Both “Adolescence”’s Stephen Graham and Sharon Horgan of “Bad Sisters” always knew they wanted to be actors.
While their career counselors in Liverpool and Ireland, respectively, did not believe in their lofty dreams at the time, the multi-hyphenates kept their noses to the grind and went on to create two of the year’s buzziest shows.
As Graham and Horgan sat down for TheWrap’s long-form video series Visionaries, the two discussed writing their respective series – Horgan’s daunting second season on Apple TV+ and Graham’s first go with his four-part limited series on Netflix.
“This was the first thing I’ve ever wrote,” Graham said of his record-breaking series about a young boy accused of murdering a female classmate. The actor and producer knew he could not write this on his own, so he found a partner in Jack Thorne.
“He writes the human condition beautifully. He can construct and deconstruct the human condition,” he explained.
The co-creator, who also starred as the father of the young boy, said he would give Thorne his outline for the episode and then ask him to make magic with it: “I just said to Jack: ‘So what I want you to do please I want you to write your version of a David Mamet play.”
The “Bad Sisters” creator and star said entering Season 2 of her show felt like a unique challenge for her. After her series received praise for its debut season, she said she felt an obligation to deliver even more on her second outing.
“Then suddenly there was this responsibility,” Horgan said. “I mean there’s a responsibility to the audience because you don’t want to let them down, but there’s a responsibility to all of those actors…to give them what they deserve.”
Both creator-stars said that being a part of the casting process and steering their respective projects gave them agency over the kinds of people they surrounded themselves with.
“In our industry there’s loads of twats,” Graham said. The two creators said they were lucky to have some control over who stepped onto their sets. “I now have a no twat policy,” he added.
“It comes from a place of insecurity,” Horgan said. “The biggest twats are desperately insecure.”
“It’s never gonna end,” she added. “If they keep flaming the twats,” Graham said, finishing her sentence.
Watch the full video above.
Visionaries is produced by Jennifer Laski, Head of Video and Photography for TheWrap.
