Andrew Scott has revealed the “truly terrifying” challenge he faced while playing fictional serial killer Tom Ripley during a candid chat with Jimmy Kimmel.
The Irish actor, 47, made his return to the small screen as the lead in Netflix’s adaptation Ripley, which aired on Thursday and has already received rave reviews.
Opening up about his demanding role, he revealed that it wasn’t the role of a killer that scared him, but the fact that 15 percent of his acting was in Italian.
“It was really scary because he could speak good Italian,” the Fleabag favorite admitted.
“So I’m an Irishman playing an American who also speaks Italian, but I’m also an Irishman playing an American who impersonates another American and speaks Italian,” he added, leaving host Jimmy stunned.
Andrew Scott has revealed the ‘truly terrifying’ challenge he faced while playing fictional serial killer Tom Ripley during a candid chat with Jimmy Kimmel
The Irish actor, 47, revealed that 15 percent of his acting was in Italian as he played the demanding role in the new Netflix adaptation, which was released on Thursday
The All Of Us Strangers star also explained that he had an Italian coach who taught him as he needed to be fluent and nail the accent.
‘You want to get those details right. It’s for one’s own pride,” he said.
Andreas plays in the fresh take on the enduringly popular novel The Talented Mr. Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 Ripley – a role previously played by Matt Damon and John Malkovich.
Set in the 1960s, Ripley is hired by a wealthy New Yorker to travel to Italy to convince his wayward son Dickie (played by Johnny Flynn) to return home.
Ripley makes his way into the opulent world of the elite before resorting to deceit and murder in a desperate attempt to keep his place at the table.
The Hollywood alum continued to show off his impeccable fashion sense as he donned a dogtooth blazer for his appearance on the US talk show.
Andrew looked in good spirits as he waved to a devoted crowd of fans cheering him on.
The Specter star wore a white tank top underneath the stylish jacket and paired his look with faded denim.
He added white loafers and rocked maroon-hued retro shades as he beamed.
“It was really scary because he could speak good Italian,” the Fleabag favorite admitted
The Hollywood alum continued to show off his impeccable fashion sense as he donned a dogtooth blazer for his appearance on the US talk show
He waved to a devoted crowd of fans cheering him on
The Hollywood alum appeared pleasant and jovial, and didn’t seem to mind greeting a few lucky fans.
He recently opened up to discuss more challenges that the iconic thriller role required.
What makes Highsmith’s story so unique is that Ripley is the novel’s protagonist, Andrew said, despite being a serial killer, and he encourages readers to see his humanity.
“The challenge of it was, ‘How do you make the audience feel what it’s like to be Tom Ripley, instead of where we normally go, which is the feeling of being a victim of Tom Ripley,’” the actor said.
While promoting the series, Andrew said that what makes Highsmith “one of the great crime writers” is that sometimes you are “willing” for Tom to get away with his crimes, rather than simply seeing him as a villain.
The Sherlock star stopped to sign a few autographs when a swarm of fans climbed the locked gates in an attempt to reach him.
He said, “He’s the main character, he’s not the antagonist, so it asks us to look at what’s dark within ourselves.”
The 1917 star went on to say that people choose to categorize perpetrators as “monsters” to “make ourselves feel safer.”
“Basically all of these things are committed by humans and in some ways we have to be able to accept the very scary nature that humans can make mistakes and be evil and clumsy and innocent and still do these terrible things,” he added.
“And I think that’s what’s so disturbing about the character. So he’s actually a deeply human character, but maybe not someone we want to look at too much.”
The Fleabag favorite wore a white tank top under the stylish jacket
Andrew added white loafers and rocked retro maroon shades
The Sherlock star stopped to sign a few autographs when a swarm of fans scaled the locked gates in an attempt to reach him
Oscar-winning screenwriter Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List) wrote and directed the latest adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley, following in the footsteps of the 1999 film starring Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Featuring a noir version, compared to the Hollywood film’s lush visuals, critics have compared the Netflix version to Hitchcock in style and pacing.
Ava star John, 70, – who previously played the title role in the 2002 film Ripley’s Game – returns to the world of Tom Ripley in a very different installment, while the star-studded cast also includes Dakota Fanning who plays Marge Sherwood, an American living in Italy begins to suspect Tom’s motives.
Although Andrew was praised, some reviewers felt that the supporting cast fell short Evening standard‘s Anna Van Praagh deciding that Dakota Fanning “can’t compete for a second with Gwyneth’s Paltrow’s flawless Marge Sherwood, and Johnny Flynn is left dead on the side of the road compared to Jude Law’s portrayal of Dickie Greenleaf, a character he inhabited perfectly.” ‘
However, the director’s images have left critics impressed with Carol Midgely The times noting that “it’s so cinematic that it feels less like a TV series and more like a really long movie,” calling it “a completely hypnotic experience.”
Christopher Stephens of The Ny Breaking writes: ‘This isn’t just any television, it’s a tribute to great directors of the 1940s like Carol Reed or Alfred Hitchcock.’
Meanwhile, Andrew’s pivotal performance has captivated early viewers, with the Irish actor being labeled ‘enchanting’.
Lucy Mangan for The guard writes in her five-star review that “Scott’s Tom is everything and nothing, and hypnotic anyway,” adding, “There’s magic at work here.”
But the IndependentAdam White insists that Scott, who also serves as executive producer, “feels completely wrong” and is comparable to an EastEnders villain, looking “more like a lost Mitchell brother than a high society interloper.”
Andrew stars in the fresh version of Patricia Highsmith’s enduringly popular 1955 novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley – a role previously played by Matt Damon and John Malkovich
The star-studded cast also includes Dakota Fanning, who voices Marge Sherwood and Johnny Flynn as Dickie
Fans have also applauded Scott’s performance, such as tasking about X, before, TweetOn Wednesday evening, mesmerized viewers wrote: ‘Okay so I’ve already worked for two hours and I’m drinking a big cup of tea and watching the first episode of Ripley on Netflix and I’m here to tell you that it and Andrew Scott are both amazingly beautiful and strange and very disturbing and you should watch it;
‘The Ripley series is on Netflix today. Slow but intriguing…Scott is fantastic’; ‘A new Netflix series makes Andrew Scott the definitive Tom Ripley’; ‘Salt burn? Netflix said I present to you Ripley. We love a con man!’
Scott called Ripley “a tough role to play,” tellingly Vanity fair that he ‘found it very difficult mentally and physically’. That’s just the truth.’
“I feel like you have an obligation to love and defend your characters, and it’s your job to say, ‘Why?’ What is that?’ You’re not playing into the opinions, the previous views that people might have about Tom Ripley.
‘You have to throw them all away, try not to listen to them and say, “Okay, I have to have the courage to create our own version and my own understanding of the character.”
