Sharon Horgan: Okay, so this starts now.

Eve Hewson: Thank you for doing this.

Have you done this before, where instead of being interviewed by an interviewer, you’ve done it with someone you've collaborated with?

I did it with Jamie Dornan and we just talked so much shit. I don't think they could use any of it.

I've done it a couple of times, but it definitely brings out something different doesn't it? When you're just chatting away to someone. I'm very similar to Jamie Dornan in so many ways. Especially in my interviewing.

In so many ways.

So the last time I saw you, we were lying on my bed in the house in LA drinking tequila and talking about boys.

We had just gotten our spray tans.

I'm so addicted to getting the spray tans in LA. I was just over there for four days and I got through customs really quickly. I was so psyched that I just went, oh, I'm just going to get a spray tan on the way from the airport.

You're an addict. I haven't had a spray tan since.

Oh, we're going to go back. We're going to find a way for when we're doing our 'Bad Sisters' tour. We'll all go for spray tans.

Everybody has to come. We'll all get spray tans and then

I don't think there's anything in the world I'd rather see than ['Bad Sisters' director] Dearbhla Walsh get a spray tan.

I want to be in the room when she gets it done, when they go ‘and now bend over. Just bend your knees.’

Where are you in the world now?

I'm in London. I'm in my sister's apartment. I'm shooting my Formula One pilot [upcoming TV F1-themed comedy 'Downforce'].

How's it going?

It's going good. It's going to be really funny. They're getting to know me. They just texted me today being like, ‘Hey, can you hop on a Zoom? We want to do a rehearsal before tomorrow’. I was like, ‘Whew. I mean, that's pretty late’. And they're like, ‘oh, so sorry. You don't want to disrupt your 14 hours of sleep’. And I was like, that's right. Now you guys are getting to know me.

You love sleep.

I do. I'm in bed right now.

I know. It's lovely. Here's an acting question. What makes you choose a project? I know where the F1 project came from, because you're kind of obsessed with it anyway, and that's one of your unexpected areas of interest…but what makes you make the choices you make? What draws you to a project?

I don't think it's strategic. It’s when you read a script and you completely get it and you know exactly what it is and for whatever reason, you just connect to it. Or you see it in a way that you feel no one else will see it. It's got to be you. Or – you don't get it at all, and you're like, oh, that might be really challenging. I might have to work really hard at figuring that out. Maybe I'll grow. But I always feel it’s a taste bud sort of thing.

What was the last project you took on that gave you that instinctive connection, and what was the last one where you thought, ‘this could be really challenging’?

I think the F1 project is actually quite challenging, but maybe I'm saying that because we're just starting. It’s because it's very broad, American comedy and it's Alec Berg who's really a genius. He did 'Barry' and 'Silicon Valley' and 'Curb Your Enthusiasm'. He's this comedy legend, but it's different to 'Bad Sisters', you know what I mean? It's not that Irish humour. It's more gags and proper jokes. That's definitely been challenging. That's a new kind of muscle.

It's a different muscle, for sure.

There are a lot of really, really funny silly gags that make me giggle when I read them. But holy shit, it's hard to land [the jokes], because it's got to be the right timing.

It’s a timing thing, isn't it?

Totally. It's really technical. Very technical. I think this one is probably the most challenging role. The last instinctive choice was 'Bad Sisters'. When I read Becca, I was like, ‘I know that bitch. That bitch be me.’

Back in the day.

Yeah, not now. I'm just an angel nowadays.

What was your first acting role?

My first professional acting role professionally was when I was 15. I did a movie where I played an Irish hitchhiker.

And how did you get involved in [period medical drama] 'The Knick'? I was obsessed with that show at the time. It just seemed to come out of the blue and was nothing I'd seen before. I felt it was extraordinary. I loved it.

I loved it too. I auditioned, and I remember thinking, God, my audition is shit, but the lighting is really good. ['The Knick' director] Steven Soderberg is great with lighting, so maybe he'll like it. I just kept thinking, this is crap, this is crap, this is crap.

Why did you think it was crap?

