Created by Sharon Horgan, Bad Sisters follows the lives of five women whose bond runs even deeper than their blood relation. After the untimely death of her husband, Grace Williams (Anne-Marie Duff, The Salisbury Poisonings) is left in mourning with her four sisters. However, their disapproval of their late brother-in-law inspires his life insurer to launch an investigation of his passing. Switching between past and present, viewers watch as the secrets of the Garvey sisters come to light.
The cast also includes Sharon Horgan (Catastrophe), Eva Birthistle (The Last Kingdom), Sarah Greene (Dublin Murders), Eve Hewson (Behind her Eyes), and Claes Bang (The Northman).
Screen Rant chats with creator and star, Sharon Horgan, about mixing different genres and the challenges that come with having multiple roles on set.
Screen Rant: Sharon, you are an actor yourself. You’ve worked in production, and you’ve written and created other shows. How did you come up with the idea of Bad Sisters?
Sharon Horgan: Well, it’s based on a Belgian series called Clan. And it was brought to me by the head of Apple UK, who just thought it might be up my street. She knew I was looking for something to do post Catastrophe. I had no idea that I was in the market for a thriller, you know, murder mystery.
I had never written anything like that before, but I watched some of the original series, and I was onboard pretty quickly because it’s so entertaining. I find it really entertaining, but at the same time, I was really absorbed with the sisters and the family dynamic. And I felt there was a really dangerous, abusive relationship at the heart of it, but I wanted to sort of dramatize. It just felt like something I hadn’t done before but also something that could kind of challenge me, I suppose.
Screen Rant: You mentioned the thriller aspect of this, and it’s also considered a dark comedy. How was weaving those two genres together? Was it hard to thread the needle or did it come naturally?
Sharon Horgan: It’s kind of my bread and butter, you know, what I do—dark sort of comedy or comedy that deals with dark subjects more than dark comedy. So it was just an extension of that, really. Although it’s a thriller, and it’s an hour long, it’s not that I haven’t sort of worked in that sort of genre before. But yeah, it’s a tricky thing, you know, you’ve got to keep a beady eye on it all the time in case it becomes too silly or heightened or becomes too dark and brutal.
I mean, it can do that, but you need to balance it, because I knew an audience didn’t want to watch ten hours of misery. But equally, they don’t want to watch ten hours of just buffoonery because there’s a serious subject-matter at the heart of it. I’ve had plenty of practice, but even so it was a tricky thing. But I had lots of people around me to help manage that, as well.
Screen Rant: As both an executive producer and one of the lead actors, are there any challenges that come with having to embody a character and get in their head but also remaining aware of how things are coming across on screen? Maybe what changes need to be made after a take?
Sharon Horgan: Oh, yeah. I mean, it’s really difficult. You’re wearing lots of hats, but you try and not wear them at the same time. Because otherwise, it takes you out of the scene when you’re an actor. I try and think about everything right up until the moment they say “action,” and then I try to only think about my character and what my character is doing.
But at the same time, when you’re the writer, you’re constantly called upon to write and rewrite all the time. And I’m kind of used to that from other shows so it wasn’t a surprise. It’s just, I think, on a job like this, which is ten hours—it’s quite relentless, quite full on. And then when you have to sort of step aside and rewrite a scene when all you want to be doing is, like, putting your feet up and having a laugh with the girls, then it kind of gets a bit tricky.
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 Eva Birthistle & Sarah Greene.
The first two episodes of Bad Sisters are available to stream on Apple TV+, with new episodes releasing every Friday.
