Editor’s note: The following contains major spoilers for The Westies.

Summary

In the MGM+ series ‘The Westies,’ set in1980s Hell’s Kitchen, Jimmy Roarke turns on mentor Eamon Sweeney, sparking a bloody internal gang war.

Bridget Walsh hunts down her parents’ killer, but her trauma and secrets set up a fraught Season 2.

Bridget, played by Sarah Bolger, stands out as a fierce, morally ambiguous woman in a male crime world where relationships humanize the chaos.

Set in the 1980s in Hell’s Kitchen, the MGM+ series The Westies chronicles the bloody power struggles of New York’s infamous Irish American gang. As the mafia battles law enforcement, rising enforcer Jimmy Roarke (Tom Brittney) turns on his ruthless boss and mentor Eamon Sweeney (J.K. Simmons), triggering an internal war that pits them against each other. At the same time, Jimmy shares a deep bond with Bridget Walsh (Sarah Bolger), a woman driven by revenge for her past trauma. Torn between IRA loyalty and personal motives, Bridget seizes the chance to kill her parents’ murderer, regardless of the consequences. And while she can now put that behind her, a newly unearthed secret lays the groundwork for her next move in a potential Season 2. Collider recently got the opportunity to sit down with Bolger and chat about her complex and complicated character. During the interview, she discussed the commonalities between Bridget in The Westies and Emily in Mayans M.C., playing one of the few female characters in this very male criminal world, creating a relationship between Bridget and Jimmy that viewers can root for, what it was like to get the closure she’s been obsessed with, that Bridget will need to deal with her unresolved trauma in order to move forward, what could happen with Cahill (Allen Leech) in the future, and her desire for more seasons of the series. The Irish actress also talked about the period piece she’s currently shooting, called Fog City, and reminisced about her experience shooting the pilot for the potential Locke & Key series that was meant to air on Fox in 2011.
Sarah Bolger Hopes To Continue Bridget’s Story in Future Season of ‘The Westies’

“When Episode 8 came out, as satisfying as it is, it leaves the door open and leaves so many questions unanswered.”