I don’t know. I was feeling really insecure. I had just graduated college, and I had moved out to LA and I'd been auditioning for everything under the sun. I hadn't gotten anything. Also, being out in LA and being lonely and just going from audition to audition and just constantly comparing yourself to the people that are actually getting the parts and getting the callbacks…I was in a bad headspace. So I was just convinced that it was just the gorgeous lighting that got me the callback.

Then I started working with him, and was completely terrified, but it was the best because he's the nicest man and his whole team and his whole crew were very nurturing. I was the youngest person in the cast, so everybody kind of took care of me. It was very cute. When I was scared to do a scene, all the older actors would be like, you've got this. And they'd call me and be like, ‘let’s talk it through’. I was 22 and it was good to have two seasons of that with the same crew, because I learned to get comfortable with them and build up my confidence.

I think it’s great for young actors if you can get a TV role on something. I remember my manager saying, ‘we’ve got to find a limited TV series for you’. It’s different to a movie set [in a small role], where you only do five or six days and you walk in, you're young, scared and new and barely get to know people's names before you're wrapped. This show meant I got comfortable with Steven as he was the camera operator, he's the DP. He held the camera, everything. He’s sort of editing as he goes as well. He films it all himself, so you're super close to each other. You build trust with him and then he edits it all and he involves you in the process of it. Just being around all these people every day was so helpful. Then I got more confident, and when we came back to do season two, they'd written my character to be this complete psychopath. And I was like, ‘yeah, now they know me’. It was funny.

Acting is a mad job for that reason. You suddenly become part of a family, and if you're in the right company of people, everyone looks after each other. So when you finish a job, there's a weird mourning period that goes with that. And then if you're going from job to job and you're not really fully grounded in it, it can start feeling really scary. Every job, you feel like a newbie, you can't really relax or be yourself. You drop in and then drop out again. I think that's one of the hardest things about being a jobbing actor.

It's first day of school syndrome. It's like you're reliving your first day at school. I've had to talk to my therapist about this. Why do I find first days on sets so hard? And she was like, ‘well, let's go back to your first day of school’. And I was like, ‘oh, I didn't have one. I wasn't at my first day of school’. And she was like, ‘Well, there you go’. I don't know why, but for whatever reason, I came in two weeks later, so all the other kids had two weeks under their belt and they all knew each other and they were just much more comfortable.

I felt really scared and intimidated. I've learned now I'm reliving that a little bit every time I have my first day on set. I always have a wobble in my head.

That’s funny. I had exactly the same from my first day at college. I got in late because I was on a waiting list, but I remember it really messing me up that everyone else there had already formed their little groups and allegiances. I think for that reason, I never really settled into it. I'll talk to my therapist about it.

Do you think acting is something you always wanted to do, or was it music first?

I thought I was going to do music. I really wanted to be a punk rock superstar.

That's so funny. Me too. I bought a bass guitar.

But weren't you actually in a band?

Oh no, I didn't do any singing. This is hilarious. I was one of two ex-convent school girls who were backing dancers.

Amazing.

There was no singing. It was just looking punky. And then, I mean punk, can you imagine? Punky backing dancers is an oxymoron. But anyway, so you thought you were going to be a musician?

Well, I'm a sensational dancer too and now the world knows that thanks to the opening credit sequence of The Perfect Couple. So yeah, I thought I was going to be some sort of Irish Jennifer Lopez. I was going to be singing, dancing and acting.

Yeah, that does track…

But I was terrible at doing my scales on the piano, and practicing, all of those things. And then I did plays with all our friends. We did a drama club and we would put on plays, but I didn't really take it seriously because it was really just us hanging out with our drama teacher and eating sweets and just having fun. It wasn't until I did a movie when I was 15, The 27 Club, that I realised I loved the filmmaking of it. I loved it. I was in Wilmington, North Carolina for two weeks without my parents. [Film director] Erica Dunton’s mom was my chaperone, and I just completely became obsessed with acting. That kick started it, and then I started taking classes, and going to summer courses, and that's when I applied to NYU.

