An actor from House of Guinness has spoken out about refusing to wear a prosthetic when filming a full-frontal bath scene in the new Netflix show.
The Netflix series, created by the writer behind Peaky Blinders, follows the Guinness family in the late 19th century after the death of the family patriarch Sir Benjamin Guinness and was viewed for over 35 million hours in its first week.
Starring Anthony Boyle, Louis Partridge, Niamh McCormack, James Norton, Emily Fairn, and Jack Gleeson, the series follows the conflict that arises as the Guinness family try and retain control of the beer company after his death.
Between a gay storyline accused of being ‘invented’ by a living Guinness family member and wild theories about the show’s season one cliffhanger, the show has been incredibly controversial so far.
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Despite this, fans have been calling for a season two, with Netflix yet to have given any hints either way as to the fate of the show.
One of season one’s most controversial moments, however, sees one of the characters engage in full frontal nudity with little warning, something which the actor actually did for real.
The scene comes in episode of House of Guinness where Anthony Boyle’s Arthur Guinness is shown bathing shortly after meeting his prospective new wife.
Arthur Guinness’ main storyline throughout the show is that he is secretly gay, so is having a pre-arranged marriage to try and cover this up, with an agreement of no sex.
Shortly after meeting Olivia, who would become Arthur’s wife, he is bathed while his older servant attends him holding a towel.
Arthur is shown fully naked as he gets out, with Boyle explaining in an interview with Men’s Health why he chose to do the scene genuinely nude.
He said: “It’s not a prosthetic. It’s my own body.
“I sort of wrote that aspect into the scene; It was the night before we were filming, and he was in the script originally meant to be getting his cufflinks on by the mirror.”
Boyle explained that he called the director telling him it felt boring, telling him he should be smoking and drinking whiskey in a bath.
He went on to add: “He should be completely naked and just get up, to show that he owns the whole f**king world.
“He wouldn’t even have to say anything to say, 'I’m above these servants. This is my world. I am dominant, and I control everything.'
“That’s what I wanted to show.”
House of Guinness is available to watch on Netflix now.
Topics: Netflix, TV and Film, TV
Michael Slavin