00:00There's a moodiness and a tone that is immediately set by it being in black and white,
00:04and I now can't imagine it any other way.
00:08The new Netflix series Ripley, captured entirely in black and white,
00:12sees Oscar-winning Schindler's List screenwriter Steve Zalian
00:14share his take on author Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley novels.
00:18Zalian and the show's stars spoke to The Hollywood Reporter
00:21all about working on the limited series.
00:23Dakota Fanning revealed what made her want to be part of the project.
00:26I was a massive admirer of Steve Zalian and his work and how brilliant he is,
00:32so I pretty much, when it was even mentioned that he wanted to speak with me or send me the scripts,
00:37I said, well, I'll do it no matter, make sure he knows that I'll do it no matter what,
00:41no matter how the conversation goes, I will do it if he wants me to.
00:44And then, you know, just reading the scripts and reading Steve's vision, you know, on the page,
00:50I just was desperate to be a part of it and lucky that he wanted me to be.
00:57Andrew Scott echoed those sentiments at the film's Los Angeles premiere
01:00when asked what drew him to the series.
01:02Chiefly the extraordinary script that Steve Zalian wrote,
01:05I thought it was really witty and I thought it was just economically and beautifully
01:11and sort of scintillatingly written and it seemed to have a real respect for the book
01:15without having too much reverence for it, it made it very televisual.
01:18Scott stars as Tom Ripley, a grifter scraping by in early 1960s New York
01:22before a unique job leads him into a complex life of deceit, fraud and murder.
01:27Fanning, who plays Marge Sherwood, opened up about what it was like working with Scott on the drama.
01:32Oh, it was so fun. It really was.
01:34You know, we have, our characters have such a complicated dynamic and relationship
01:39and, you know, we get to kind of go toe-to-toe with one another in most of our scenes together
01:44and so we really enjoyed doing that.
01:47And then just as a human being, he's a wonderful person
01:50and I think we approach our work similarly that, you know, we also need the kind of some lightness
01:57and the play and the joy to balance out some of the heavy, long, darker days
02:01and so I think we were able to support each other in that way too and also have a really good time.
02:07Highsmith's Tom Ripley character is no stranger to the screen
02:09as her novels have been adapted into various films such as 1977's The American Friend
02:14and, of course, 1999's The Talented Mr. Ripley.
02:18Zalian shared what makes this take on Tom Ripley different from those we've seen before.
02:22I think you get to know him better in this one.
02:24I mean, I think that the, you know, the long format allows you to spend more time with him
02:29and to, I don't know, get into the details of not only the plot of what he does
02:36but the moment-to-moment thought processes that he has
02:39and, you know, makes a full character to have that much time.
02:45I mean, for instance, we don't really know where he comes from in the movie adaptations.
02:52Very little time is spent on that.
02:55I thought it was important to know where this guy comes from
02:57and who he is before he gets to Italy to know what his circumstances are.
03:03Ripley is now streaming on Netflix.
03:05For more on Ripley, head to THR.com.
03:08For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Tiffany Taylor.
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