Anthony Boyle wasn’t too anxious about going full frontal for his role as Arthur Guinness in the new Netflix period drama series “House of Guinness.”
The only real bit of concern that the Irish actor did happen to have was his grandmother watching the scene.
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But then he remembered, “She doesn’t know how to work Netflix because she doesn’t have the internet. She just watches ‘Coronation Street’ and other British soaps.
“She keeps saying to me, ‘Stop doing shows that are only on the internet. Could you get on “Coronation Street” or “East Enders?”’ says Boyle, whose many streaming projects include “Masters of the Air,” “Manhunt,” “Tetris” and “Say Nothing.”
“House of Guinness” follows the brewing dynasty — Arthur, Edward (Louis Partridge), Anne (Emily Fairn) and Benjamin II (Fionn O’Shea) — following the death of their father Benjamin Guinness in 1868. “I didn’t know too much about the Guinness family,” Boyle says. “I knew just as much as probably anyone in Ireland knows — they were a very rich family and they were very eccentric. But I didn’t know the extent of their wealth and all that they owned.”
It’s widely believed that Arthur was gay. The series portrays Arthur as someone who doesn’t actually hide his sexual orientation, even if he agrees to a “lavender marriage” to advance his political career. “There are so many clues that point to Arthur being gay,” Boyle says. “If we don’t follow these clues, then we erase gay people from history. It’s not like we were going to just say he was gay. There’s so many things that alluded to him being gay, which is why we felt we should portray him as such.”
I caught up with Boyle over Zoom while he was in Vancouver, Canada filming “The Altruists,” Netflix’s upcoming series about Sam Bankman-Fried (Boyle), his girlfriend Caroline Ellison (Julia Garner) and the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
Let’s talk about Arthur’s mustache. Comfortable or uncomfortable?
I love it. I prefer to have the stache. I feel like I look 10 years old when I don’t have it. I love growing it and I love the little flicky bits at the side. I had this great makeup artist called Connie Daniels, who would come to me in the morning, and she would give me this mustache wax called Gentleman Stiffener. She would knock on my trailer, and she would say, “Ready for your Gentleman Stiffener?” She would give me the little brush and I’d comb and then I would be ready for the day with my Gentleman Stiffener.
How long did it take you to grow out?
About two and a half months to grow it and then I had for about six months of shooting. It looks good in the show when you’re wearing a period costume, but when you’re wearing, like an Adidas jacket and you’re going out for a coffee, you just look like an out of work magician.
When you Google your name, all results are about your full-frontal scene. Did you expect it to get so much attention?
No, I didn’t, because it was a very last minute sort of thing. I called the director the night before and said, I think we should do the scene with me coming out of the bath [instead of a dressing scene]. He said, “Yeah, fuck it. Let’s do it.” But I didn’t expect that. I didn’t expect people to talk about it.
Once the director agreed to it, did you have any second thoughts?
Not really. I thought it was good for the character because I wanted to show him feeling like he owns the world, and he was completely unashamed of himself and his sexuality and that he doesn’t even view the servants as people, that they’re just there to serve him. He’s completely dominant.
I binged “House of Guinness” in just a couple of days. What do you binge?
“Love is Blind.” I started watching it with my sister and I can’t get enough of it. I just watched first episode of the new season with a friend last night. It’s so funny. I just love it. I just love Americans. I love that they’re two minutes into the first date, one person says, “I love my family.” And the other one says, “I love my family, too.” And then they’re both like, ‘We’re so alike. I love you.” It’s brilliant. It warms my heart and just tickles me in the right way.
Now that you’re playing Sam Bankman-Fried, do you understand how cryptocurrency works? I certainly don’t.
I can act like I understand it. I can pretend as if I know what I’m talking about, but I knew very little. My father bought me “Cryptocurrency for Dummies” for Christmas, and that came in pretty handy. But what have I learned about cryptocurrency? I’ve been filming for like five months, so I understand it now, but it’s it is very complex.
How much did you know about the story before heading into it?
Just as much as most people. I read a couple of articles on Sam, and was very interested in his sort of meteoric rise, and I was interested in FTX and then the scandal that followed, but I hadn’t done as deep a dive as I’ve done on it now.
Is it easier to portray someone like Sam Bankman-Fried when there is so much information about him out there or when it’s someone like Arthur Guinness, who you may be able to play with a little bit more?
I don’t know. I think I do my best work in a period piece. I’m very good with a lantern. I’m very good on a horse. Now I’m acting with a laptop and an iPhone. I’m lost. I’m sort of joking because it doesn’t matter if you’re playing a role in Shakespeare or a Greek play, and it’s 2,000 years ago, or if you’re playing someone now. You’re a human being and we haven’t changed. You read Shakespeare or an old play from hundreds of years ago, and we’re still feeling the same emotions, we’re still going through the same things.
“House of Guinness” Season 1 is available on Netflix.
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