She is no stranger to the panics and pitfalls of a theatre premiere — but Billie Piper has said it is more terrifying to watch her husband face the critics than to do it herself.
After the opening night of Strangers on a Train, starring her husband Laurence Fox, Piper said: “I think it is easier to be part of a press night than to witness one, especially with a loved one, be it your husband or a friend.
“With your husband, it’s like watching how it would be with my son on stage or something — past terrifying.”
Piper, 31, who was shortlisted for best actress at Sunday’s Evening Standard Theatre Awards for her performance last year in medical thriller The Effect, said she missed being on stage. But she said it was nice to be able to support her husband.
Despite the fear and stress, she said performances were often best on press nights, adding: “There’s a profound energy and you know there’s a lot of people rooting for you.”
Fox, 35, stars as Guy Haines in the play, a stage adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel, also made into a 1951 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Fox said the role of Guy, an ordinary man pulled into an extraordinary chain of events, was his favourite kind of part. “It’s like Morecambe and Wise. You need the guy the drama happens to,” he said.
“Given the choice, I would always prefer to play the guy who is a real person. I like the Everyman part.
“The hardest thing to understand is what a normal person would do in an extraordinary situation.”
But the actor, who was supported in the audience by his Lewis co-star Kevin Whately, insisted that his wife was the true thespian in their marriage.
“She’s a much better actor than I am. I’m really pleased at that,” he said.
“It would be awful to go out with an actress who wasn’t better than you. I love her for that. And she will always have my back.”
Also starring is Boardwalk Empire actor Jack Huston, 30, grandson of director John and nephew to actress Anjelica.
Huston, said it was great to be back on stage in London after 12 years — and to be introducing his daughter, Sage, to the city where he was born and raised.
Read More
“I’m having a wonderful time,” he said. But he added that playing characters like the psychopathic stalker Bruno was worrying as “they become part of you”.
Other cast members for the Gielgud Theatre show include Miranda Raison, from Spooks, and Imogen Stubbs, who plays Huston’s mother.
Stubbs described the show, which uses dramatic projections and a black, white and grey colour scheme, as “an homage to Hollywood”.
