Dakota Fanning Talks About Replacing Gwyneth Paltrow Character In Netflix Ripley Series

Fanning said that while she is taking over the role, she isn’t looking to outshine Paltrow. The goal is to do something completely different and put her own spin on Marge.

The director knew right away Dakota Fanning was the perfect actress for the role. Likewise, Dakota was more than ready to take on the job of playing Marge. It was the kind of position she’d been dreaming of her whole career, which is over 20 years long, for those counting.

Having always been a huge fan of the movie, Dakota Fanning was excited to be a part of Ripley. As she said in her interview with Toronto Sun, “I would have watched this show even if I wasn’t in it. I would have been excited for it and waiting for it,” the Georgia native enthuses. “I think getting to spend eight hours with these characters, and do a deeper dive that you can only do when you have more time was very exciting for me. So when it came about, I said I would do it before I spoke to Steve. I was excited to be a part of this version and this incarnation of such a beloved story.”

In addition to Dakota Fanning, other cast members include Andrew Scott (Sherlock) and Jonny Flynn (Emma). The miniseries was written and directed by Steven Zaillian (The Irishman).

For those unfamiliar with the source material, the story follows a cheque scammer, Tom, who is hired to convince a wealthy man’s son to return to America from Italy. However, Tom falls in love with the rich lifestyle and kills the son in order to take on his identity. Marge grows wary of Tom and he has to quickly cover his tracks to avoid someone finding him out.

Though the miniseries isn’t aiming to perfectly recreate the movie, it is relatively loyal to the original book. Some things have been toned down to make the show a little darker, such as Tom’s playfulness. There’s also one major change, which is that the main characters are much older, by roughly 20 years, than the original characters.

Netflix’s miniseries is actually the third adaptation. In addition to the 1999 Talented Mr. Ripley, there’s also 1960’s Purple Noon. However, Ripley is definitely the most faithful out of all the adaptations.

To make sure the miniseries throws viewers into the right mindset, it was filmed in black-and-white and on location in Italy. This is the second time in recent memory Dakota Fanning got to film in the country–she was also there for her part in The Equalizer 3.

With the nearby cities and locations being so amazing, Dakota Fanning couldn’t complain. To see all the sites between work, she visited and walked as much as she could. “I was in Rome, the Amalfi Coast, Capri, Naples and Venice. Because I spent the most amount of time there, I walked more than I ever have in my whole life. I would just walk along the water in Rome and just walk as long as I could and then stop at my favourite restaurant in Trastevere and have a glass of wine and my pasta and walk home. That’s just what I would do. It’s so spectacularly beautiful.”

If you want to see how well Dakota Fanning did in her role as Marge, Ripley is now streaming on Netflix. So far, it’s been pretty popular, with a critic score of 87 percent and an audience score of 74 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Source: Toronto Sun