Anthony Boyle Is Having a Craic With His Say Nothing Co-Star Josh Finan

For Anthony Boyle and Josh Finan, filming FX’s Say Nothing wasn’t just about stepping into the shoes of IRA members Brendan Hughes and Gerry Adams—it was about channeling the raw energy of Belfast’s violent past into something that felt real. Across the filming of the series, which is based on Patrick Radden Keefe’s acclaimed non-fiction work about the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the two actors built a bond that carried them through the emotional intensity of the show’s most visceral moments. Fresh off its release, Boyle and Finan reconnected to reflect on nailing the Belfast accent, nights at the pub, and balancing levity with the weight of their roles.

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ANTHONY BOYLE: Josh, what’s the craic?

JOSH FINAN: How are you doing, mate?

BOYLE: Good, man. How are you?

FINAN: All good, lad. Where are you?

BOYLE: West Belfast, a.k.a. god’s country.

FINAN: Are you at your ma and dad’s?

BOYLE: Yeah. My little sister’s birthday was yesterday.

FINAN: Oh, was it?

BOYLE: My wee sister just turned 20, which makes me feel a 100 years old, but it was good craic. We went out yesterday, saw the band Idles. What did you do this weekend?

FINAN: I’m back at my mom and dad’s as well, lad.

BOYLE: Look at us! Did your mom do the washing for you?

FINAN: No, she’s not done the washing, but there is lasagna currently in preparation.

BOYLE: Class, isn’t it? You sort of go, “Why did I ever leave?” So mate, Say Nothing, let’s talk about it.

FINAN: Have you watched it? Because I came back to watch it with my parents and my sister. Did you do the same?

BOYLE: I watched it with my family. Disney gave me a link a month or so ago. They were really into it. Did your family like it?

FINAN: Yeah, they did. We watched three eps a night over three nights and they kind of can’t get over it. Because A, it’s a big and shiny thing. But then B, it’s very good. I’ve seen it twice now, and the first time I was a little bit like a deer in headlights. I didn’t really know what to think, because you were there and you remember doing that scene, so you’re not taking it in as an audience member. And this time around, I just appreciated it as a show. I was like, “Oh, fuck. I would watch this.”

BOYLE: I know this sounds like the Brits are back in Ireland and there’s a helicopter above my head, but it’s the loudest washing machine in the world.

FINAN: [Laughs] That’s so fucking funny.

BOYLE: It’s going fucking mental. I don’t know how to turn it off.

FINAN: Is this one of the ones that you bought when you started getting paid cash?

BOYLE: [Laughs] Probably. Ah, fuck me man. 

FINAN: You can’t turn it off mid-wash as well, unless you want it to smell.

BOYLE: I know. These are the trials and tribulations of being back home.

FINAN: Yeah. So you haven’t regressed that much, then, if you’re in charge of the washing.

BOYLE: I know. It’s actually doing my fucking head in. I think you were in the middle of your sensitive speech about how you and your family sat there and watched it.

FINAN: Oh, yeah. They thought it was class. They think you’re brilliant, mate. My mom, she gorges on the reviews. She was like, “Oh, you just popped up on my Google recommendations!” I said, “That’s not a coincidence, mom. You trained the algorithm over weeks.” 

BOYLE: My granddad, when he was alive, god bless his soul, he’d just google my name and it’ll take him to Twitter. And if people were like, “Anthony Boyle is great in this,” he was like, “Print that off.” And then if someone was like, “Ah, I’m not sure about this show. I don’t think it’s great,” he was like, “Who the fuck do they think they are? Where’s their address?”

FINAN: [Laughs] No, mate. You’re working at the moment with one of my very good friends, Emily Fairn. Has she ever told you about when we did a show in the UK and it came out and her dad was looking on Twitter for reviews. It’s set in Liverpool and she just uses her own accent. And someone tweeted, “Didn’t like Emily’s accent.” And he was like, “That’s a fucking outrage. I found that he lives in Norris Green. Do we go around?” And Emily was like, “Are you joking? Absolutely not.”

BOYLE: [Laughs] Emily told me that story, mate. She’s a legend. I can’t wait for you to see her performance in House of Guinness. She killed it. 

FINAN: I adore her. I can’t wait to see that.

BOYLE: It’s good, my man. I’ve had this mustache all year, which when I don’t have the costume on, it looks like I’m a unicyclist or a failed magician.

