Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals
I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.
Anne-Marie Duff has said she did not have “as much fun” as her fellow Bad Sisters co-stars on set.
The 55-year-old actress starred in the Irish black comedy series which follows the tight-knit Garvey sisters who after wishing for their toxic brother-in-law to die, are faced with his actual death, turning their lives upside down.
Duff played Grace Williams, the second-eldest sister who is married to the emotionally abusive and coercive John Paul Williams, played by Claes Bang, opposite Sharon Horgan, Eve Hewson, Eva Birthistle and Sarah Greene.
The role landed Duff the best supporting actress award at the TV baftas in 2023.
Speaking to Good Housekeeping, Duff said: “I didn’t have as much fun as the other actors.
“You had to be worried for Grace or else the audience wouldn’t have wanted her husband dead.
“I was playing a sort of ghost of a woman and that was a bit sad for me.”
She added that despite the challenging role she said it was “great” that the show portrayed “Celtic women not just trapped in the kitchen in sufferance”.
Duff said: “The sisters were such brilliantly drawn characters – Sharon (Horgan) is a genius who writes like no-one else.
“And the other actresses were gorgeous as hell. Jeepers!”
The series also won the 2023 Bafta for best drama series.
Duff, who is also known for starring in 2002’s The Magdalene Sisters and playing Fiona Gallagher in the hit television series Shameless, said she took 18 months off work to be with her family following the death of both her mother and her brother Eddie.
She said: “Grief is a motherf***er. I don’t know where I am with it, but I think that’s probably all right.

