Sharon Horgan on the messy family dynamics of her dark comedy ‘Bad Sisters’

Sharon Horgan on the messy family dynamics of her dark comedy ‘Bad Sisters’
Apple TV+

In the new Apple TV+ dark comedy series Bad Sisters, Sharon Horgan leads an ensemble cast centered on the Garveys – an Irish family with five sisters. When their sister Grace marries a guy who is emotionally abusive and manipulative, they hatch a plan to have him murdered.

Horgan stars as Eva, the eldest of the five Garvey sisters. She tells ABC Audio that getting the audience to root for their crime was a tricky needle to thread, but that it started with the characterization of the sisters themselves.

“You have to love them,” Horgan says. “You have to understand all the messiness within the relationship, as well – and why they need to save Grace. Because, if you’re gonna watch them try and kill a man over 10 episodes, you need to want them to do it, and to really be behind them and understand it.”

While the family dynamics in her real life are a bit different to those on the show, Horgan says she knows what it’s like to have a large family and brought that experience to her character. Having four siblings is “fun – if you all like each other,” she says.

“It’s sort of an instant party wherever you go. There’s a closeness and a camaraderie that you can’t really replicate. Especially with sisters, there’s an intimacy. You can be awful to each other but there’s extreme affection and you know each other so well,” Horgan says.

That affection bleeds over to all of her brothers and sisters’ spouses, who Horgan says she feels lucky to love as well, especially because she knows others who “aren’t quite so lucky.”

New episodes of Bad Sisters drop Fridays on Apple TV+.

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