Why Steven Zaillian brought a monstrous, black-and-white version ofThe Talented Mr. Ripleyto Netflix.
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Its a deep-dive approach that is part of what makesRipleysuch an immersive watch.
If Zaillian hadnt had the ability to makeRipleythis long and sprawling, he wouldnt have done it.
Much of Ripleys distinctness comes from its mimicry of Zaillians own life (aside from the serial-killer thing).
His transfixed reaction the first time he saw a piece of Caravaggio-style artwork became Toms, too.
Ripleyis shot in black-and-white.
Youve said you consider the book the novelistic version of film noir.
Did classifying the story in that genre lead you to the color palette?Thats part of it.
The other part is because the story itself is a rather dark and sinister story.
We shot in the winter; the whole story takes place in the winter.
I didnt want blue skies; I wanted cloudy skies, rain and rain-glistening streets.
I had that look in mind from the beginning.
Its Tom Ripley by way ofThe Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
I wanted to put the camera way up high and get a shot of them lying on this beach.
As I was doing that and had Tom walk by, his shadow fell across them.
And Robert said, Well, that never would have happened with an overcast sky.
There are some good things about a clear, sunny day.
And because its beautiful; its a little better than a dry street.
It didnt look like any other painting in the place.
There was no one in the room except a museum guard and me.
He was talking about the chiaroscuro of the painting.
So I started seeking out all the Caravaggios in Italy when I was there.
When I was writing the script, I put that in, and it developed from there.
It became a sort of motif.
I felt that Tom was somebody who could appreciate art and would do something like that.
And at a certain point, I said, Well, lets show Caravaggio himself.
He murdered someone 350 years ago.
We went to the paintings in the cities we were shooting in.
In Naples, we went to Misericordia Church, which is whereSeven Merciesis.
In Rome, theres a triptych of three paintings in San Luigi dei Francesi, which Ive seen before.
Was establishing Tom as a killer always your beginning?It wasnt.
In the scripts, it starts in New York City.
During the editing, I had the idea to start there as a little prologue.
We had almost two years in post.
Something I like about that beginning is we see the cat Lucio for the first time.
A goat sees something.
The cat sees everything.
The Tom and Freddie dynamic feels shaped by a shared loathing thats potentially mixed up in their sexualities.
Eliot was cast from an audition tape, one of 200 actors who came in for that part.
And Eliot did something completely different, which was sophisticated, quiet, British.
And I thought,This is it.
Why cant this character be the most sophisticated person in the story?
The moment with the Ferragamo loafers, when Freddie realized Tom was wearing Dickies shoes, really threw me.
And I thought,That is so smart, to take in the shoes before.
I wont bother showing Freddie taking in or seeing the shoes, but he does.
It was a joke on the set when Id say, Lets get another shot of Freddies shoes.
Lets get another shot of Tom putting on his Ferragamos.
Its the thing that starts the whole sequence between these two, is this lying.
So theres a lot of shots of the shoes.
Were they scripted to that level of detail?They were scripted the pen, the Hermes Baby typewriter.
For me, these items are important, and theyre not important because they signify wealth to Tom.
I dont think Tom looks at them that way.
I think the people that own them look at them that way, like a status symbol.
But Tom just appreciates them for the beauty in them.
Hes attracted to them because he likes to look at them even the ashtray.
He just likes to have nice things around him, beautiful things.
Its not for a certain section of the community.
Did you create the series with a political angle as an intention?I wasnt really thinking about that.
I did think that Tom appreciates these things in a way that the rich dont.
The rich feel entitled to them, and they dont see the inherent beauty in them.
And he comes from a place where he does.
I want to ask you about Dickie and Marge, who were more homophobic than I expected.
Can you talk a bit about that characterization of them?I never really thought of them as homophobic.
For Dickie to say, Marge thinks youre queer, I dont think thats homophobic.
I think thats just what she thinks.
At one point she says, I dont know what to think of Toms sexuality.
I think Tom has never really loved anybody other than himself.
But the closest he comes is Dickie maybe he likes him, he might even love him.
And I think Dickie finds something attractive about Tom as well.
Andrew has said he doesnt see Tom as a villain.
Youve said that you dont think about generating sympathy or empathy when youre writing characters.
How much of that dark comedy was intentional?Its all intentional, yes.
I love the relationship between Tom and Marge.
Tom doesnt really appreciate it.
The scenes with them in Venice together I just love.
I liked how much friction there is in their arguments.
Dickies death is a huge moment.
What went into that?That particular sequence probably took a week to shoot.
Did we talk about it?
We didnt really talk a lot about anything.
The scripts I write arent shy about mentioning what a character is thinking or feeling.
I dont write camera angles, but I do write that.
In that particular case, Andrew had an awful lot to do.
We shot that in a tank.How do I get this guy downstairs?becomes a really elaborate problem.
Those two long sequences were in the script they werequitelong in the script.
For the most part, the series does not use handheld.
I did shoot it non-handheld, as wide, as well.
I like setting the frame and having the action take place in the frame.
It would be the only handheld shot in the whole series.
And he said, Well, maybe thats a good reason.
I think it looks really good here.
Im thinking of his I like girls line, which Andrew delivers very flatly.Everything in that scene is forthatline.
He had a lot of patience with me in that regard.
And when I heard it, I said, Okay, good, were done with this scene.
I mean, everything surprised me.
I was constantly surprised daily by the choices he would make.
Hes also really good at the process of things.
If he has to forge something, hes going to forge it.
If hes going to have to write a letter, hes going to write it.
There are scenes in the series where we are supposed to doubt Toms sanity a little bit.
Or when he sees Dickies ghost.
Or when he imagines Bokeem Woodbines detective listing all of his crimes.
What should we take away from those scenes?Its more about a glimpse into his mind.
But not to say, Oh, hes crazy.
There were actually more of them in the scripts.
But the ones we do see include when hes writing a letter to his aunt Dottie.
He imagines her at the dentist.
He imagines the people he doesnt like being in some uncomfortable situation.
And it was important to me that what he imagines is something that hes actually seen.
They describe themselves as art dealers, and Reeves is the closest thing Tom has to an ally.
And he said, Yeah!
Was Kenneth Lonergan cast as Herbert Greenleaf in a similar way?
What I didnt want was what I would call your standard blue-blood aristocratic rich guy.
I wanted somebody who felt more like a working man who made his money.
That would be more meaningful in terms of the story.
It was just, Hey Ken, maybe you want to do this.
But they are pretty terrible.
How did they come into being?We had an Italian artist in the art department, Valentina Troccoli.
She did all the Dickie paintings.
She also did the Picasso.
It turned out that the professional won the contest.
But if somebody wants to do it again, theres no shortage of material.
She wrote five books about Tom Ripley, so theres a lot there.
My favorite of those books is calledRipleys Game.
I just love that story.
