Go Behind the Scenes of The House of Guinness with Niamh McCormack

Niamh McCormack had a feeling about The House of Guinness. When the actress, who plays the revolutionary Ellen Cochrane on the new series, first read the script, “It was kind of like a cosmic moment of feeling like, I think this is my story to tell,” she says.

The feeling wasn’t wrong. McCormack landed the part of Cochrane, a Fenian, or political organizer dedicated to establishing an Irish republic, who gets perhaps too close to the rich, powerful Guinness family. The series may follow the push and pull between warring factions, but McCormack insists life on set was much less complicated.

“We had such a good time on set—we were a bunch of Irish actors making a show about Guinness,” she says with a laugh. “We drank a lot of Guinness, and we went out a lot and socialized. Because it’s a big, ensemble piece and everyone has their own storylines, we made a big effort to get to know each other off set, and it was pretty special.”

Here, McCormack opens her camera roll to T&C to share a behind-the-scenes look at the show.

“On a really, really hot day in August or September we were in these incredible costumes but they were very heavy and very warm. So, they got an ice cream truck and we all had a little scoop for dessert. Here’s Fionn [O’Shea, who plays Benjamin Guinness] in his villain-esque jacket, looking very good eating the ice cream.”

“I loved this corset so much—it was handmade for me. Not a lot of pieces were handmade, a lot of them were rented from an amazing costume warehouse, but all of Ellen’s clothes were handmade because she’s from the working class and wouldn’t have had as much range. This is in my trailer before I was going on to shoot some scenes with Louis Partridge and I had to capture the moment.”

“Louis Partridge [who plays Edward Guinness] was always strumming songs; he got really good. This was the same day as the ice cream truck, and he had changed into his normal clothes because it was so warm. A funny story about all of us: one of our first times hanging out, I think it was after the readthrough, it was me, Anto, Louis, and Fionn all in Louis’s room. He asked, ‘Niamh, can you sing?’ and I said, ‘Yeah.’ So, we sang ‘Linger’ by the Cranberries; he was strumming away and I was singing, and we got a noise complaint from security! There was a knock at the door, and we opened it, and they said, ‘You’re being very loud and if you don’t stop, you’re going to get kicked out.’ We had to be there for the next six months, and we didn’t want to rub anyone the wrong way.”

“It’s special to have this, because this was from a day we were shooting an amazing scene that actually ended up cut from the show. It was me and all the lads, a very male-heavy day, but I really remember it because it’s the day I got to know Jack Gleeson [who plays Byron Hedges]. We went for a walk, and I learned a lot about him—he’s big into poetry! This photo, though, is another chaotic moment.”

“I loved Ellen’s costumes so much; they told such a story but were also so different from what the Guinness family members wore. I was just trying to capture this moment of my transformation while I was sitting in my trailer. I didn’t keep any costumes—I wish!—but I did get to take some props, like letters that Ellen had written to Edward.”

“Seamus O’Hara, who plays my brother, is a dear friend of mine. I think he’h had a pretty rough day on set and was absolutely knackered. So, production ordered him a pizza to reward him and as you you see from his face, he’s just delighted with himself and with his pizza. He did share, so we all had a slice as well.”

“Shooting the wedding sequence was one of the only times that we were all together on set. It was a long, long day but Anto just looks so fabulous with his wedding suit on, giving me the middle finger as he does so well.”

“Another from the same day, with beautiful Danielle Galligan [Lady Olivia Hedges], who’s one of my great friends. It was her wedding on the show, and we were walking around when I said, ‘I have to capture this moment.’ We didn’t have any scenes together, so these two characters never interact in the show but we have that photo, which is beautiful.”

“This scene was really hard for us to film because I’m so close to Seamus and the makeup was so realistic. On this moment in between takes, I captured him looking bloody and beat-up, partly to remind myself that it wasn’t real because it felt so real in the scene. Doesn’t he look fucking amazing, though? What a face!”

“This was the day we wrapped The House of Guinness completely. Anto [Boyle] had ordered a Guinness truck to come in and pour pints for everyone, so me and a few of the girls—even though we were in normal clothes and not in costume—came to set to have a pint with everyone in the makeup truck. It was a chaotic moment, so I’m glad someone was able to capture it.”

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