“It’s My Own Body”: ‘House Of Guinness’ Actor Didn’t Use Prosthetic For Full-Frontal Scene

The Netflix show House Of Guinness has been delivering some fine Irish eye-candy to viewers since its premier last month, but news about the lack of a prosthetic for a particular appendage has got the gays all a-flutter.

The eight-part series follows the Guinness family in 19th century Dublin in a “Succession-esque” drama, as a family battle it out for ownership of the titular brewery in the wake of their father’s death.

Protagonist Arthur Guinness, portrayed by actor Anthony Boyle, has been of particular interest to queer viewers, with the show explicitly embracing his same sex-attraction after years of speculation from historians.

The show’s explicitness became of even more interest to queer viewers during a bathing scene, with Guinness dropping trou and giving viewers a much-discussed and complete full-frontal.

In a recent interview with Men’s Health, Boyle has laid to rest speculation over whether the show used a prosthetic, confirming that he was indeed 100 per cent au naturel.

“It’s my own body,” the 31-year-old told the magazine. “I’ve been naked on stage before, and I was naked in a film before. I sort of wrote that aspect into the scene.

“It was the night before we were filming, and [Arthur] was in the script originally meant to be getting his cufflinks on by the mirror. That felt a bit boring, so I called the director and said, ‘I think he should be smoking and drinking whiskey in the bath, and he should be completely naked and just get up, to show that he owns the whole fucking 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.”

No patience for homophobia: “people have been gay from the dawn of time”

The Irish actor has really embraced the portrayal of Guinness, including his sexuality, and has passionately refuted the idea that his queerness was invented purely for the show.

“In terms of saying there’s speculation about his sexuality: People have been gay from the dawn of time, and if we don’t follow the clues and write these people into history, then we’re writing them out of history,” he said. With a role like Arthur, the clues about everything are there, so if we were just to pretend that he wasn’t gay, we would be doing a disservice to everyone—and to history.”

Irish historian Joe Joyce was one of the first to propose that Guinness may have been gay, citing his childless, and apparently sexless, marriage with his wife Lady Olivia Charlotte Hedges-White.

“One thing Steven [Knight], who wrote the show, and I really wanted to get right is that we didn’t ever feel like Arthur should be ashamed of his sexuality,” said Boyle.

“He should be proud of it—the world around him got it wrong, but he knew who he was and felt pride in that. He would have harked back to Roman or Greek times and thought, ‘God, if only I was born then.'”