Despite the fact that the Apple TV + series “Bad Sisters” follows four Garvey sisters as they spend nearly ten episodes trying to kill a (somewhat) innocent man, Eva, Bibi, Ursula, and Becka have captured viewers’ imaginations. Despite debuting without much fanfare, the Ireland-based Belgian limited series “Clan” has become a bit of a sleepy success, amassing a growing number of fans cheering the Garvey Girls as the show nears its inevitable end.
Hours after the final episode hit Apple on Friday (October 14), diverse I spoke to writer, executive producer, and star Sharon Horgan (“Disaster,” “Motherland”), who plays mother Eva, to discuss the reaction to the show, such as the casting of Claes Pang as the villain of John Paul (Japan) and whether the Garvey sisters might return to the screen. small.
How was the reaction to the series and the conclusion?
I haven’t been able to delve into it as much as I’d like to get online, but I’m very happy. I mean, people seem to be very involved, and they seem to have actually joined in. There are so many great TV shows out there and you never know what will capture people’s imaginations the way you wish it were. You spend all that long time making something – like two and a half years – and you’re kind of a bit reclusive. So when you put it in the world, you’re keeping your fingers crossed. Oh my God, it was amazing. I mean, I’ve been in New York and Los Angeles for the past seven days and the response has been saucy.
How did you get to know the Belgian series for the first time and decided to modify it?
I had no idea this was what I wanted to do. It was post-“disaster” and I was shooting some movies and taking my time figuring out what I wanted to write next. and then [Apple TV+ Europe boss] Jay Hunt moved from Channel 4 to Apple. She was my boss when we were doing “disaster” there, she took me to lunch and said, “What do you want to do?” I was mentioning a few things I had and went, “Oh how about this — it’s an adaptation of a Belgian series.” I can’t tell you how young I was in the market for mods for Belgian series. And it certainly wasn’t an hour-long thriller, it was completely outside my comfort zone. She said, “Just watch it.” And I honestly God I watched the first episode, and I kind of knew I was going to do it. Once I realized I had something to say with the adaptation, and that I could do it my way, I was on board. It’s a good idea to do things that take yourself out of your comfort zone. I’ve been in a real half hour comic groove and love what I do, but writing about relationships, writing about parenting, writing about family, and I mean, that’s kind of all of it, but it wraps up in genre, and I learned a lot from it. And also to have something this big, by [Horgan’s production company] Merman, getting a production like this was a huge opportunity and God we enjoyed it.
Many items of “Bad Sisters” are very faithful to the original, even to some of the Garvey sisters’ names, but there are also some substantial changes, such as JP nearly drowning after being drugged rather than being hanged in his garage. How did you choose which items to keep and which ones to change?
My opinion of adapting anything never changes anything for it, only change it if you have a way to make it better or you have a certain way about it. So I stuck to whatever I liked, but at the same time, I wanted it to be completely different. The original is trying to kill every episode. There are a large number of corpses and there are all kinds of Chinese mafia and killers. I wanted to find truth in each of those situations, and then the attempted murders I kept I just wanted to go our way. So anything that was really cool and fun, even specific lines you kept here and there, anything that was great, why would you change it for it? I feel the most important thing in embracing something is to have a new perspective and take a fresh look at it. And if you have it, it’s definitely worth doing. If you feel you can add something to it and improve it, I think, in some way.
L.R. Anne Marie Duff as Grace, Saise Ní Chuinn as Blanaid, Sharon Horgan as Eva, Eva Birthistle as Ursula,
Sarah Greene as Baby and Eve Hewson as Becca in “Bad Sisters” (Courtesy Apple TV+)
+ Apple TV
There are a lot of characters, especially the five sisters at the center of the story. Was it difficult to give each of them a space to connect with the audience and tell their story?
It was really difficult. In fact, we ended up clipping a lot of what we filmed. At the script stage, she fell in love with all the sisters and each of them had their own personal situations. In the scripting stage, we spent a lot of time in their local situations. But when it comes down to it, you write something that has such a driving force in it, which is the cat and mouse of the Clavin family who are trying to figure out the evil play and then try to kill themselves. You often find that you don’t want to set out in a more local, character-based shadow. So we cut a lot in the script stage and we cut a lot in the editing stage, which I think is par for the course. You find your story in the edit a lot.
Was it difficult to keep the audience rooting for the sisters while trying to kill JP, especially given the collateral damage to Mina, the paintball coach and of course, poor dog Oscar?
Yes she was. I mean, the main thing that kept the audience on his side is his villain’s hatefulness and I think he can be watched as much as he is, and sometimes as funny as his performance is, he’s a vile guy. And over the course of every episode, especially when you have the episodes that focus on each of the sisters’ personal reason for wanting to kill them, once that started piling up, I guess, I wasn’t worried about the audience. Stay on board. I knew the stories would get more complex and more would be revealed as they went on. So I knew that if we were right, the audience would continue to do so. The more time you spend with the sisters, even the filth or transformation, it all makes them bond, the more human, so you’re more on the side. And of course, putting Grace to the center of it, just seeing her character get stripped down more and more, I feel like we’ve kept the audience on board.
Sure – JP was such a toxic masculinity incarnate. Speaking of which, how did Claes Bang end up in the role – was that an obvious choice for you?
not at all. she was [casting director] Idea by Nina Gould. I was a fan of it, but that never crossed my mind. And in fact, as soon as we dumped him I was like, ‘This is going to give us a lot because he’s not an Irish guy, because he’s weird. That added to the character and heightened his kind of anger in a way that he would never feel like he was part of that family or even part of Ireland. I’m so grateful to her because even though he was someone I kind of admired, I wouldn’t have put him in the role.
It’s obviously a limited series, with a very definite ending, but people are really asking to see more of the Garvey sisters. Is there a possibility to return them?
Well, it’s really weird, because it ended right where it did. The original series was a limited series and I handled it just that way and the ending felt satisfying. But the response was madness, especially towards the sisters, especially to that family. It’s hard to come up with characters that the audience likes and so – I don’t know. If you come up with a great idea, if you think of something you thought was worth it, maybe.
And finally, this last scene where the sisters jump to the forty-foot [a bathing pool at the edge of the Irish Sea]. It’s a beautiful sight but how cold is it?
Oh, it was the Baltic Sea region. She was divorced on the Baltic Sea. I mean, we all have varying levels of hypothermia. There are men, old men and young men jumping in and out and going about their day, and we sit here shivering under foil towels and receiving hot water bottles. Our bodies were not used to this. I was really nervous, not even for me as much as I was, what if something happened to one of the cast members? We’ve done some cold water swimming before, but not enough to read your body. But it was worth it, right? Since it’s so cool to see and put Forty Foot on display, I feel like it was something I hadn’t seen before. He really added something.
[ad_2]
