Billie Piper has spoken about how difficult it was to juggle theatre commitments with having school-age children.
Billie, who has two sons with her ex-husband Laurence Fox – Winston, eight, and Eugene, four – won rapturous critical praise for her performance as a woman consumed by her desperate desire to have a child in Yerma at the Young Vic, but said it was a struggle to balance the role with motherhood.
The actress, who won the best actress prize for the performance at the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards, said: “I think working in any job is hard when you have children. It’s a constant push and pull and enormous sacrifices made and financial worries, it’s all pretty tricky.
“I would say while they are young, working in the theatre works quite well. It’s the minute they hit school, really.
“You’re sort of knackered taking them into school because you’ve been doing the show all night and then you’re leaving before the school run.
“When they are babies it’s actually very, very good because you’ve become a night owl anyway.
“I think everything has its taxing moments professionally as a working mum.”
Speaking before she collected her prize at the ceremony, Piper said: “I feel totally chuffed because I really really enjoyed it above all else, so being awarded for something that you absolutely loved is rare in life.
“That you have a professional moment where you love your job and you get a prize for it, it’s really nice.
“It’s the most emotional part I’ve ever done but I loved it so much and I loved the company so much and I loved the way we got to it, how it was made and directed. I had never worked that way before so the balance was so good.
“You’re usually really down on work when it hasn’t been a joyous experience to get to what it is you’re doing, but just moment to moment I really loved it, so even though the content was really upsetting, getting to that point was just a gift.”
