NEW YORK – One of the most popular titles on Netflix in April, the neo-noir thriller Ripley follows a down-on-his-luck con man hired to bring a wealthy man’s wayward son home from Italy.

When the charming Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott) befriends rich playboy Dickie (Johnny Flynn), he inserts himself into the lives of Dickie and his girlfriend Marge (Dakota Fanning). But Tom starts to envy their wealth and social position, and his actions become increasingly sinister.

And yet viewers may find themselves rooting for the enigmatic character anyway, says Scott, the 47-year-old Irish actor best known for playing antagonist James Moriarty in the BBC series Sherlock (2010 to 2017) and “the Hot Priest” in the acclaimed British comedy series Fleabag (2016 to 2019).

Ripley – which was No. 8 on Netflix’s global Top 10 English-language TV chart for the first week of April – is based on a series of novels by American author Patricia Highsmith, beginning with her 1955 psychological thriller The Talented Mr Ripley.

The latter was turned into the Oscar-nominated 1999 film of the same name starring Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow.

But this adaptation is an eight-episode limited series and its scenes of American expatriates living it up in 1960s Italy are artfully shot in black and white.

At a discussion in New York earlier in 2024, American writer-director Steven Zaillian explains why he wanted a long-form story.

“I read The Talented Mr Ripley in the 1980s and loved it. So when I was offered the opportunity to do it in an eight-hour format, I felt I could try to capture the feeling I had when I read it,” says the 71-year-old American, who won a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for the Holocaust drama Schindler’s List (1993).

“You don’t read a novel in two hours – it takes eight, 10 or 12 hours – and I wanted to recreate the pace and beauty of the storytelling in this form,” adds Zaillian, who also penned acclaimed films such as the historical drama Gangs Of New York (2002) and sports biopic Moneyball (2011).

Scott appreciated having time to fully explore the multi-layered character.

“It’s very unusual for an actor to get those eight hours of television,” says the star, who was Emmy-nominated for his guest actor stint in a 2019 episode of the dystopian series Black Mirror (2011 to present).

And it is a credit to both Zaillian and the late Highsmith that Tom is so compelling despite his dark side. “You root for somebody that you don’t necessarily feel okay about rooting for,” Scott says.

It is easy to pigeonhole the character, but he says the series tries not to, and that he himself prefers not to dissect Tom at all.

“With these great literary characters, what you have to fend off is how famous they are and the presumptions made about them, and words like ‘psychopath’ and ‘sociopath’.

“But I think you just have to look at the person. Everybody else can diagnose him, but we were very keen not to diagnose him too much.

“He’s a really fascinating literary character, and the questions we have about him are far more interesting than the answers.”

Unlike Dickie, Marge sees through Tom’s charm, and Fanning got a kick out of playing that.

“She is one of the only people who really doesn’t trust Tom from start to finish,” says the 30-year-old American actress, who portrayed a villainous vampire in The Twilight Saga film series (2009 to 2012). 

Tom and Marge face off in several tense scenes, an enjoyable challenge for the performers.

“We’re exchanging pleasantries, but what’s underneath is not pleasant,” says the former child star, who rose to prominence in films like I Am Sam (2001), Man On Fire (2004) and War Of The Worlds (2005).

But despite this cat-and-mouse game between the two, they are oddly similar, Scott believes.

“They do spend an awful lot of time with each other, and I think sometimes you dislike in others what you see in yourself.

“And I have a sense that they might have a fondness for each other.”

• Ripley is available on Netflix.