FINAN: What was it, when we were at a pub in Belfast, and those lads that you know from home had a bet on whether or not that was real? Is that right?

BOYLE: We had fun in Belfast. When you were in Belfast, it was good craic.

FINAN: Yeah, it was class. How has the show gone down over there for you?

BOYLE: Mate, really well. Me and Lola [Petticrew] have done a screening two nights ago for friends and family, and that was what we were most nervous about. It’s weird. It got well reviewed, like in Time or The New York Times, but it’s Joe Bloggs on the street, it’s the people in our community, that’s who we care about. They bonded to it so viscerally. And then people would come up to me after saying, “I remember my father was interned” or “I remember when it happened to me, and that’s what it was like and it felt like this.” It was very special, very emotional. 

FINAN: I’m so pleased because it meant a lot to everyone, but particularly for you and Lola. The people who were from Belfast that I saw the most on set every day was you two. And you’ve both got such great confidence in yourselves and your work so no one else was worried. But I’m glad that any fear about showing it back home has lifted. Because you deserve to be proud of it.

BOYLE: And people are very proud of your accent. If people in Belfast don’t like someone’s accent it will be the first thing they say. “That wee lad’s accent was shady.” But yours was brilliant, mate. And I remember when you were cast, Mike Lennox called me and was like, “We found Gerry [Adams].” “Oh, who’s it going to be?” “He’s a wee lad from Liverpool.” And I was like, “What the fuck?” This is how we’re starting? We’ve got no chance.” I saw your picture and was like, “Yeah, he does look like a younger Gerry.” And then when you’d done the voice for the first time, my shoulders dropped. I was like, “Ah, I’m in good hands here.” 

FINAN: Mate, your endorsement of the accent, it made my shoulders drop as well. I was like, “If this is what it is, we’ll be alright.” Because I remember we went for a walk and started having a craic instantly. Part of what made it easy to jump in and out on a day of filming was that what we were going back into was a friendship.

BOYLE: Totally, man. 

FINAN: Weren’t you doing something just before this? 

BOYLE: I was filming in Budapest on a Tuesday, then I started filming Say Nothing on that Wednesday.

FINAN: That’s wild.

BOYLE: It was lucky that I didn’t have to do much acting in Say Nothing because the character is very similar to me.

FINAN: That’s liberating, rather than it being, “Oh, shit. I’ve got another job to do.” You can be like, “Ah, I can just go home” in a way.

BOYLE: Totally. I was working with Lola, who I’ve known since I was 11. I was working with [Say Nothing director] Michael Lennox, who cast me in a short film with Lola when we were 15. I worked with Mike a couple of times on Derry Girls. Me and Lola had done Romeo and Juliet, a show that ten people watched. By the end of it, there were two people there. It was so bad, man. 

FINAN: That’s so funny. 

BOYLE: So what’s next for Josh Finan? I feel like a proper interviewer right now.

FINAN: I’m back working with Mike. In fact, I’m not sure how much I can say about that, but I’ve been in Belfast all year working with Mike on something for Netflix, which is a big departure from the last thing we did. It’s very different in tone and it’s been a laugh. What about you, lad? What are you doing next?

BOYLE: I’m doing this House of Guinness job at the minute, and it’s really good fun. Next, I’m going to shave my mustache in three weeks. I’m going to New York to film something in the new year. I’m looking forward to it. I had such fun with that little premiere in New York. I love New York.

FINAN: That was class, man. That was so fun when we were all out there for the screening.

BOYLE: Yeah, really good.

FINAN: And dates permitting, we might be doing that film?

BOYLE: I would love to do that film with you, man. I was chatting to the director, he was saying we might be shooting in Donegal in the summer.

FINAN: Yeah, I’ve heard that.

BOYLE: Have you had much time up there?

FINAN: No, I’ve never been to Donegal, but I so enjoyed being in the north the last few months. We had to go to Newcastle as well. But just getting to be in Belfast, I fucking love Belfast.

BOYLE: It’s honestly so class. I’ve spent the majority of my twenties in America and England and never really here. The people, the craic, it’s just unreal, man. I love the energy of the place.

