In a Dublin hotel, actress Eva Birthistle sips from a cup of tea with oat milk. Many know her as Ursula Garvey, the intriguing character from the series ‘Bad Sisters’, so it’s easy to forget she is just portraying a role. Off camera, she is more tranquil and less stressed compared to the nurse character Ursula, who, like all the sisters in the series, is burdened by hidden issues. Birthistle is delighted about the second season showing soon on Apple TV, stating, “It is an absolute delight and I consider myself profoundly fortunate to be part of this show. ”
Her attire is casual-chic with a silk shirt in copper hues, classic jeans, and subtle gold accessories. Her most notable features include a cream complexion with striking blue-green eyes and an accent that speaks to her Bray, Co Wicklow roots, mingled with slight hints of London where she has resided for nearly three decades.
While her parents live in Ireland—and half of ‘Bad Sisters’ is shot in Dublin—Birthistle travels back and forth from London for personal and professional purposes. This time around, she is here to advocate her maiden film, ‘Kathleen Is Here’. The early reception for the film has been promising.
This year saw her triumph at the Galway Film Fleadh with a “best new talent” award, and the movie enjoyed an impressive world premiere at London’s Raindance Festival. Actor Andrew Scott, a close ally for many years, hosted the post-screening Q&A, making it an exciting yet slightly daunting period for the debutant director.
Talking about anxiety, the creator of Bad Sisters, Sharon Horgan, also a fellow Irish woman based in London, played a significant supportive role in calming any uncertainties that arose during the course of filming, she shares. As she explored her directorial expression, she was dealing with the struggle of self-doubt, often telling herself that her efforts perhaps wouldn’t suffice. On the contrary, Sharon excelled at banishing that negative self-talk. “She’s an unmistakably strong and remarkable woman. Although she has her own insecurities, her support in combating these disturbing internal voices was invaluable,” she shares.
After viewing the film, I confess that it still lingers in my mind. Hazel Doupe’s performance is darkly captivating as Kathleen, an 18-year-old young woman, who, after aging out of the foster care system moves into her mother’s house, now deceased, in a coastal Irish town. Lacking a motherly presence, she forms an unhealthy bond with an older neighbour, played by Clare Dunne. The film also features Peter Coogan from Love/Hate. It’s a grim, emotionally impacting and suspenseful narrative, at times even invoking a sense of claustrophobia. Birthistle finds this response very satisfying. “The aspiration is always to stir emotions in the audience, so your impression of the film is indeed positive,” she remarks, sounding genuinely relieved.
The subject of post-foster care life wasn’t something Birthistle had originally planned to address, she composed the first drafts of the script around a decade back while working on a movie called Swansong, under the direction of Douglas Ray. Encouraged by Ray to pursue her writing desires, she managed to create a page a day, and by the conclusion of the 20-day shoot, she had a respectable chunk ready.
At that time, she was expecting her first kid and was grappling with the usual apprehensions surrounding motherhood. “Mother-daughter rapport has always intrigued me. And with the onset of motherhood, I too started dealing with that fear … I think it’s a widespread sentiment which fueled the theme of the film,” she admits.
In its initial stages, the script was a light-hearted narrative about an individual living on the fringes of society, until a fellow writer encouraged its development into a more sombre piece. The author’s imagination was sparked by observing the Kardashian reality show billboards and judging how a youthful character may absorb that experience. Concurrently, she discovered a video log from an American teenager, who brazenly lived out her life as a foster child on social media, which in turn ignited the concept of a character emerging from the care system and the struggles she would face.
The author envisaged a character searching for a sense of belonging, someone wishing to flee from her reality. A discussion with her father marked a pivotal point in the development of this concept. They relocated from Bray to Derry back in the late 80s, where her parents still reside. Her father introduced her to an organisation named Heal, working closely with often marginalised individuals, particularly young adults transitioning from care. The encounter with a group of these young individuals in Derry, navigating this particularly challenging phase of their development, was both informing and overwhelming.
As quoted by Eva Birthistle, “The narratives that attract my attention typically portray characters on the periphery of society.”
Sharing that everyone had contrasting stories and some were fortunate to have support during their transition, while the majority were not. Upon reaching 18, they were left to toil with no safety net; struggling to mature into adulthood and perhaps attend university or procure employment – a daunting task for anyone. This, the author deduced, was a tale which warranted sharing. She added, “Although I may not be the perfect person to narrate this story, I trust that the insight provided by Heal, along with our research and Hazel’s stellar interpretation, will cast some degree of illumination. It serves as a conversation opener.”
