Ripley cast Andrew Scott Dakota Fanning Johnny Flynn Jude Law

Ripley: A side-by-side comparison of the cast of the film and the TV series

I fear no one will ever look better than Jude Law in white linen

1 month ago

After a lot of anticipation Netflix’s new Ripley series is here and, of course, everybody is sizing it up in contrast to the original 1999 film: The Talented Mr. Ripley. Tbh, it’s hard to see how anything can beat Jude Law, Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow swanning about on the Amalfi Coast with killer wardrobes and golden brown tans. But the black and white chiaroscuro Andrew Scott, Johnny Flynn and Dakota Fanning adaptation of the Dickie Greenleaf/Tom Ripley drama is definitely giving it a good try.

So, in case you’re conflicted about which cast is your favourite, or you’re simply intrigued to see how they directly compare, here’s all of the core cast from The Talented Mr. Ripley and Netflix’s Ripley series side by side for your analysis:

Tom Ripley

Originally, our narrative’s anti-hero, Tom Ripley, was played by Matt Damon. But in Ripley, Andrew Scott bring a totally re-imagined version of the role. The Guardian claimed he was “spellbinding” but The Independent thought he was “all wrong”. Huh.

Marge Sherwood

Back in 1999, Marge was originally played by Gwyneth Paltrow – who has some of the best Italian summer looks we’ve ever seen. In Ripley, Marge is taken on by Dakota Fanning who plays the character as much more cold and unapologetically ambitious.

Dickie Greenleaf

Minds have been lost over how good Jude Law looked in The Talented Mr. Ripley. Truly, he’s the blueprint of the guy you want to meet on holiday: tanned, toned, ironed linen, easy charm. Johnny Flynn presents a much more angsty Dickie Greenleaf: “I was thinking about Dickie’s lostness, and this attempt to forget himself,” he told AnOther.

Freddie Miles

Philip Seymour Hoffman originally played Dickie’s irritatingly prying friend Freddie Miles with a boarding school bolshiness. And, when Eliot Sumner auditioned for the Netflix production, he completely reimagined the character.

“I auditioned literally 200 people [for that part] and I would say 95% of those people were doing a [Philip Seymour] Hoffman impression,” director Steven Zaillian told Decider. “Eliot didn’t.”

Inspector Pietro Ravini

And, lastly, the man who made sure the jig was up – Inspector Pietro Ravini – was originally played by Sergio Rubini in the originaly 1999 film. For Netflix, the character is taken on by Maurizio Lombardi who totally loves Andrew Scott:

“When you play with such a great actor, it’s so easy,” he told Coming Soon of filming. “You can concentrate totally on your character because Andrew is so natural.” Cute!

Ripley is available to watch on Netflix now. For more like this and all the latest Netflix drops and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.