I love that. I love that self-starter thing. It makes my heart feel good when I think about all of us as youngsters making those choices, but also being kind of brave. I guess in your household, you would have been encouraged more into music? [Was there an assumption] that you're all going to be relatively musical? I mean your brother is a musician and your Dad [U2’s Bono].

I was just convinced that I was going to be a superstar. But my dad was always like, ‘well, don't be an actor. Because if you're an actor, you're always going to be alone. If you're in a band, you're going to have your mates with you and that'll be better.’

That’s such an interesting thing to say, as a reason to not do it [acting]. I mean, he's kind of right. We do spend a lot of time on our own.

I didn’t even really notice until my dad came to stay with me and he was like, ‘you spend all your time on your own.’

With your cat.

Luna is here. I guess I'm always in some weird hotel or some weird place, that I've just gotten so used to it now.

But do you think it's like an introvert/extrovert thing?

Totally. I'm a huge introvert.

It's funny, isn't it? I’ve kind of realised that myself. I never thought that I was an introvert, because I like being around people. Then I figured out recently that an extrovert is someone who gets their energy from other people, and an introvert is someone who doesn't need that to energise yourself.

You and I are very similar. We need our time on our own to self-soothe and recharge, whereas some people desperately need to be around people. I heard someone explain that being an introvert like this…imagine yourself as a phone battery. The longer you're away from the house, out and about with other people, the longer you're away from just yourself, your battery starts to go down. So you need to go back into your own space to charge your batteries again.

That is an exceptional way of looking at it. That is so fucking spot on.

I find this even on set around so many people all the time. It's loads of high energy and with us, obviously we have the time of our lives and we're always giggling and stuff, but I always feel like at night I have to go home and have a bath and just be quiet just to feel like I have a little bit of my own time to myself.

I was out last night. I was with the most lovely, fascinating, charismatic people, but I could feel it happening. I could feel my battery and it wasn't just a tiredness thing, it was just like, ‘I'm going to hit a wall in terms of what I can bring, how much I can give you. I'm going to get on a Lime Bike [London public bikes] and go’.

I feel the exact same way. I literally feel my brain start to drain and I'm like, ‘I can't’. And it's not that these people aren't interesting.

It’s the opposite.

I just need some time to think through my thoughts by myself.

I think it's more [draining] when they are really interesting, because you want to be that interesting for them and with them. And you're hanging on their words, and it's exhausting. Here’s a question. You are really having a purple patch. It's been busy for a while, but it's crazy now, isn't it? You're the busiest lady I know.

Definitely not busier than you. You're my busy inspiration.

Me and you get on the WhatsApp group and you tell us the most amazing tales and stories of what you're about to do, and what's coming up, what you've just finished. And a lot of them areso high profile. I was in LA and your poster is fucking everywhere. But – unless I'm not reading the right magazines and papers – I feel like people don't really know about you in a private way, and about your personal life. It's something you've gone out of your way to hold onto, because I guess when you come from a high profile family, it's like the lights are on you. Yet [the press] don't know too much about you, and that's something you had to figure out and work on.

I would say it's just by complete accident. I'm always posting the stupidest, most inappropriate things on my Instagram.

I feel like Instagram is kind of different. I feel like you are the author of that. So in actual fact, it's letting people know exactly what you want them to know. I kind of feel like outside of Instagram, some actors are very public facing and you kind of know a lot about them. And some you just don’t.

I don't know why that is. Maybe it's because I'm just always asleep. I don't go out of the house much. It's just to do with my adrenals really.

How was it being in a show that was so huge? Not Bad Sisters.

That was pretty huge.

The Perfect Couple. I dunno what the stats are, I did read them and then I forgot them. But it's nutty how many people have watched it. It was such a mega, mega hit.

I know. It's so cool. I haven't noticed really that much of a difference, but people are telling me there's a difference. People have said to me, ‘isn't this so exciting? This is everything you've worked for and this is an exciting time’. And I'm like, really? I haven't noticed. I don't know why that is.

That's really interesting, isn't it? I remember Rob Delaney and I, with [TV comedy] Catastrophe, never really had an opportunity to take it in or celebrate that it had been a success or broken through in any way. We were always having to move, we're always just having to do the work and then move on to the next thing.