Kathleen’s personality can be seen as quite alienated, a condition that Birthistle herself has known in varied ways. Although her hometown is Bray, she relocated to Derry at the age of 14, amid the Troubles, following her father’s appointment as the managing director of a hosiery plant in Strabane. This was back in 1988. Despite having a Catholic background, her and her brother’s education took place at a largely Protestant co-educational institution so that they could stay together – a belief from which she departed during her teenage years. Does she resonate with this sensation of being an outsider? She has admitted, “I indeed felt distanced during a substantial part of my adolescent years … the lifestyle and social aspect in Derry was so different that I felt excluded for most of the time.”
She has previously opened up about her school life, where her artwork would be vandalised with phrases such as ‘Get out, you Fenian troll’ and her packed lunch would often be a target. However, she still holds a deep sense of gratitude for that influential period of her life. As she had once stated in an interview two decades ago, “They were friendly, hospitable people.”. She continues, “I had Protestant mates who risked a lot to be friends with me as it was challenging for them too. This definitely made me realise what being an outsider felt like. And the narratives I am keen on telling are typically about those who are the outcasts.”
Her acting career also saw her representing many outsiders. Post her education at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Birthistle bagged a role in Glenroe, where she enacted Regina Crosbie, referred to as “highbrow agricultural totty” at that time. After spending three years portraying this character, she moved to London. Here, she made a living by waiting tables for a couple of years while trying for acting gigs. She got her first significant opportunity with Ken Loach’s Ae Fond Kiss, a romance centred around two aliens in Scotland. It enabled her to permanently quit her job in the restaurant. She has also featured in notable works like All Souls Day and Sunday by Alan Gilsenan, and Jimmy McGovern’s series on Bloody Sunday.
Eva Birthistle has shared that the warm and welcoming ambiance she experienced on Ken Loach’s set is something she aspired to replicate in her own productions, including the award-winning short film, ‘Kathleen Was Here’, and its subsequent feature, ‘Kathleen Is Here’. She hopes to create an environment of safety and support, laced with laughter, despite the serious nature of the subjects being interpreted. Birthistle believes that without humour, work can take a toll on mental health.
Birthistle has had a steady presence in both television and cinema over the years, showcasing her talents in Neil Jordan’s ‘Breakfast on Pluto’ and John Crowley’s ‘Brooklyn’. She has shared screen space with Cillian Murphy in Mark O’Rowe’s ‘The Delinquent Season’, and been a part of many seasons of the British historical drama ‘The Last Kingdom’. Most notably, her role in the globally acclaimed ‘Bad Sisters’ has tapped into a broader spectatorship.
However, the suspense persists over the return of ‘Bad Sisters’ for a third season. Despite her hope for a new season, Birthistle maintains that she cannot confirm anything. Yet, her eagerness about the possibility of ‘Bad Sisters 3’ is evident.
While discussing her co-actor Fiona Shaw, who plays a crucial part in the unconventional show, she expresses her admiration for Shaw’s phenomenal acting abilities. Initially, there was some intimidation amongst the cast due to Shaw’s prowess, but everyone gradually found her to be affable and high-spirited.
Transitioning to her camaraderie with the female cast members of the show, Birthistle cherishes the laughter and thought-provoking conversations they share. Their mutual support has fostered a strong bond amongst them.
She collaborated with one of her ‘Bad Sisters’ castmates, Eve Hewson, in the Netflix production ‘Behind Her Eyes’. On complimenting Birthistle about her performance, she openly admits: “I didn’t actually catch it.” Does she generally avoid viewing her own work? “Once in a while, I do. ‘Bad Sisters’ was worth watching since it’s excellent, but my usual experience has been finding myself less than satisfying,” she confesses. She tends to be her own toughest critic. “That, I believe, is common amongst actors,” she suggests, recalling a vital lesson she learned from Saoirse Ronan a decade ago.
