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Peak gay villainy: 20 titillating facts about ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’

By Lee Meyer March 12, 2024 at 10:00am
Jude Law being sexy in The Talented Mr. Ripley. Photo credit: Paramount Pictures

The 1999 thriller The Talented Mr. Ripley—directed by Anthony Minghella and adapted from the Patricia Highsmith novel of the same name—tells the sordid tale of Tom Ripley (Matt Damon), a queer con man who befriends rich couple Dickie (Jude Law) and Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow) in Italy as part of a scam before *spoiler alert for a 25-year-old movie* killing Dickie and assuming his identity. 

The critically acclaimed film (which also stars Cate Blanchett and Philip Seymour Hoffman) was a hit for its excellent performances and sexy turns by Law and Damon. And it’s about to have another moment with Netflix’s upcoming eight-episode limited series adaptation Ripley starring queer actor Andrew Scott—who’s barely finished wiping the sweat from his brow after All Of Us Strangers. 

With the movie celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, here are 20 fascinating facts about The Talented Mr. Ripley.

1. Early test screenings were surprisingly negative.

Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law and Matt Damon in The Talented Mr. Ripley. Photo credit: Paramount Pictures

According to Vanity Fair, an early cut of the film left audiences scratching their heads when Ripley kills Dickie, so Minghella recut the opening to include more Hitchockian vibes and a song by Gabriel Yared sung with Sinéad O’Connor, “Lullaby For Cain.”

2. Other directors were considered for the project.

Matt Damon and Anthony Minghella. Photo credit: Getty Images

Roman Polanski, Mike Nichols, and Bernardo Bertolucci were all offered the film, but Minghella ultimately ran with it.

3. The role of Tom Ripley was originally offered to a soon-to-be massive star.

Vanity Fair reports that Leonardo DiCaprio rejected the role—right before catapulting to superstar status with the release of Titanic.

4. Outdoor filming in Italy was difficult because Damon was a huge star.

Matt Damon in 2019
Matt Damon (Photo: Shutterstock)

”Matt is able to deal with his public very gracefully, which was difficult when we were shooting because there were thousands of screaming tourists who became our audience,” Cate Blanchett told Entertainment Weekly in 1999.

5. Law was relatively unknown before the movie.

Jude Law. Photo credit: Getty Images

Though his character is killed partway through the film, Law’s stunning good looks and great performance got the majority of the buzz for Mr. Ripley, including an Oscar nomination.

6. Paltrow wasn’t allowed to read the source material because it depicts the female characters in a harsh light.

Gwyneth Paltrow. Photo credit: Getty Images

“I wasn’t allowed to read the book,” Paltrow told Entertainment Weekly. “Anthony [Minghella] forbid me.”

7. The movie is gayer than the book!

Since the book was published in 1955, the movie goes a little more modern and has Ripley constantly eyeing up Dickey. In one scene, he even tries to get into the bath with his buddy!

8. Marketing for the movie emphasized its gay sensibility.

Matt Damon. Photo: Getty Images

Damon even appeared in a cover story for The Advocate.

9. The famous “My Funny Valentine” scene was a late addition to the script.

Ripley and Dickie’s intense and sensual duet was added to the script six weeks before shooting, after Minghella saw a live performance of the song “Tu Vuò Fà L’Americano.”

10. The actors learned to play instruments for the film.

The Talented Mr. Ripley. Photo credit: Paramount Pictures

Law learned to play the saxophone, while Damon learned to play piano, according to E! Online.

11. Damon and Law hurt themselves (and each other) during the deadly fight scene on the boat.

Still from The Talented Mr. Ripley. Photo credit: Paramount Pictures

Law told Yahoo, “We busted each other up badly on that: I did his rib in, he did my rib in, and I gave him a bruise around the neck.”

12. Minghella was adamant that Ripley’s sexual orientation not be the reason for his deadly actions.

Still from The Talented Mr. Ripley. Photo credit: Paramount Pictures

He told The New York Times in 1999: “I’m desperate that no one infer a connection between his actions in the film and his sexuality…But it’s a sorry state of affairs if you can only write about a homosexual character who behaves well—that’s another kind of tyranny.”

13. Damon agreed that the character was not evil because of his sexuality.

Image Credit: ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley,’ Paramount Pictures

He told The Advocate, “If you go into the theater thinking he’s a ‘gay serial killer’ and not a tormented, sensitive human being—then you may as well stay home.”

14. The film garnered five Oscar nominations.

The Talented Mr. Ripley didn’t win any Oscars, but it was nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Law); Best Adapted Screenplay (Minghella); Best Original Score (Gabriel Yared); Best Art Direction (Roy Walker and Bruno Cesari); and Best Costume Design (Ann Roth and Gary Jones).

15. The movie inspired one of the worst movies of all time.

According to actor and writer Greg Sestero, his friend Tommy Wiseau was inspired to make his schlocky masterpiece, The Room, after seeing The Talented Mr. Ripley. “The movie had bludgeoned him to within an inch of his emotional life,” Sestero wrote in The Disaster Artist. Wiseau went on to self-fund, write, direct and star in The Room, a disastrously bad movie that has garnered a huge cult following.

16. Highsmith is responsible for another major gay film, as well.

Image Credit: ‘Carol,’ Lionsgate

Her sapphic novel The Price Of Salt, written under the pseudonym Claire Morgan, was adapted into Carol in 2015 and starred Ripley’s Cate Blanchett.

17. Tom Ripley stars in a total of five novels by Highsmith.

Patricia Highsmith. Photo credit: Getty Images

In addition to 1955 The Talented Mr. Ripley novel, the character appears in Ripley Under Ground (’70), Ripley’s Game (’74), The Boy Who Followed Ripley (’80), and Ripley Under Water (’91).

18. The movie is not the first adaptation of Ripley.

The 1960 French film Purple Noon, directed by René Clément, stars Alain Delon as Mr. Ripley as is loosely based on Highsmith’s original novel.

19. Ripley Under Ground and Ripley’s Game have also been adapted into films.

Ripley’s Game, released in 2002, starred John Malkovich. The 2005 film Ripley Under Ground was directed by Roger Spottiswoode and included Alan Cumming, Willem Dafoe, Tom Wilkinson and Barry Pepper in the cast. The films are unrelated, save for the title character.

20. While Saltburn shares many thematic similarities with The Talented Mr. Ripley, director Emerald Fennell says it was not one of her inspirations.

Image Credit: ‘Saltburn,’ MGM

She told Radio Times: “Do you know what? It actually wasn’t really [something I was thinking about]…I mean, obviously Highsmith is one of my absolute favorites, but I think that I was sort of looking more at that British Country House tradition of The Go-Between and that sort of very specific British… sort of Joseph Losey world, where class and power and sex all kind of collide in one specific place.”

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6 Comments*

  • bachy

    The Talented Mr. Ripley has been a huge favorite because:

    1. I absolutely adore Patricia Highsmith’s dark, menacing novels.

    2. Jude Law’s brilliant depiction of Dickie’s toxic masculinity.

    3. After a decade of gay characters in film mincing and simpering as the impotent and effeminate “gay best friend,” the return to and reframing of the archetypal gay role of dangerous outsider was bracing.

    Totally looking forward to the new iteration of the novel coming on NETFLIX.

    • Mattster

      It’s odd that in a movie (and novel) where an amoral character murders two people you cite one of the victims for toxicity.

      I actually don’t think Damon’s Ripley was that far off from the mincing and simpering tropes that have long typified Hollywood treatment of gays. Yes, he kills, but in the main kill it’s an act of near-hysteria.

      As for impotent, Damon’s Ripley has no sex life, another typical Hollywood trope.

      I enjoyed the movie, and figured it was a period piece adopting stereotypes of that era, but IMO it was no bracing change for the depiction of gay people (nor was it trying to be).

      For Gay men as menacing outsiders, as agents of their own stories and having sex lives, I’d say we were better served by The Living End and Apartment Zero, both of which predate Talented Mr Ripley by over a decade.

    • theherald

      @Mattster
      Ripley has a sex life. He has boyfriend at the end of the movie, who is is forced to kill to keep his identity a secret.

    • dwick

      Dickie wasn’t a good person. Did he deserve to die? No

    • BLAKENOW

      Purple Noon never gets the proper credit for being the original film and is by far a better film.
      Alain Delon was smoking hot.
      Everyone really should see the remastered copy that Scorsese released

  • Bruce W

    This story needs to give credit to Chet Baker for the amazing rendition of My Funny Valentine!

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