Also, you can't have really that much perspective.
You can't step outside of your life and look at it from the outside. I don't really know what the difference is yet. The only difference is that everybody loves that dance [from The Perfect Couple].
It's on TikTok and Meghan Trainor DMed me, which was pretty cool. [Then the] hot men start following on Instagram.
That's when you're like, ‘yes, I'm so glad I was on this hit show.’

There's an element of living vicariously through you, I think certainly on our WhatsApp group.

Yeah, definitely. I'm always texting you about the things that I am about to get up to but then never do.

Are you looking forward to doing the Bad Sisters press?

I sure am.

I'm looking forward to doing it with all of you guys, but how do you feel about press in general? For some people, it's their least favourite part of the job. How do you feel about it?

What I get really uncomfortable with – to be totally honest – is the amount of pictures that are coming at you, that are of you.

Yes.

It's also the knowledge that these photos are going to be online forever. When you're up for a job or a part that you want, people Google you and they'll see those images. So it becomes something way more significant than just getting ready to go to a fun night out. It becomes this professional x-ray of what you looked like on this one night. It feels so permanent. That’s what’s scary.

It takes a lot of the fun out of just deciding you're going to try something new, like ‘Oh, I'm just going to perm my hair, or I'm going to wear this colour, even if I dunno if it'll suit me.’ Everything you choose has to be safe. You can't take crazy risks, because then someone’s gonna tell you that you're the worst dressed person.

I know. And then you get judged and you're on lists, comparing you to this person or that person, or the makeup wasn't right. But seeing you and all the girls, it's going to be the best version of that. I know we're all going to get ready together and have fun.

Spa!

We're going to have a little spa. It's going to be really good.

I'm going to ask you another Bad Sisters question. What was your process when you were approaching the role of Becca? What influenced it and has it changed over the two seasons? And also, part two of that question…have your own sibling relationships informed your character and how you play that part within a family dynamic? Did you draw on that at all, or is it just good backdrop?
I know for me, Bad Sisters was about the feeling I get when I'm around my family. That's what I wanted to bring to the show. That's what makes my heart the gladdest, when we're all sitting around a table together as [Bad Sisters family] the Garveys, being raucous and being the party. That’s how I feel when I'm with my family.

I feel that so much in your writing. It would be absolutely insane if you were an only child. You know what I mean? You completely feel like that dynamic. I think with my friends, with my Irish girlfriends, being in a big group of Irish girls from the ages of 11 to 18 and spending all day every day with them…on [Irish railway] the DART to school, and playing hockey together, all of that definitely informed it. But – this doesn't make any sense – but my inspirations for Becca, and it's not conventional for serious actors, but it was a mix of Caroline Hearn, Phoebe Buffet, and then Boo from Monsters, Inc and then Donkey from Shrek.

Do you know what? Especially Donkey. That makes sense. How do you mean? Just in terms of the life force that they have? I mean, I know two of them are animated, but…

Yeah.

Do you know what's really weird, honey? There's a new trailer coming out to advertise the first season, before people start watching season two. What was really beautiful to watch in your performance, then and now, is that all these things happen to Becca in season one, and they affected her. When I watched the trailer, I was like, yeah, I get the Boo thing. You were like a baby. We'd not allowed you to kind of grow up and life had to force you to grow up.
And then in season two, it's like she's grown and it's heartbreaking. I had to watch the old [season trailer] to notice. It's really great.

I know it's crazy, but I do remember talking with Dearbhla Walsh about how Becca was the only sister that, at the start of season one, hadn't really been too damaged by life yet. She wasn't cynical, she was more open. She was more sort of, still in bloom.

She didn't even hate The Prick, remember?

And then in season two it's totally different. I also feel like these roles, they come to you for a reason. I really do think that, it makes it more fun and more magical. I started playing Becca the week I turned 30. Now I'm 33, and I'm a totally different person to who I was three years ago. You kind of grow with your characters.

That’s quite a lot of lifetime that has passed [between seasons].

So much. I mean that's three years. We were in deep pandemic then.

The sisters are all so different, but they have this fierce, I’d-take-a-bullet-for you, unswerving loyalty to each other. That's what you are like with your family, as well as your friends. You’re kind of... Diehard.

