When you’re not only the star of a new HBO series, but also the creator and producer, premiere nights feel much different.
“It’s a very unrelaxing experience,” Sharon Horgan says, the afternoon after her new show “Youth” had shown its first two episodes for a New York audience.
“I was a bit nervous because the show is obviously a comedy, but there’s lots of drama, quite heavy difficult moments. And that’s when you have to just hold your breath and hope that people aren’t going, ‘What the f–k is this? You confused me with that oral sex in Episode One, and now your kid’s in trouble?’” she adds. “But people seem to really go with it and lean into it.”
Horgan, the Irish comedic performer known for creating and starring in hit series “Bad Sisters” and “Catastrophe,” is back with “Youth,” a new take on the coming-of-age story following a 50-something woman navigating life as a divorcee and soon-to-be empty nester as her teenage son goes off to college.
You May Also Like
Horgan initially began writing the show as a concept around six years ago, when she was newly divorced herself and was convinced she’d never date again.
“I was just like, ‘Oh, this is it. I’m on my own. I’m alone.’ I couldn’t fathom going out there and having to do it all over again,” she says. “I felt exhausted by the thought of it.”
The show then took a backseat with the success of “Bad Sisters,” which ran for two seasons on Apple TV. When that show wrapped and Horgan had a moment to return to the idea, she found herself not only older but with a different perspective.
“Six years on, I’m in a relationship, so I’m able to write about the love affairs within the show with this great perspective,” she says. “I can write about heartache, but I can write about love, which I wouldn’t have been able to do at the time. I remember the ‘Bad Sisters’ girls, they were often trying to fix me up with people, and I was like, ‘I don’t think I’ll ever have sex again.’ And they were laughing at me, but I felt it. I felt very overwhelmed and daunted. So it’s mad looking back and remembering how I felt.”
Many parts of her character, Alex, are inspired by Horgan’s own life, with some added tweaks that make for good comedy.
“I don’t like painting people who are too good for me to play because it feels disingenuous,” Horgan says. “I like writing good people, like my sister in it is a good person. And those people are out there and they exist and they put others first and they’re great and thank god for them. But with Alex, if you’re a lead comedy character, you have to give them faults and foibles and have them make bad decisions or it wouldn’t work.”
“Youth” has been described as a coming-of-age story in two ways, both with Alex, but also her son, Rauri, who is played by Aran Murphy, the 19-year-old son of Cillian Murphy, in one of his first roles.
“The more time I spent on it, the more I realized this 18-year-old and this 50-something woman are both entering this next stage of their life, and how is that even going to work on its own, let alone together. So it’s very much coming of age,” Horgan says. “And when I think of coming-of-age stories, there’s always a tragedy associated with it. There’s always something that goes wrong, doesn’t work out, and then how you deal with that, the next steps, and then hopefully coming through the other end. So that feels really accurate.”
In addition to creating “Youth,” Horgan has been dropping in some acting projects in recent years, including roles in “The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox” and the upcoming season of “Only Murders in the Building.”
“I love passing up control, handing over control,” Horgan says. “But I also like making something from scratch, because it’s the most ridiculously satisfying thing. I mean, it’s scarier for sure, but it’s a whole different ball game.”
