What did you miss?
Jack Davenport has confessed he was hugely intimidated filming The Talented Mr. Ripley with Matt Damon – because of the audience of thousands who gathered to watch them on location.
The Ten Percent actor confessed working with Hollywood actor Damon on the 1999 film was like “doing street theatre with a popstar” because thousands of fans would gather in the public spaces where they were shooting in Italy to watch them perform.
What, how, and why?
Davenport, 50, had his first major movie role in Anthony Minghella’s acclaimed adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Talented. Mr Ripley alongside Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
The This Life star appeared on The One Show and opened up on filming one famous scene in St Mark’s Square in Venice. He told Alex Jones and Lauren Laverne: “We filmed all over Italy, and that’s St Mark’s Square in Venice, which is one of the most famous places in the world really. And we would rehearse in the early morning and then we would leave and by the time we got back… What you can’t see there is there’s like 4,000 people roped off around the edge. And most of them are Italian so they’re not backward in coming forward.
“I would say it’s a bit like trying to do street theatre with a pop star. No one was there to look at me, everyone was going crazy about Matt. Everywhere we went was like that. It was a lot to cope with.”
He added: “No one gets to make many movies which stand the test of time, but that is one that endures in a way. It’s a good one.”
What else happened on The One Show?
Davenport also reminisced about cult 90s show This Life, but was sceptical about doing another reunion after the last one had been so unpopular with fans.
The Pirates of the Caribbean star rose to fame as Miles in the BBC Two 90s drama about London flatmates, alongside Andrew Lincoln, Amita Dhiri and Daniela Nardini. The show ended in 1997, but the cast were reunited in 2007 for the 80-minute special This Life + 10.
Davenport confessed: “People didn’t love the reunion. People got quite upset about the reunion. Everyone complained about it not being like the original – I was like yeah because it was a one-off!”
But he admitted being part of the show had been very special.
Davenport gushed: “It was magical. It was amazing, We were all children! Andrew Lincoln and I were like 22 years old and none of us had really worked in television before. We all had these big parts and these amazing scripts and we were terrified – and then it became a thing. The mid-nineties were quite an overwhelming period.” He went on: “I’m sure it feels very dated no, but at the time it was deemed rather revolutionary to have characters behaving badly and not have immediate repercussions and I think people quite liked that.”
The One Show airs on BBC One at 7pm Monday to Friday.
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Sophie Anderson, a UK-based writer, is your guide to the latest trends, viral sensations, and internet phenomena. With a finger on the pulse of digital culture, she explores what’s trending across social media and pop culture, keeping readers in the know about the latest online sensations.