Yeah, definitely. My friends say you wouldn't want to meet Eve down a dark alley, but you definitely want her on your side. That's great. I'm actually very proud of that. But even my sister, when she watched the show, she didn't tell me this, but my mom told me this when they watched season one, Becca's episode, episode four. We have a scene where we're discussing The Prick. And I'm saying, I want in on the scheme basically, to take him down. I say something like, ‘he's not going to hurt my sister’, something like that. And my sister burst into tears because she was like, oh, I know she's talking about me.

It's hard. It's hard not to be influenced by [the storyline] because it is just with you as you're shooting it. The idea of someone in your life that you love being put through that kind of hurt and pain…it's impossible not to think about your loved ones, isn't it, in those moments.

What do you enjoy most about filming the show? What are the stylistic elements of it that you feel are different from other shows you've made?

I think it's like when it's all of us together and we're with Dearbhla, I think that's honestly the magic of our show. Some madness overcomes us. It’s just complete joy. I remember season one, when we were shooting the coffin dropping scene, and we had to shoot that a million different ways. I think you had Covid at one point. There was one day where it was Sunday at nine o'clock in the morning and freezing cold in January in London in a car park.
We had a piece of grass basically, and a very hard angled camera, and it could have been a miserable experience, but Dearbhla was just running around doing cartwheels and tumble rolls and making us laugh the whole time. It became the most joyful freezing Sunday morning. I would say that's our special sauce, the chemistry between all of us, and then obviously your writing and your scripts. We all love the show so much because we love your scripts and we love your characters. We're all such fans of the show. We really feel deeply bonded to it. I'm proud of it.

I feel really, really grateful for that. I was talking about that in an interview very recently, that thing of everyone feeling so invested and committed to it and caring so much about it. Not just their own characters, but across the board, just wanting it to be the best it can be. It feels like everyone owns a part of it.

It's amazing. I think it's such a brilliant show because it's a story that for whatever reason, has never been told about a big family like this. Something about it connects and your tiny little heart just kind of breaks when you watch these sisters together. We all just sort of madly in love with the show and with each other.

Where do you want to see your career go? Or is it something that you're just going to roll with?

I want to lead movies that make people really happy. I think one of my favourite movies is Postcards from the Edge. One of my favourite movies is My Best Friend's Wedding.

I actually just watched an interview with Rupert Everett, and it reminded me that I have to go back and watch that film. What's interesting about that film is that she's such a bitch.

Yeah, I know. A piece of work. She's such a bitch.
And you love her. I love her. I love her hair and her suits. It's just so epic. Good hair, good suits.

Yeah. What are you up to this evening, apart from just being in your bed?

I have to Zoom with my Formula One people.

Then you need your sleep.

I know. On my first day of rehearsal, I was like, yes, I'm [a] pretty good [sleeper]. 14 hours. They were like, what? I was like, oh, you guys, just wait.

Fucking elephants don't sleep that much. Well, I'm going to go and make dinner for my girls. I can't wait to see you.

Can't wait to see you. I'm going to see you in two weeks. Thank you so much for doing this.

It was just nice to hang out with you. Also, I've done a Violet [shoot and interview] with my friend Sarah Sophie Flicker, and the photos are, oh God, I love my photos. I'm going to show you. So it's nice to get to do this again, the opposite way around.

I hope my photos are good. They put me in an outfit where I look like a giant macaron.

If anyone can rock a giant macaron it’s you.

HAIR: HALLEY BRISKER AT THE WALL GROUP. MAKE-UP: GEORGINA GRAHAM AT THE WALL GROUP. MANICURIST: AMI STREETS USING BYREDO. PRODUCER: MICHAEL ASH FORD AT HALFSMITH PRODUCTION. SET DESIGN: PO TSUN LIN. PHOTOGRAPHY/ LIGHTING ASSISTANT: OLIVER MATICH. RETOUCH: HUE RETOUCH. HAIR ASSISTANT: CHARLES STANLEY. FASHION ASSISTANT: DELANEY WILLIAMS.