Earlier last month, Lady Geeks’ Gissane Sophia sat down with Bad Sisters stars Anne-Marie Duff and Eva Birthistle, who play Grace and Ursula Garvey, respectively, to talk about their arcs in Season 2. With the series still going, the only spoilers we discuss are up until episode three, to break down how the characters feel during these challenging times and what the actors hope the audience takes away from the story.
Lady Geeks Media: I want to preface this by saying I’ve seen all episodes, but I specifically want to talk about the first three. Of those first three, how did you prepare? Did you know what was coming? [With Grace.] And for both of you, did you do anything specific to get into these characters’ [really] heavy and heartbreaking headspaces?
Eva Birthistle: Because this is [Bad Sisters] Season 2, slotting back into it wasn’t really a challenge since it wasn’t like the preparations required the first time around. You know the characters so well; you know the world so well. It’s like a well-oiled machine, and it’s a family, and you’re going back in just really looking forward to it and excited. [Smiles] I can’t remember how many scripts we got at the beginning, but you never get all the pages, so we’re never quite sure what the full storyline’s going to be. But Sharon [Horgan] would’ve told us the main arc.
Anne-Marie Duff: The landmarks, yeah. Definitely.
Eva Birthistle: Exactly. And we [to Anne-Marie Duff], you knew well in advance what was happening with Grace’s storyline. So, we all went in knowing that much. There are big, shocking revelations and incidents that happen that I think the audience is going to be really surprised at. Shocked but surprised.
Lady Geeks Media: Oh, absolutely. It was shocking for me. So, going off of that, Anne-Marie, for you: in Season 1, your character journey was an inspiration for so many women because they related and went through a lot of what Grace does. What are you hoping that these very same viewers or others take away from Grace’s arc in Season 2?
Anne-Marie Duff: Well, I suppose if there’s one thing that you would hope, without sounding arrogant because it sounds arrogant to say ‘what I would wish for,’ is that, this notion of looking at repeat offending. As a storyteller, you want someone to look and say they don’t want to make the same mistake again. And sometimes, you have to tell an extreme story like Grace’s to have someone maybe see that message. It’s a tricky one, isn’t it? You can’t feel too responsible, but at the same time, you would hope that you’re being respectful.
Lady Geeks Media: For sure. For sure. And [Eva], in the third episode, you have this line where Ursula says, “I feel so useless right now.” And that was such a gut punch because you have five sisters, everyone has a role, but there is that point where everyone’s going to go through and feel like they’re not useful essentially. How do you feel that reflects her character journey (everything she’s gone through in the first season and this season)?
Eva Birthistle: Well, unbeknownst to the sisters, she has this fear that she’s partly responsible for Grace’s car crash. [Because of the meds.] So she feels like if she can rectify that — to change anything — she’d love to have that opportunity. But it’s also like that thing, and it’s so interesting you said that because we’ve all been in situations at some stage in our life where we have felt that whatever’s happening is beyond our control, and it’s affecting people we love. So not being able to protect them, to do something, to change that course, or to make it better, is really awful. It’s an awful feeling. [Pauses] Because when you love somebody so much, you want to take care of them. So, I think that’s what resonates with lines like that and the course of this story.
[Turns to Anne-Marie Duff], which, like you said, it [Bad Sisters Season 2] gets to extreme levels, but to an audience, the stuff that’s relatable is the day-to-day life stuff, which is that relationships are complicated, there are challenges. It’s when we feel like if we could just change something, we could change the situation.
The first three episodes of Bad Sisters Season 3 are now playing on Apple TV+.