COLLIDER: I have to say, I really need another season of this show because it feels like we’ve really only just gotten the introduction to all these characters. SARAH BOLGER: Yeah, I agree. I know that eight episodes is the new model, but ultimately, that’s almost not enough episodes for me. It is just enough to set up worlds, to set up relationships, and to hint at the fractures that are to follow. I find myself yearning for more scripts all the time. I remember when Episode 8 came out, and as satisfying as it is, it leaves the door open and leaves so many questions unanswered, in the best way. So, I also yearn for more seasons. Please, God. In both The Westies and in Mayans M.C., you play women who really had to make the best of a life they found themselves in and had to figure out how they were going to survive it. What would Bridget and Emily think of each other? BOLGER: I think they’d tell each other to run. I think that’s what they’d do. I think they would see like for like. Even though the characters are very fundamentally different and their backgrounds are very different, I think they feel comfort in that amount of discomfort. The only commonality that I can find between the two is that they fall in love and find safety in love and then don’t need safety anywhere else. That is the thread I can see. But I think if one were to wake up the other, they’d be like, “Run! What are you doing? Run!” Emily Galindo, specifically, or Emily Thomas had a child. As much as you can fight for love and fight for romance and fight for connection, ultimately the amount of blood loss around them really started to rise. I think Brigid comes from another point of view, where she feels more comfortable in that chaos and in that feeling of living on the fringe. That wasn’t Emily’s past. But I love that question because they’re two gang shows, for want of a better term. You have to think of a character from a whole new perspective. It’s New York, it’s the ‘80s, she’s Irish. It’s just different. And yet, I love that there is a continuity to it to some degree. You also have this knack for being one of the only women to come into a show that is very heavy with male energy. What is that like? How did you find that experience on this show? BOLGER: Yeah. We’re depicting these gangs that are inspired by real gangs, so the truth is, in terms of the history of gangs, there are just more male-dominated gangs. Elgin James did such a good job of trying to bring in female gangs in the later seasons of Mayans. It is interesting. Myself, Jessica Frances Dukes and Hilary McCormack are in The Westies, and I think those female characters are wonderful. What’s so amazing about them is they each hold court in their own specific worlds, and they don’t feel dependent on any form of male connection for their storyline to continue. (Creators) Chris Brancato and Michael Panes not only wrote Bridget Walsh as a goddamn powerhouse, but her whole story is something that is in need. They need her, she doesn’t need them. There is something wonderful about that, and smart and that I love playing. The female characters, even though there are less, in terms of ratio, take up so much of the screen in The Westies, in a really wonderful way. Did you have conversations with the creators about that, so that you knew she wouldn’t get lost among the other characters in the story? BOLGER: Honestly, no. It’s really hard thing to pick up on a new show when you have one episode and the idea of the eight episodes. Whether or not they have all eight in their heads at that point, once you get to sit and chat and do the breakdown and ask the questions, that can really inspire the writing team. So, you don’t expect them to have all the answers, but they promised me, and held to their promise, that if the Westies could have had a female member, Bridget would have been leading it. She is a force in her own right but also has a past that is more checkered and more nuanced than they even had. There’s an understanding of humanity that Bridget has that I respect and I wish I had. The idea that she is very much needed was the thing they promised me, and I really, really feel that throughout the entire show. One of the things that I find really interesting about the series is that there is no real hero conquering a villain in this story. You can really root for and against all of the characters, at different points. Even though we understand where Bridget is coming from, she still has to kill someone. How did that shape things for you? Did it feel freeing not to have to work within those typical constraints of good guys versus bad guys? BOLGER: Absolutely. You want to root for things like relationships. When you close your eyes at night, you don’t necessarily want to remember the bodies that you’ve thrown over the side of the boat. You want to hold the person you love close and feel an ounce of safety in that tornado. What myself and Tom Brittney wanted to do was create an intensity in the relationship that people would root for, even if the people themselves are not perfect people and, in fact, far from it. I think their relationship dialog is very interesting because they have a ton of secrets, and that’s maybe their love language. I don’t advise that. Don’t do that at home. That’s not my recommendation. But that was the thing that I found great. Even though these people are polarizing, even though these people are sometimes nefarious, even though they are criminals, you can understand something where they need love, they want safety, they maybe want a family. There’s still humanity in these people. With Keenan and his son, those roles are fundamental to humanizing these people, in the best and most relatable ways. Even Birdie doesn’t necessarily do anything that crosses a line, but she’s still using Keenan. BOLGER: Birdie is amazing. Jessica does such an amazing job with her. In Birdie’s head, potentially everyone’s disposable. She sees herself as the puppet master. In her head, she’s playing God. That’s really interesting, and not sympathetic. The best part of the show is to have their moral ambiguity be always in question, with the integrity of the human being intact.
Bridget Is Going To Have To Deal With Her Trauma in Order To Move Forward in ‘The Westies’

“What does it look like for these characters in this crime ring to heal in violence and in chaos?”

Sarah Bolger as Bridget Walsh sitting next to a cloud of cigarette smoke in The WestiesImage via MGM+

