Over the past two decades, pop culture has seen more than its fair share of villainous protagonists. By Billy Bob Thornton Bad Santa Claus at Cameron Diaz Bad teacherthe audience was delighted to witness the horrible behavior of these immoral characters towards people who, let’s be honest, often deserve it.
2022 offers us the latest offer in this trend with the new Apple TV+ series Bad sisters, starring some of Ireland’s most talented actors in a darkly comic tale of four sisters trying to protect their emotionally abused brother from her hateful husband. In an interview with Digital Trends, the cast of Anne-Marie Duff (shamewith, Sexual education), Claes Bang (Square, Northerner), Sarah Greene (normal people, Murders in Dublin), and Eva Birthistle (The last kingdom, Behind her eyes) talk about the brilliance of creator and co-star Sharon Horgan’s writing, the challenges of creating a believable family dynamic, and the allure of playing nasty characters.
Digital Trends: What drew you all to acting Bad sisters?
Sarah Greene: Writing by Sharon Horgan. Bad sisters is a departure from what she usually writes. There’s that murder mystery element and working in the thriller genre, which is something I don’t think she’s explored before. I also got the chance to work with an amazing cast of women who I have been a fan of for a long time, and it was a true honor and privilege to play with them every day.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
Anne-Marie Duff: I read the scripts and they were so amazing. We’d be idiots to say no. It was really simple, you know?
Eva Birthistle: I agree, those were Sharon’s scripts. I’d be crazy to say no to any of that. It was a very easy decision to make.
Claes Bang: Yes. When I read Bad sisters for the first time, I thought I had never read or seen anything like it. I think it was special. The whole construct of the piece was just something else.
I agree. From the opening scene with the post-mortem erection, the play simply grabs you.
Duff: [Laughs] Well, if you have that in your show, you will get your audience.
Anne-Marie, we are used to seeing you in the role of strong women like Fiona Gallagher in the original Shameless and Queen Elizabeth I. Grace, your character in Bad sisters, it is the exact opposite of that. She is very vulnerable and fragile. What attracted you to her?
Duff: I always try to do things I’ve never done before, if I can. Grace is such a caged bird, isn’t she? We don’t really know who she is. And so that was very intriguing to me. We meet this person who defines himself according to other people’s opinion of him. And what is it about? How did she end up there? How did she get behind those bars?
I was also fascinated by this story about coercion. Very often we will see abusive relationships that are very physical, but we rarely see that forced relationships that are equally harmful. I was intrigued by how reduced and reduced this person was.
Grace is very quiet and bullied. How do you play translucent? That was my main challenge. She’s still strong, but it’s hidden somewhere in her pocket and she doesn’t know how to find it.
Eva, your character Ursula seems to have it all together, but gradually it is revealed that there is something more going on with her. How do you play a character who has this double life that is slowly revealed to the audience?
Birthistle: I don’t think I’ve played a character like her. When Sharon first came to me with Ursula, I said, “Oh, I really don’t know who she is.” But when I got a few more scripts and talked to Sharon about it, I realized that she is a woman who is really struggling with her life and questioning her past decisions. She’s really vulnerable.
It’s really fun to gradually reveal these things because it keeps the audience engaged. I think as the series progresses, each character and their backstory becomes more complex and layered. And that’s an interesting thing for an actor to be able to play with all those layers.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
Claes, John Paul has to be the most unlikable character you’ve played. And that’s saying something because you played Dracula a few years ago and killed Ethan Hawke Northerner. What is the fascination with you and evil characters?
Bang: Well, I think I share this compulsion with other actors to play villains and villains, because there’s so much to play. In a way, there is more room to maneuver. There is a perverse joy in doing and saying all these horrible things to people. I don’t know why that is. Maybe it’s because I don’t do it and I try not to do it in real life.
But it’s not just about character; that’s the whole thing too, right? The script is so good and the whole narrative is so developed.
Sarah, Bibi is the meanest of all the sisters. What did you like about her, both on the page and as her?
Greene: Well, I was a little afraid of her because she doesn’t have a filter. Her timing when asking people out or telling them how she is can be really inappropriate sometimes. And I found it hard to read at first. I thought she was a bit mean and harsh. But when I started playing her, I found it really refreshing and liberating to play someone like that. She is very different from me.
Sometimes it’s hard to portray a believable family dynamic on screen, but I think you all did a great job of it Bad sisters. How did you manage to establish that family relationship between everyone in the cast?
Duff: Well, we had a little rehearsal time, which is unusual for a series. We got to talk about the scenes and we talked a little bit about the past, you know, trying to create a sense of shared history. We didn’t really focus on that the whole time we were shooting.
The audience has to buy into this marriage because they have to invest in it because the relationship is so damaged that these women have to save their sister at all costs.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
Bang: Both Anne-Marie and I wanted to make sure that there was something inside where you could see what actually drew these people together. That was important for us to determine. We always tried to find little moments of love, so it wasn’t all bad behavior.
Duff: Yeah, we would set up moments like I would find him really funny when he made a joke. The audience could then breathe a sigh of relief for a second.
Birthistle: I think we all have siblings so we know that specific dynamic very intimately. So I think we all relived those dynamics and experiences and transferred that to Sharon’s writing. We talked a lot about how the relationships with each sister are different as well as other family dynamics.
Greene: Not all sisters get along. Some are closer than others. Each sister would speak to each other in a different way. As if Ursula would talk to Bibi in a way that Bibi wouldn’t talk to Eva.
Birthistle: It’s all those little details like the way they speak and the way they look that really tie everything together and make all the sisters, husbands and children feel like they’re in a real family.
Bad sisters the first two episodes now airing on Apple TV+. Each new episode will be shown every Friday.
Editor’s recommendations
Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn