‘Ripley’ Keeping Character’s Queerness Ambiguous, Says Andrew Scott

Netflix’s Ripley, an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s classic novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, looks to keep the ambiguity surrounding its titular character’s queerness. 

Andrew Scott, who plays the shrewd conman Tom Ripley in Steven Zaillian’s new series, weighed in on the longstanding discussion about the character’s queerness in a recent interview with Queerty. 

Speaking about Ripley’s sexuality, Scott says: “I felt quite strongly that I didn’t want to overly diagnose – for want of a better word – his sexuality, or even his nationality, or his age, or his upbringing.”

“I certainly think he uses the prejudice of the time for his own gain, because so much of the atmosphere at the time was coded about secrets, about what people say versus what they might actually feel.” 

The original 1955 novel upon which the series is based is similarly vague on Tom Ripley’s sexuality, and Patrica Highsmith suggested in 1988 that she didn’t consider the character to be explicitly gay.

Even so, Highsmith’s assertion hasn’t stopped adaptations like 1999’s The Talented Mr. Ripley bringing the character’s queerness closer to the surface by more directly suggesting that Tom has feelings for Dickie Greenleaf. 

Scott’s perspective is that the muddiness surrounding Ripley’s character and morality is part of the fun, saying: “There’s something that’s so enduring about this character, and I think it’s because we have so many questions about him. 

“To reduce the character by answering too many of those questions is a crime in itself.”

First gay actor to play Tom Ripley

Andrew Scott is the first openly gay actor to play the part of Tom Ripley, and steps into the role with a hugely impressive resume behind him. 

Perhaps known most famously online as the Hot Priest from Fleabag, the Irish actor also starred in 2023’s highly touching All Of Us Strangers, an unashamedly gay and modern ghost story for which he was Golden Globe-nominated.   

For Scott, the challenge of playing Tom Ripley came from his inherent unknowability. He says: “Your first job as an actor is to try and understand the character and not judge them… for that reason, you kind of love them.”

“The big challenge for me in this character was to accept the fact that there’ll be some part of Tom that I’ll never know – as much as I want to – which made it a kind of lonely place to be.” 

Scott’s work seems to have paid off: Ripley has debuted to positive reviews from critics, with particular praise given towards Scott’s darker interpretation of the sociopathic Ripley. Empire’s John Nugent describes him as “a markedly different Ripley than any we’re used to.” 

All eight episodes of Ripley are available to stream now on Netflix.