FINAN: So much of Say Nothing, those actors who are from Belfast, it required the whole of yourself, because you as an actor are put through your paces in terms of what you need to give and when. And I look at that and I see so recognizably my mate, Anthony Boyle. So much of your soul is now committed onto screen. Is there a bit of you that goes, “Fuck, this is too personal,” or “I’m worried here that I’m giving too much away?” Or is it just the most liberating thing in the world?

BOYLE: That’s what you’re chasing, isn’t it? You’re chasing a wee bit of truth. It felt like it’s the most honest performance I’ve ever given because usually I’m going, “Alright, this guy grew up in a very different environment. This guy is American, this guy is English. It’s a different time period. What’s his political views? How does he feel?” Whereas this felt like the most natural thing in the world. I’ve walked the streets that he’s walked. The first day we shot a scene, it was meant to be at the Felons Club and I came back to Belfast the week after and was in the Felons Club. There was a bit where the British soldiers roughing us up, can you remember?

FINAN: Yeah.

BOYLE: And they’re taking out your books from the bag and throwing it in the rain, in the puddles. And I remember my dad telling me a story about how every day he would go to Gaelic training and the British Army would take his stuff out of his bags and throw his training into the puddles. It’s just a small thing, but I thought about how every day that summer he would get up, put his stuff into his bag and go, “I’m going to be humiliated here in front of everybody and I’m a 15-year-old kid.” It wasn’t like I was intellectually in my head thinking about it. It was when they were throwing you up against the wall. It made me think about my dad in that moment, and I felt like him. It really overtook me with emotion. 

FINAN: It strikes me that so often in acting, people go, “You have to pretend. That’s what acting is, right?” I’m like, “Yes, it is kind of hard to walk and talk differently. That’s a challenge.” But there’s something about mining yourself and your families selves, and bringing that to the work. That’s just as hard. Harder, in a way.

BOYLE: The Responder was like that for you, right? You’re amazing in that show. And when I see you in that, you can see it’s not you, but it’s an extension of you. 

FINAN: Exactly.

BOYLE: It’s like you’re elongating certain aspects of your personality.

FINAN: To be honest, I did season two of The Responder after we wrapped on Say Nothing, and I took a lesson that I learned from you. Because I knew that my character goes through the ringer a bit more, and is always on the verge of a breakdown. And I was like, “How do I do that?” And I thought, “I’ve just seen someone do that, so I’m just going to do what he did.” Because on those harder, more emotionally challenging scenes, I don’t quite know what the word is—you keep it close to you. When we had that scene when I’d come in and Brendan [Hughes] had gone through the window and his arm’s fucked, between takes, you have that energy still, but not at the expense of being horrible to anyone. You think of actors who really commit, and the stories you hear are, “He was just mean to everyone.” But you prioritize the work, and so you needed to keep that emotional thing close to you. But you still communicated with the camera department, you communicated with Mike. People were still calling you Anthony. And that was a great lesson, because actors can—and I know I can—be a people pleaser. And actually you need to go inwards a little bit to prioritize the work being good, sometimes not wanting to lose that commitment to yourself.

BOYLE: Totally. You hit the nail on the head there. It’s about prioritizing the work but you’re not being an asshole. And you can still  try and stay in the energy of what the scene requires, but you can still thank the person that brought you a coffee, you can still reach out to the camera department and say, “Do you need me to be more on my left? Am I blocking you?” You don’t need to be rude at anyone’s expense. I think when people do that, it’s giving carte blanche to bad behaviors. Anything else you want to add here? 

FINAN: No, I’m all good, lad.

BOYLE: Mate, do you want to talk about maybe my scenes in the show that you love the best? Or maybe my performances I’ve given through the years that you love? Or maybe just list 10 qualities that you love about me.

FINAN: [Laughs] When you had to move on the chess board, what was your intention there as the knight?

BOYLE: To get the lines as quick as fucking possible. But mate, look, we’re wrapping up here. I just want to say, I’d love to work with you for the rest of my life. I had the best time with you on this job, man. And it was just a joy seeing you do your thing up close and watching the final product. And watching it in a room of Belfast people two nights ago, every one of them commented on how brilliant you were. For me, that’s the highest compliment. 

FINAN: Particularly coming from you, that’s high praise indeed. I fucking love you, lad. And I loved doing this job with you. When something feels easy, it’s a gift, isn’t it? 

BOYLE: Totally. It’s a gift. And that is how you end the interview. Boom.