Billie Piper Set to Star in Netflix Adaptation of Terri White's 'Coming Undone'
Billie Piper stars in a bold, bracing, Sky original drama about the moment in life when the mask slips, asking if any of us can survive being well and truly ‘known’.
©Sky UK Limited.
Most Americans are probably familiar with actress Billie Piper thanks to her performance as Doctor Who companion Rose Tyler opposite Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant's Ninth and Tenth Doctors. But her post-TARDIS career has featured an eclectic array of interesting roles, from her turn as a pseudo Bride of Frankenstein on Gothic horror drama Penny Dreadful to her chaotic portrayal a C-list celebrity whose nude photos are leaked online in I Hate Suzie. And from the sounds of things, her next project will offer her another opportunity to take on a similarly memorable part.
According to Deadline, Piper has been tapped to star in the upcoming Netflix adaptation of Terri White's critically acclaimed 2020 memoir Coming Undone. The book chronicles the former Empire Magazine editor-in-chief's struggle to balance her outward personal success with her interior mental struggles, and the emotional breakdown that eventually lead to White spending some time on a psychiatric ward. The story also recounts her childhood spent growing up in poverty, as well as the sexual and emotional abuse she endured at the hands of her mother's romantic partners.
The project comes from production company Bad Wolf, the team behind such popular series as His Dark Materials and A Discovery of Witches. White herself will adapt her own story for the screen, and Piper will serve as one of the series' executive producers.
"Billie Piper. Actual Billie Piper! As she’s shown with the likes of I Hate Suzie and her directorial debut Rare Beasts, whether behind the camera or in front of it, Billie is a complete force," White told her former publication home Empire in a statement via WhatsApp. "I’m completely over the moon (and still shocked, to be honest) that she’s not only starring in our adaptation of Coming Undone but exec producing it. The absolute dream.”
White was editor-in-chief of the British film magazine Empire between 2015 and 2021. She also previously worked for Time Out in New York and is currently a columnist for The Sunday Times.
There's no further information available just yet about other cast members that might be attached to the project or when we might expect to see Coming Undone hit our screens. (Though I suspect mid-to-late 2023 is probably our best guess!) In the meantime a second season of Piper's HBO Max drama I Hate Suzie is in the works and slated to debut later in 2022.
