Steven Knight And James Norton Discuss ‘House Of Guinness’, First Day Of Filming And What Rafferty ‘Symbolizes’

James Norton as Sean Rafferty in ‘House of Guinness’

Netflix

Steven Knight is back with another captivating period drama, House of Guinness, now available on Netflix. The Peaky Blinders creator is no stranger to adapting true stories from the 19th or 20th Century for the screen and this time, he dived into the story of the Guinness family and the consequences of the death of Benjamin Guinness for his four children, Arthur (Anthony Boyle), Edward (Louis Partridge), Anne (Emily Fairn) and Benjamin (Fionn O’Shea).

Fans of Knight’s work know that the writer always puts a point to introducing his dark, brooding characters in an epic way, very often with a back shot, just like he did for Tommy Shelby in the very first episode of Peaky Blinders, or more recently for Henry ‘’Sugar’’ Goodson in A Thousand Blows.

In my previous interview with Knight for A Thousand Blows, we talked about these iconic back shots that he likes to write to introduce some of his characters. At the time, the writer told me, ‘’It’s a very good observation because you can only do that for someone, if you know that when they arrive, they’re going to deliver what you want.’’

This time, Knight wrote this introduction for James Norton’s character, Sean Rafferty, who has been working for the Guinness family for years as their foreman and fixer.

This interview contains important spoilers past this point.

‘’It’s not to say that the other actors couldn’t carry a back shot as well, because we’ve just been blessed with a generation of young Irish actors for this show, that are coming through and who are as you have seen, phenomenal. But I had a long conversation with James, before he took the role, because he’s not the lead, and yet his profil is so high. We talked about who his character is and what he symbolizes. And what he is, is where the Guinness family meets the world. He’s the enforcement, he’s the one that does the dark arts.’’

He added: ‘’I knew at the time how important he was going to be in terms of Arthur’s marriage, and how that would all play out, because there is a very important triangle that is Arthur, Olivia and Rafferty. So I felt that he could carry that moment where there’s a sense of trouble coming. When you come around and you see him, he can hold it and sustain it, which he does magnificently.’’

I talked with James Norton about his portrayal of Rafferty, and told him about Knight’s quote regarding the way an actor is going to deliver that very precise moment when the character turns around, and reveals his charisma and magnetism after a back shot. I also asked him about his reaction when he saw this shot for the first time.

He said, ‘’That’s very touching to hear, I didn’t know that! That’s a real compliment!’’

He added: ‘’The truth is, when they were shooting me from the back and I was strutting like Rafferty, my face was probably terrified! I was probably going, ‘Do the job well! Do this amazing role justice!’ I mean Steven wrote an amazing gift for me, it’s a beautiful role, it’s complicated, it’s fun! Tom [Shankland] and Mounia [Akl], the directors, really encouraged me to lean into the playfulness, because you know, there’s a version of Rafferty that is just hard and violent and kind of evoking this fear and respect around. But he never takes himself too seriously, Rafferty loves being Rafferty, which is a really fun thing to play as an actor.’’

He added: ‘’Steven told me very early on that Rafferty presents himself as simple, like he’s got simple boundaries, he wears the same clothes, he’s well put together, he knows who he is. But underneath that, he is hiding this deep well of complexities and contradictions, and that is a dream for an actor, because it just means that, as I went deeper into him, he just became more mysterious and complicated.’’

I also asked the English actor what was his first entry into his character, from the costumes, to his accent and the impact of the sets on his performance. He said, ‘’It happens in stages, it’s always the script first, and you see it written and you sense the kind of character they’re trying to achieve. Steven had this idea of Rafferty. Then it’s a very collaborative process where you meet the makeup artists, then you decide on the hair and particularly in a show like this, where it’s very visual and stylized. Richard Bullock, the designer of the show, he had a very clear idea from Steven’s script about the kind of smokiness, the kind of texture. Steven often described it as this kind of soot in the air, you can almost taste it and smell it, even in the smart drawing rooms of the wealthy.’’

He added: ‘’And then the costume design, before you even got on set, you’re wearing these clothes in a fitting and all pieces of the jigsaw come together, and create this wonderful alchemy. And then you have your first day, and you have your first line, and you’re anchoring your voice, you’re anchoring a walk and a physicality.’’

Then, diving back into his first day as Rafferty and using a Dublin’s accent, Norton said, ‘’My first day was the big stunt sequence, in the first episode, when I walk through all those fenians and beat them, during the funeral. Then my first line was ‘These Fenians, gentlemen, are gonna make us late, and I hate to be late.’ That first line was scary because you have to say it over an over again because you want to make sure the accent is right. I was also very hungover because I had my birthday the night before, so I was in a complete state. But luckily, I didn’t overthink it and it was a really wonderful first way into Rafferty, because it was very physical and emotional. It ripped the band- aid off.’’