Ripley star Andrew Scott explains to us how it felt to follow in the footsteps of John Malkovich in the iconic role of Mr. Ripley. He also tells us why Irish stars like Cillian Murphy, Barry Keoghan, and Saoirse Ronan are so talented and popular. He takes us through his some of his past roles – including Moriarty and Hot Priest.
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00:00When he started being called hot priest I suppose that's when you realize that there's something
00:03is taking over because nobody ever says oh you played the priest they always say you play the
00:07hot priest or the sexy priest whatever um so that's when I suppose I knew um and it's still
00:12going on you know I was in LA recently and people just shout hot priest from their cars
00:17you think I don't know what you really want me to do with that it hasn't passed that's what
00:22somebody said to me the other day hello this is Andrew Scott here and Esquire have invited me to
00:27explain this so here we go
00:36Cillian Murphy, Barry Keoghan, Andrew Scott why does the internet love Irish men so much
00:41what about Paul Metzger what's wrong with him oh yeah we had him scratched from this question
00:47what's a joke idiot it's really wonderful there's a real moment for Irish actors at the moment and
00:52not just the men actually Saoirse Ronan and Ruth Negan, Alison Oliver um but no I'm really
00:57proud of those people Cillian and I have known each other for many many years we've worked
01:01together I adore him and uh Barry Keoghan what a talent and I guess Paul Metzger no
01:10stop joking about that was there a moment you realized hot priest would be a cultural phenomenon
01:16uh no I you know that I always say this the character was never called was never called
01:20hot priest he was just called priest in the script otherwise that would be just a bit creepy so when
01:24he started being called hot priest I suppose that's when you realize that there's something
01:28is taking over because nobody ever says oh you played the priest they always say you played a
01:32hot priest or the sexy priest whatever um so that's when I suppose I knew um and it's still
01:37going on you know I was in LA recently and people just shout hot priest from their cars
01:42you think I don't know what you really want me to do with that it hasn't passed that's what
01:47somebody said to me the other day anyway there are worse things to be called in life has Andrew
01:51Scott discussed what the fox symbolizes to him I have an idea but I think that people come up with
01:56so many more interesting ideas about what the fox is foxes are so magical and you do see them in
02:03London particularly at night and uh they are kind of ethereal magical creatures it should be said
02:08about the fox that did appear in Fleabag he was a showbiz fox originally and everybody was quite
02:16nervous about this fox coming to the set it was about two o'clock in the morning in the middle
02:20central London and the only way the fox would come out of his little fox cage sort of you know
02:27dressing room was if they played I won't go down with this ship by Dido
02:34they sort of play I won't go down with this ship and we were sort of ducking behind
02:38hedges waiting for this fox to be calm enough once it listened to Dido he was quite difficult
02:46to work with but anyway we won't go into that what are my secrets to posing oh well Paul says
02:50that I taught him how to pose on the internet which is just like I just can't think of a worse
02:55teacher to tell you how to pose on the red carpet because it's always so frightening but
03:00try not to look like really terrified they really do scream at you on the red carpet
03:09so when anyone screams at you your instinct is to sort of say sorry or at least mine is
03:15because maybe that's because I was brought up in Catholic Ireland so don't say sorry to the press
03:21and then try and find something to do with your hands pockets put them together I don't know I
03:25really don't think I should I should be giving any advice actually on any subject do you have
03:30a dream superhero or villain role no do you remember your audition for Sherlock I remember
03:39it extremely well I was very anxious that they wouldn't think that I was just a little Irish
03:47innocent boy so I was really determined to um frighten the shit out of them and I remember
03:54feeling that they were quite frightened and surprised and Moriarty was only just supposed
03:59to appear at the very end of season one and there was he was only supposed to sort of say hello and
04:04that would be the end of it but they had to audition all the actors to see if they would be
04:08good enough to be not just in that segment but across three series so they'd made up an audition
04:14scene for actors to do and that's what I did in the audition and they ended up using it and
04:18ended up being this big swimming pool scene in Sherlock and it was beautifully written and
04:23the producers were like I think I shouted at them or something what is the secret to playing a
04:29convincing villain I don't think you should ever feel like you're playing a villain everybody else
04:34can call you whatever they want to call you but when you're playing a villainous character you
04:39have to think oh well I understand why he's doing it why is he doing this I've played a few villains
04:44so to speak in my time and Moriarty certainly was one every fairy tale needs a good old-fashioned
04:49villain but in relation to a character like Tom Ripley who people can call a villain I really
04:56don't see him as a villain I see him possibly as an anti-hero but I don't think he's a villain
05:00but that's just me are you a good liar in real life no I think I've got what's known as a quite
05:06a scrutable face people know what's going on I'm not very good at disguising what I'm thinking which
05:12is maybe a handy thing in real life but on screen I think I don't know it's hard to know but I'm not
05:18a good liar I go really red in fact I think I'm going a little bit red now have I ever been caught
05:22in a lie I really don't believe when you go and see somebody in a play and you haven't enjoyed it
05:27that you should tell them like if I've been in a play and you know it's bad and someone goes I
05:32didn't really go for it I thought or they start you know laying into what they don't like if I
05:36just think don't tell me now just buy the person a drink and talk about the costumes or say one of
05:42the things you can say is you did it again what's one thing you learned while working with Phoebe
05:48Waterbridge oh my god so much Phoebe knows how to live you know she's uh so ridiculously generous
05:56and um just massively fun and she can come up with things creatively so incredibly quickly that
06:02are so right a lot of the really iconic moments from Fleabag were things that we discovered really
06:07in the moment um and that's a really wonderful thing to hold on to because it means that you're
06:11really alive on set you know and you're not just walking around just being a slave to what you
06:16thought it might be you have to listen to what's happening actually on the day she's amazing I love
06:20her I love her always in what way does the Ripley series differ from the 1999 film this is very
06:28film noir-ish I think we really focus on the crime element Italy looks completely beautiful
06:35um I think the real chief difference is that we spent a huge amount of time with Tom Ripley there's
06:39it's eight and a half hours and Tom Ripley the character I play appears in 95 percent of the
06:46scenes so we're spending a huge amount of time with him on his own which was actually the singular
06:50challenge of playing the part because I love the fun of the other actors um so you really get to
06:54delve into him and you see every thought that goes on in his head and he's such an iconic character
06:59to play John Malkovich actually played Ripley he appears in our show too which was really
07:04intimidating but wonderful um it's unlike any other tv show I've seen in recent years and so
07:09I really hope people like it I'm still Andrew Scott thank you for watching