WATCH: We’re obsessed with Andrew Scott in Netflix’s latest queer take on ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’
The Talented Mr. Ripley from esteemed author Patricia Highsmith (who also wrote Strangers On A Train and The Price Of Salt, which the movie Carol was based on), and then would appear again in multiple novels up through 1991’s Ripley Under Water.Then, a whole new audience met Ripley in Anthony Minghella’s acclaimed 1999 film of the same name, with Matt Damon in the titular role, conning his was into the life of spoiled heir Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law) with more than a little homoerotic tension—and deadly consequences.Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.Now, the infamous character returns to the screen anew—with a throwback black-and-white look—in Netflix’s gorgeous miniseries, Ripley, written and directed by Steven Zaillian (HBO’s The Night Of).This time around, he’s played by the great Andrew Scott, the out actor fresh off of his career best work in in the romantic ghost story All Of Us Strangers (which was shamefully snubbed by the Oscars).Pegged more as an adaptation of Highsmith’s novel than a remake of the ’99 film, Ripley opens on our antihero as a grifter doing what he can to survive in 1960s New York City.
When he meets wealthy shipping magnate Mr. Greenleaf, he cons himself into an opportunity: Travel to Italy to convince the man’s spoiled son, Dickie (Lovesick and Emma‘s Johnny Flynn), to return home and work for the family company.Is it wrong for queer villains to be this cool?But, with Ripley, it’s not so simple.
In Dickie, he sees everything he wants to be—and wants. And so begins a “complex life of deceit, fraud and murder.” The only thing standing in his was may be Dickie’s friend, Marge Sherwood (Dakota Fanning, in the role perviously played by Gwyneth Paltrow), who gets caught in the middle of the men’s jealousy-fueled friendship.Also among the cast are Maurizio Lombardi, Margherita Buy, Eliot Sumner (who’s father is Sting!), and John Malkovich—who notably has also.
