Bad Sisters

Bad Sisters: Sharon Horgan, Sarah Greene, and Eva Birthistle Talk Sisterly Chemistry

Dept. of Chats and Confabs

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Bad Sisters, the brand new black comedy on Apple TV Plus, follows the lives of the five Garvey sisters who, bound together by the premature death of their parents, promise to always protect one another. Over the years, one of the sisters, Grace (Anne-Marie Duff), has drifted away from the group, her personality slowly fading as a consequence of being married to the crushingly abusive John Paul (Claes Bang). Tired of watching their sister disappear into herself, the other four decide that the only way to save Grace is by killing John Paul.

In this Goggler exclusive, we speak to the cast and the creator of Bad Sisters, Sarah Greene, Eva Birthistle, and Sharon Horgan about how they found their incredible sisterly chemistry.

Umapagan Ampikaipakan: First of all, I absolutely love this show. Secondly, there aren’t enough one-eyed women on television. I wanted to talk to you guys about your chemistry on the show. Because it felt so natural. And there was one moment, in the first episode, and it was when Sarah’s character screams out to Eve’s, “Bring me back my fucking scarf!” And it was in that moment that I felt that these feel like real sisters. Can you talk to me about how you developed that chemistry? Was it all on the page? Did you have to workshop it? 

Sarah Greene: Well, it was pretty much all on the page. Sharon is an incredible writer. But we did get to work together, rehearsing with Dearbhla Walsh, our first director, for a week and a half, two weeks, maybe. We got to just hang out together in a hotel room and get to know each other. Some of us knew each other already. Some didn’t. And we just kind of got to talk through scenes, and our relationships, and where we all come in the family, the background of who was the first to leave the home and how that would impact their relationships. We talked about whether there was jealousy between the two babies of the family. Small things like that which end up becoming lovely little layers to each character and therefore how we interact with each other. So yeah, baby Becca and Bibi enjoy taking the piss out of each other.

Bad Sisters

Eva Birthistle: But I think you’re also very canny in how you pick your actors. Knowing what dynamics will work and who’s bringing what to the character. And I think you put a huge amount of thought into who should play what role and how they’re going to get on with the next person. I think you’re very clever in how you bring those different personalities together because you get it right. We do all get on like a house on fire. It was a very easy thing for us to kind of slot in and play sisters. It was a kind of chemistry that was there from the get go. 

Sharon Horgan: Obviously the writing is very important, but the next thing is absolutely the casting. I could sort of see the sisters in my head. But you’re constantly writing as you go as well. And they brought so much extra to it that you ended up rewriting their interpretation of the character. Like Ursula ended up being much funnier on screen than I think she was on the page. Especially when we sort of worked out the underlying panic that she has. 

And Sarah did such a deadpan Bibi, but gave her heart as well. And the heart thing wasn’t there as much in the first draft. And it was the same with Eve and the same with Anne-Marie. All the actors help develop the characters. So whatever is on the page is just enhanced and made better really.

Bad Sisters is now streaming on Apple TV Plus.

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