Billie Piper (Rose Tyler) has always been very open about her reasons for not wanting to return to Doctor Who on a full-time basis, but now she’s opening up about why she left the series in the first place, back when both she and the show were at the peak of their popularity.
Piper brought Rose to life for two seasons of Doctor Who, playing against two different Doctors (Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant). Speaking on the BBC radio show Desert Island Discs, she said she chose to leave because she “didn’t like the responsibility of being a role model.”
When Doctor Who returned to the airwaves in 2005, no one knew if it would be successful. It ended up being more popular than anyone could have foreseen, and the attention made Piper uncomfortable even though she was used to the spotlight thanks to her time as a pop singer. By that point, she already had an opinion about fame and how she wanted to live her life.
Billie Piper was uncomfortable with the “mainstream fame” that came with Doctor Who
Things had settled down for Piper when she signed on for Doctor Who, but when the show took off she started to have second thoughts. “It made me really famous again in that sort of mainstream fame way that I find really uncomfortable.”
There was also the challenge of being typecast. “I was doing what I felt I was born to do on some level. It was a very exciting and satisfying time because it was hard to get an acting job with my history as first, a pop star, and then this sort of burnt-out child star which is how I think I was painted – certainly through the years I was with Chris .”
Not only were people making assumptions about who she was, she also had to live up to being a role model for young people and that wasn’t something she felt comfortable with.
Leaving the show allowed Piper to pursue other opportunities, for which she is grateful. She left Doctor Who behind at the height of Rose’s popularity and Rose remains one of the most beloved companions of all time, cementing Piper’s legacy in the Doctor Who universe.
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h/t Bleeding Cool