Andrew Scott reveals the biggest challenge he faced while playing fictional ... trends now
Andrew Scott has opened up about the biggest challenge he faced while playing the fictional serial killer Tom Ripley in the new Netflix adaptation.
The Fleabag actor, 47, is making his small screen return in the fresh take on Patricia Highsmith's enduringly popular 1955 novel The Talented Mr. 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 lies his way into the lavish world of the elite before resorting to deceit and murder in a desperate attempt to keep his place at the table.
What makes the tale by Highsmith so unique is that Ripley is the novel's protagonist, Scott said, despite being a serial killer, and 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, rather that where we might usually go, which is to feel like to be a victim of Tom Ripley',' Scott said.
Andrew Scott opened up about the biggest challenge he faced while playing fictional serial killer Tom Ripley for the new Netflix adaptation
The Fleabag actor is making his small screen return in the long-awaited series, based on Patricia Highsmith's enduringly popular 1955 novel The Talented Mr. Ripley
While promoting the series, Scott said what makes Highsmith 'one of the great crime writers' is that you are sometimes 'willing' for Tom to get away with his crimes, rather than simply seeing him as a villain.
He said: 'He's the protagonist he's not the antagonist, so it asks us to look at what's dark within ourselves.'
Scott went onto say that humans choose to categorise the perpetrators as 'monsters' in order to 'make ourselves feel safer'.
'Actually all these things are perpetrated by human beings and we have to be able to in some ways accept the very terrifying nature that people can make mistakes and be bad and inept and innocent and yet still do these terrible things,' he added.
'And I think that's what is so sort of unsettling about the character. So he's actually a deeply human character, but maybe not one that we choose to want to look at too much.'
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 movie which starred Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow.
With a noir take, in comparison to the sumptuous visuals of the Hollywood movie, critics have compared the Netflix version to Hitchcock in style and pace.
Malkovich, who previously played the title role in
