Now available to stream on Apple TV+, Bad Sisters is a thriller and dark comedy series that begins with the Garveys mourning the death of their brother-in-law, John Paul Williams (Claes Bang, The Northman). However, a series of flashbacks reveal that JP’s relationship with his wife was toxic, unhealthy, and unrelenting. Since the Garvey sisters had long-since promised to protect each other no matter what, the women become targets in an investigation of his passing.
The series stars creator Sharon Horgan (Catastrophe), Anne-Marie Duff (The Salisbury Poisonings), Eva Birthistle (The Last Kingdom), Sarah Greene (Dublin Murders), and Eve Hewson (Behind her Eyes).
Actors Eva Birthistle and Sarah Greene chat with Screen Rant about filming the show in Ireland and cultivating the bond between the Garvey sisters.
Screen Rant: What intrigued each of you about your character in Bad Sisters? What made you want to get involved with the series?
Sarah Greene: The eyepatch [laughs]. I really wanted to wear an eyepatch and feel like—no, I’m joking. It wasn’t the only reason. Bibi is a much braver character than I am. I wish I was as honest and direct as she is. Yeah, it was a bit of a challenge, I think. I had been playing a lot of kind of warm or mommy roles in the past few years. And so to take on this was a bit of a stretch for me, I think. Yeah. And then to work with the girls. Me and Eva actually worked together years ago. I got to slap her across the face.
Eva Birthistle: Oh, you did. I was a nun when you slapped me across the face.
Sarah Greene: I’m a huge fan of all the girls and of Sharon and her writing. It’s an honor to have been cast.
Eva Birthistle: Sharon’s very difficult to say no to. Not that you’d want to say no to her. When she sort of comes calling, and she has a brilliant script, which is the first episode when she first approached me, it’s a bit of a no-brainer, really. She’s so immensely talented and always casts so well that you know you’ll be in really, really good company as well. There wasn’t much of a conversation. I was like, “Yup! I’m on board. That sounds really awesome.”
Screen Rant: The setting for the show is beautiful. I mean, you actually filmed in Ireland. What was that like?
Eva Birthistle: It was going back home for most of us, in fact, which is always lovely to go back home and work in Ireland. I live in London now, but to go back and spend such a chunk of time there and also to show Dublin off in the way that the show captures it was really special and lovely, because I don’t recall ever really seeing the Forty Foot onscreen before. And it’s a real iconic place in Dublin, you know?
Sarah Greene: In fact, we weren’t allowed to block off the Forty Foot. So, we had regular punters and the general public coming and going as we were shooting. I don’t think it’s ever been used like that before. It makes you really proud when you see how beautiful Ireland looks. I think that there’s going to be lots of tourists who want to come and see it.
Screen Rant: When you have a show like this that is switching between the past and the present, does that pose any challenge to keeping up with your character’s arc and where their headspace is at?
Sarah Greene: Yes. Luckily, we had Sharon with us because it was all there in her head. But yeah, it was confusing.
Eva Birthistle: And our script supervisors were great. Like, “You don’t know this information yet.”
Sarah Greene: Yeah. “Don’t play that.”
Eva Birthistle: Exactly. Yeah. Constantly having to go back and check where you are in the story because, yeah, it is really confusing.
Screen Rant: The show focuses on this relationship between the sisters, so what was it like cultivating that with the cast? From the scenes I’ve watched, you definitely have that family vibe there. How did you achieve that?
Sarah Greene: We rehearsed for two weeks beforehand and got to hang out in a hotel and really just get to know each other. Like, pick Sharon’s brain about history and their backgrounds and what it was like for them growing up. So stuff that you don’t necessarily see on the page or on the screen, but really informed the different dynamics and relationships of each of the sisters.
Eva’s character Ursula would be the first person to leave home and so how that affected how close she would have been to Becca or BiBi, who would have been quite young at the time, but it was really easy. We all just really got along. Yeah, didn’t take much work.
Eva Birthistle: We formed a WhatsApp group, I think in day one of rehearsals, we had our WhatsApp group going. You know, we’re in constant contact and on the way home we’ll just be texting and chatting and so the rapport was built up very quickly and very easily which was really nice.
Bad Sisters Synopsis
A delicious blend of both dark comedy and thriller, Bad Sisters follows the lives of the Garvey sisters, who are bound together by the premature death of their parents and a promise to always protect one another.
Check out our other interview with Bad Sisters stars Claes Bang & Anne-Marie Duff as well as star and creator Sharon Horgan.
The first two episodes of Bad Sisters are available to stream on Apple TV+, with new episodes releasing every Friday.