“I used to take in all of my outings, attend the cast and crew previews feeling utterly nauseous, sweating profusely, truly horrendous, despising the sight of myself. All other aspects were okay,” she quips. “Yet, I distinctly remember attending a preview of ‘Brooklyn’ and Saoirse Ronan, half my age, was not present. Later on, I queried, ‘you didn’t attend?’ to which she replied ‘absolutely not, perhaps I might catch it in a year or so’ and that was it for me, that moment engraved a boundary in my mind.”
Birthistle is hilarious, candid, and a delight to be with. I must admit that I’ve been researching about her spouse, Ross J Barr. He’s an acupuncturist for A-list celebrities, and his conventional good looks have earned him the title of “London’s most attractive healer”. She playfully laughs it off: “This makes him uncomfortable, it’s slightly awkward”. Unlike many renowned actors who keep personal matters private, Birthistle is open about her personal life. She was previously married to session musician Raife Burchell. Their separation was friendly. “We managed to remain close – we didn’t have kids, so there wasn’t any complication in that area. It was incredibly sorrowful, yet lacked any bitterness.”
Meeting her husband Ross for the first time as he resided under her living quarters, where his acupuncture clinic operated, was an intriguing introduction, she amusingly recalls, but it was their maintained contact from her niece’s subsequent treatment with Ross that kept the idea of him alive for her. Then, in a bold move, she decided to ask him out, and what began as a simple cup of tea meeting transformed into an extended date, ending with pints.
They now reside in North London, paired in matrimony for thirteen years, proud parents to a humourous and energetic son named Jesse, after Jesse James, and an animated daughter named Joni, named for Joni Mitchell. Her husband’s attractive features never fail to attract attention, and though she modestly admits he may receive more of it, she isn’t one to harbour jealousy. A crucial aspect of their relationship, she believes, is effective communication and trust.
One instance still brings a sarcastic smile to her face – following the strenuous, unmedicated birth of her daughter Joni, she distinctly remembers a midwife unconsciously discrediting her efforts by heartily praising her husband Ross’s performance in the delivery room. She had to swiftly dismiss the nurse before she allowed her irritation to get the better of her.
Unsurprisingly, she’s a firm advocate of acupuncture, although when she was giving birth to her son Jesse under distressing circumstances, the last thing she desired was the prick of a needle. She recalls Ross approaching her with the acupuncture needles and all she wanted to do was smack him. His response was to back away, regardless of her gaze.
In other news, Birthistle celebrated her 50th birthday earlier this year, unabashedly relishing the occasion with two parties – one with her Irish acquaintances in Carlow house, which was utterly enjoyable, and another in London. Reflecting on this significant age, she feels fairly positive at the moment. However, she’s keen to put a pin on a final verdict, recalling her complacency at 40 which change as she turned 41. She gaily insists, “Hold the thought and get back to me when I turn 51!”
What are her forthcoming ventures? She’s currently engrossed in developing a script for a movie that’s associated with west Ireland. It’s an intense thriller touched with elements of vengeance and folklore. The plot revolves around themes close to her heart like life and growth in Ireland, connotations of an outsider and the struggle of not being accepted or belonging.
Queried if she has reached a point in her career where she doesn’t have to be anxious about securing future acting assignments, she offers a candid response, “I’m not sure if any actor reaches that position. You can never really predict…My current focus is scriptwriting, which keeps my interest piqued. Of course, being a part of a successful show does increase the chances of more offers. But then again, I’m yet to receive any,” she says, laughing. “One can never confidently declare, ‘I’ve got this’,” she adds.
There’s a lot on her plate for the coming years, should everything go according to plan. Alongside completing the script she’s working on, she hopes to film a third season of Bad Sisters – knocking wood on that – and to direct another full-length movie. Additionally, she’s pondering relocating her family back to Ireland to be in closer proximity to her parents.
As Birthistle approaches her 50s, she’s developing a newfound optimism about her future. Her husband surprised her with an unusual gift – a Human Design Reading. Asked if she’s ever come across it, she answered that she was initially wary. The reading, conducted by a lady in New York over the phone, relies on one’s astrological chart, exact birth date and location. The woman offers a thorough and intricate snapshot of your character.
Asked about her findings, Birthistle revealed the most significant insight – the absence of a downward trajectory. She was told, despite hitting 50, her life will continue to improve.
Overjoyed, she mentioned she didn’t require any more information, bidding goodbye cheerfully as she was heading to a premiere of her latest film. Kathleen Is Here is currently showing in theatres.