Bridget really spends this whole season driven for some kind of justice or vengeance for her past. Because she does ultimately get a resolution for that, what’s next for her? Have you thought about how her relationship with Jimmy will change? BOLGER: Yeah. With that resolve comes a lot of trauma that she has probably placed in the tightest little box inside of herself. I think she’s going to have to come to reason with a lot of her trauma. You can’t have characters like this weeping on a couch. There’s no time for that. There’s no time to see someone heal. So, what does it look like for these characters in this crime ring to heal in violence and in chaos? There’s going to be something very interesting about that in Season 2, and please God, let us get a Season 2. How do you fundamentally deal with PTSD and mental health in this world? I’d love to explore what that potentially could look like, and what her goals are moving forward. If that’s a big thing that’s been lifted, what does that mean for her? How does that change her fundamentally? In the finale, Bridget finally gets that moment to take out Markham, but then she comes out of the bathroom, and we learn he recognized her and knew exactly who she was. What do you think she felt in that moment? Do you think it even occurred to her that she could find herself in that situation? BOLGER: Yeah. With these characters, you have to have a sense of going in and knowing the outcome may be the most horrendous outcome possible. It’s going in blind and drinking the Kool-Aid of your conviction. In Episode 7, there’s that lovely scene with Bridget and Roarke that’s almost a goodbye. It’s like, “I can’t say what this is yet. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know what I’m getting myself into. But the truth is, maybe this is a suicide mission and maybe there is no coming back.” You have to go in full throttle. That’s been her life for the past decade. Even though it’s not the outcome she wished, there is a part of her that goes in knowing she could never return, and maybe part of her will never return. We see Markham overpowering her and he clearly intends to rape her, but it cuts away and doesn’t go back until we see him dead. Did that scene always play out in the script the way it ultimately did in the show? BOLGER: I haven’t seen the finished, completed version of Episodes 7 and 8 yet, but to my knowledge, there’s a level of ambiguity that Chris and Michael wanted to allow the audience to understand the dire situation to which she may have had to stomach the experience. Either way, it was never going to be pleasant. How did you feel about the way it turned out, as far as not getting that moment to see her kill him? BOLGER: The truth is that the show does a wonderful balancing act of not shoving violence down everyone’s throats, no pun intended, in every scene. The fact that we watch her leave this room, when I was given the note by our wonderful director, Adam [Kane], it was, “Every single moment that you have lived in the last 20 minutes is on your face.” That was a great gift and a compliment. Staying with the victim is almost more powerful. You go through a lot, from being held at gunpoint to getting smacked and thrown around. When I asked the creators about it, they commended you for how willing you were to put yourself out there during all of that. What was that like to shoot? Did you have a lot of conversations about that? BOLGER: Yeah. And Harry [Hadden-Paton] is such a wonderful actor, and he did such an amazing, villainous, Machiavellian performance of Colonel Markham. This world is brutal. In terms of being in that criminal space, you have to see what she went through. I liked being able to showcase it in the most honest way possible. And I think our creators did a wonderful job of being very present and very vocal and very understanding, and with open ears. I thought it was all handled with such care. After killing him, Bridget goes home and tells herJimmy that she’s good when he asks if she’s okay. Is she good? Did she even really know what she was feeling at that point? BOLGER: I wrote a little diary for Bridget. Let’s say that she wrote one every night of her life, about the nightmares she had, the things she’s seen, the things she experienced, the loss she’s had, the ghosts that haunt her. I think that night, she left the diary completely empty because she couldn’t vocalize it. It was a white flash of rage or fear, or whatever you want to call it. That night, she had no words. If we get a Season 2, seeing the reckoning of those moments of stoicism crumble will be really interesting to see because I think she does believe she’s okay. I do not think that’s true, though. How can you be? BOLGER: How can you be? She sees what’s happening around her. That’s a characteristic of Bridget that I wanted to make very clear. There’s a pragmatism and a compartmentalization that she has the ability to do, which is why she can shed her own skin, and why she can like go into different spaces and feel like different people and adapt to different worlds. She is somewhat chameleon-like. Even in her trauma, she can disappear from it. It will catch up with her, no doubt, but in that moment, it can disappear from her a little bit.
What Was the One Moment That Sarah Bolger Didn’t See Coming in ‘The Westies’?

“That’s the scene where I think Bridget was frozen.”

