House of Guinness star Anthony Boyle confirms full-frontal was not a prosthetic – and his idea

House of Guinness star Anthony Boyle has confirmed that his full-frontal nude scene was not only 100% Boyle (and good for him, we might add) – but also his idea.

The eight-part series, from Netflix, follows the Guinness family through a particularly turbulent time in the family’s lore, starting in Dublin, 1868. Patriarch Benjamin Lee Guinness is dead, and according to the show’s synopsis, “his four children – each with dark secrets to hide – hold the brewery’s fate in their hands.” 

And if the brewery’s fate is as hefty as Anthony Boyle’s manhood, they’ve got a lot to contend with.

Boyle plays eldest Guinness child Arthur, and a scene from episode three of the historical drama has got fans thirsting for more than a pint of the black stuff.

Arthur is seen standing up from a bathtub, completely naked, with his, um, pint-glass-measurer fully on show. Speaking to Men’s Health, Boyle has confirmed that no prosthetics were used in the making of this nude-scene – and that it was his idea.

“It’s not a prosthetic. It’s my own body,” Boyle confirmed to the publication.

“I’ve been naked on stage before, and I was naked in a film before,” the actor added of being potentially daunted by getting his bits out.

“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 continued of the House of Guinness full-frontal.

“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.”

The series also sheds some light – or rather, more shadow – on the question over whether Arthur was gay.

The House of Guinness full-frontal is latest in a long (long) line of actors getting their kit off for real in projects; Cooper Koch confirmed that he was “well-hung” after a nude shower scene for Netflix’s Monster anthology and Barry Keoghan famously danced through Saltburn‘s most infamous scene without a prosthetic.

Boyle is joined by Louis Partridge, Emily Fairn, Fionn O’Shea, James Norton and more.

House of Guinness is streaming now on Netflix.

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