MovieChat Forums > The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) Discussion > Does Peter Smith-Kingsley remind you of....

Does Peter Smith-Kingsley remind you of...

posted 9 years ago by AllieMDA
2 replies | jump to latest

Stephen Fry?

Not Stephen Fry as he is now, but younger Stephen Fry, 1990's Stephen Fry, around the time of "Bits of Fry and Laurie" and especially the later 90's when he was literally transforming himself into Oscar Wilde. Also the movie "Peter's Friends" where Fry plays..Peter, a gay man who invites all his friends to come hang out with him b/c he may or may not be dying of AIDS (as used to happen in 1992).

Peter Smith-Kingsley reminds me of the tall, kind yet rather self-assured persona exhibited by Stephen Fry over the years.

- I love Stephen Fry so I suppose this makes me even more endeared to the Peter Smith-Kingsley character in this movie.

Does anyone know, offhand, if this Peter character in the book, or merely an invention for the film? Obviously a character in the 1955 Mr. Ripley novel could not have the same basis - what with it being two years before Stephen Fry was even born and all.

[–] Synthesizer_Patel 8 years ago

Yes, definitely. I thought the same.

[–] Quicksilver1900 8 years ago

It's just a type of Englishman...upper-middle class (not upper class - different accent), Oxford- or Cambridge-educated, quiet, refined, decent. Also it used to be a rather homogenous society, so there are certain physical types as well.