Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott) is a man of few words, but his world is far from silent. That was the challenge presented to production sound mixed Maurizio Argentieri by the acclaimed Netflix limited series “Ripley.” The show – based on “The Talented Mr. Ripley” by Patricia Highsmith and starring Andrew Scott as the titular con artist – is often driven by its immersive audio, from a pencil scribbling in a guest book at a hotel front desk to the sound of waves lapping up against a small boat.
“This was one of my biggest worries for the entire show, as you can imagine. Normally, for a production sound mixer, when you read pages without dialogue you can relax. But when I read the pages of ‘Ripley,’ I saw, ‘Oh, this is not the case,’” Argentieri tells Gold Derby in an exclusive video interview as part of our Meet the Experts: Sound panel. “Because between those lines of dialogue, there were descriptions of emotions, of feelings, of situations and sensations. I understood immediately that most of it was led by sound.”
That meant Argentieri was, in essence, the show’s first line of defense. “I understood that I had to be in control of everything because I was the first one who put the first stone on the construction of the sound of ‘Ripley,’” he explains. “I felt that I had to give the show something important.”
Created by Steve Zaillian, who wrote and directed every episode of the limited series, “Ripley” is set in the 1960s and hues as closely to period-specific details as possible, even down to the Ferragamo shoes worn by its actors. And while it was shot across Italy in real locations, certain settings – like Tom’s apartment in Rome – were built on a soundstage.
“Everything you hear sounds so natural because there was one person that was controlling it like a hawk during the one month of construction,” Argentieri says of his prep work. “So that the sound floor was put in a proper way that when an actor walked on the floor, it sounded proper and the footsteps didn’t sound fake.”
Argentieri’s attention to detail extended to even how he recorded the actors’ dialogue. He used period-appropriate devices to make it sound like a film from the 1960s, a risky choice that paid off, especially for Zaillian.
“I made a decision that was on my shoulders, this kind of decision because once you decide to give the sound such character, you cannot go back again,” Argentieri says. “It’s like a stamp. Of course, I talked with Steven but he didn’t realize the decision I made until he got into the editing room. Then, he wrote me a beautiful letter [saying how much he loved it].”
All episodes of “Ripley” are streaming on Netflix.
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