Comedy-drama premieres on HBO Max Nov. 19.
On the HBO Max comedy-dramaI Hate Suzie, British singer-turned actress Billie Piper plays British singer-turned-actress Suzie Pickles.
“Its not autobiographical in the moment-to-moment,” she says.
“My god, I would behorrifiedif people thought I was exactly like Suzie Pickles.”
You get her point.
With her life falling apart, the character often seems hellbent on actually making matters worse.
“It is like watching a car crash,” says Piper.
“You cant believe the life choices shes making.
Its quite unusual to see a woman making such relentless appalling choices with her life.
Its very funny, but its punishing to watch, I think, when youre witnessing that.
And other times you do like her, and yet shes part of the problem.”
“Its a very unnatural set of circumstances.
Weirdly, the stakes always feel so high and it’s possible for you to never really understand why.
So, thats just the experience of a shoot on anormalday.
Compounded with all this incriminating photographic evidence, its tricky.”
Piper admits she and Prebble struggled to sell the show before finding a home at Sky in the UK.
“Yeah, we did the rounds with it,” she says.
“And, yeah, a lot of people turned it down.
A lot of the feedback was, theyd already had their sort of woman-having-a-meltdown quota.
[Laughs] Its all too much.
But we found our home in the end and were delighted.
It was just the right fit for us.
I Hate Suziehas been warmly received by critics.
Piper explains she has been encouraged enough by the reception to think about a second season for Suzie.
“We have no idea where it would go next and this stage.
Were going to start at least talking about it in January.”
Watch the trailer forI Hate Suzieabove.
