigh, Todd Solondz, Ken Loach, Pina Bausch, Paul Thomas Anderson, John Cassavetes, Busby Berkeley, Judd Apatow and Richard Curtis
• Pixar films
• Reviews of Rare Beasts from Letterboxd members Timothy Evans, h and Leonie
• Split-diopter shots

Credits:
This episode was recorded in London, Pennsylvania and Auckland, and edited by Slim. Facts by Jack. Booker: Linda Moulton. Theme music: ‘Vampiros Dancoteque’ by film and television composing trio Moniker. Transcript by Sophie Shin.