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:
The Letterboxd Show is hosted by Slim (of 70mm podcast infamy) and Gemma, Letterboxd’s editor-in-chief. This episode was recorded in London, Pennsylvania and Auckland, and edited by Slim. Facts by Jack. With thanks to our booker, Linda Moulton, and transcripts by Sophie Shin. Our theme music is ‘Vampiros Dancoteque’, by film and television composing trio Moniker.