Kaos creator reveals conversations with Billie Piper about "tormented" character
The Doctor Who star plays a mysterious character in Netflix's new series.
Chaos reigns in Netflix's new star-studded series Kaos, which boasts an incredible cast across the board, from Jeff Goldblum and Janet McTeer leading the charge, to a supporting cast including Billie Piper and Suzy Eddie Izzard.
Doctor Who star Piper has one of the most mysterious roles in the series – a woman named Cassandra, who initially appears to be talking nonsense, but soon starts to make a lot of sense when she connects with Riddy (Aurora Perrineau).
Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, Kaos creator Charlie Covell revealed some of the initial conversations they had with Piper to build the intriguing character.
They explained: "The thing that Georgi (Banks-Davies, director) and I were talking about with Billie was that Cassandra is telling the truth, but everybody else thinks she's mad. And so in episode 1, the audience meet her, and she does seem to us like she's not quite of sound mind – and by [episode] 8, you realise she's a truth teller.
"So the audience goes on that journey, kind of with Riddy, I suppose. And the idea for Cassandra was that it's tragic – she speaks truth, and no one believes her, and that's the most awful torment to be in.
"She's a prophet and has the gift of foresight, but no one believes her, until Riddy and her have this connection. So we went in through that pain of not being believed."
Perrineau, who plays Riddy, a version of the mythical character of Eurydice, shared plenty of scenes with Billie as Cassandra, adding to RadioTimes.com: "Right away, Billie was in it and that's why Billie is amazing."
Covell also revealed Goldblum's early approach to playing a cruel and calculating version of Zeus, adding: "The way I personally went into Zeus was like: 'What if the king of the gods had a midlife crisis? What would that look like?'
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"So it was his paranoia which was, for me, the way in. I think that's what I first spoke to Jeff about. He's just an amazing collaborator and he wanted to go through the scripts forensically, and then he would offer up little ideas he had, and then on set he'd do amazing improvisation as well. So it was just real joy."
Kaos is a darkly funny modern re-telling of Greek mythology, with Covell revealing they wanted it to be accessible to everyone.
"I think the joy about the myths is that they are eternally relevant. I think you can press pause at any point in human history, and they will be relevant because they're timeless themes about love, death, power, abuse of power, dysfunctional families,' Covell explained.
"They're always relevant. And that's why people always come back to them."
Kaos is available to stream on Netflix now. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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Authors
Louise Griffin is the Sci-Fi & Fantasy Editor for Radio Times, covering everything from Doctor Who, Star Wars and Marvel to House of the Dragon and Good Omens. She previously worked at Metro as a Senior Entertainment Reporter and has a degree in English Literature.