Sarah Bolger as Bridget Walsh standing with and talking to Allen Leech as Brendan Cahill in The WestiesImage via MGM+

Before she kills Markham, she learns that Cahill is the one that actually sold her family out. What did you think about that? How do you think she felt about that? BOLGER: I did not see that coming in the script. That was one, for me, where I went, “No!” Allen Leech is the best in the whole world. The idea that he’s creepy is so brilliant because he’s the kindest, funniest man in the whole world. That’s the scene where I think Bridget, who’s probably used the trigger before she’s been able to maybe even use her emotionality, in that one case, was frozen. There was no fight. There was no flight. She just couldn’t decide. Everything that she believed, everything that she understood, everything that she’s been led towards feels like a lie, and that scares her. That means she’s missed something. I think she prides herself on reading people fairly well. Even when it comes to Eamon Sweeney, she feels like she has an astute understanding. So, that scares her because that throws that into question. Are you surprised that she didn’t just kill him in that moment? BOLGER: But then, you’d have two killings. I almost want to torture him. That’s Sarah speaking. I hope that’s something that does get explored more, if there’s a Season 2. It really feels like something is owed there. BOLGER: Something is owed, for sure. Very well put.

What are you currently shooting right now? BOLGER: I’m doing a 1930s drama called Fog City, with a wonderful director, called Dan Pritzker. I play a woman called Liza, who leaves the Dust Bowl in 1939. It’s a wonderful story. Even just being in1930s garb and playing someone from Oklahoma is a totally different thing than Bridget Walsh. It’s been a true joy. We’re in the middle of that right now, in Melbourne, Australia. I’ve been waking up at strange hours to also make sure The Westies gets all the love. It’s been a good month. Period projects like that are so fun because it’s not just the fun of getting to wear the costumes yourself, but it’s being surrounded by everyone and everything else. BOLGER: It’s an immersive experience. It’s really wonderful. We’re gifted to have incredible actors around us. Creating this time in history feels very poetic and very beautiful. It’s been great. I’m very, very excited for people to see it. What is it that gets you excited about a character? Do you know instantly when it’s something you want to do? BOLGER: Writing, in general, is always the thing that draws me in, regardless of the character I play. It’s about the world creation and stepping into something that feels insanely well-formed and executed. What I’ve been gifted with in the past is being able to work with creatives who have fantastic world-building skills. I was in an airport and I ran into Daniel Wu from Into the Badlands, and that experience, in particular, in that steampunk, futuristic, martial arts, free love, almost cowboy-esque world was amazing. I get to explore these worlds that don’t exist, and I get to live in this magic. I crave that. I crave that even more than modern work. I end up working in either historical fiction or period pieces. It ends up being what I’m more drawn to.
Sarah Bolger Is So Proud She Got To Be a Part of ‘Locke & Key,’ Even Though Her Version of the TV Series Never Got Picked Up

“That was really a wonderful experience.”

The Locke & Key 2011 pilot title for FoxImage via Fox

I watched the Locke & Key pilot that you did for Fox back in 2011. It’s truly one of my favorite pilots that I’ve ever watched. I loved the series that we eventually got on Netflix, but that version felt entirely different. What were you most excited about when you shot that? BOLGER: Josh Friedman and Joe Hill. I remember the sheer magic and horror of that show, hinging on this very simple concept of loss and being without and moving on. I remember being so in on those graphic novels, to the point that I was absorbing everything I possibly could. I thought that pilot was incredible. I remember shooting in Pittsburgh in February of whatever that year was, and wishing so hard that it got picked up. I’m so glad the show did have a life in a completely different iteration, but that was really a wonderful experience. I’m so proud I got to be part of that. As an actor, what was it like to shoot that pilot, have it be so beautifully done, and then not get to move forward with the series? BOLGER: Mark Romanek directed that pilot, and he’s an artist. He’s a perfectionist artist who sees things that I don’t think anyone else sees. There was such beauty to that pilot. There’s a great sorrow, but things happen for a reason, and it led me to wherever it did. I will forever be grateful for the experience because you only learn. Even if they don’t continue, you only learn. There’s never regret. Never, ever, ever. It’s part of the process. And the industry has changed so much. There are less pilots being greenlit. There are more mini-series, or an eight-episode or 10-episode. When we did it, I think Locke & Key would have been 22 episodes, or maybe 15. I don’t remember the contract specifically, but that would have been a full-blown, 45-minute show. The Westies is available to stream on MGM+.

Release Date

July 12, 2026

Network

MGM+

Showrunner

Chris Brancato