Over the course of Ripley‘s eight episodes on Netflix, we watch as conman extraordinaire Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott) forges passports, commits mail fraud, steals a Picasso, and murders multiple people. Indeed, Patricia Highsmith’s original novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley, is famous for the way it lulls us into rooting for a conniving cheat, best-known for taking on the identity of one of his wealthy and charming victims.
Throughout Ripley, the eponymous character plays various games of cat and mouse with Italian police inspectors and wealthy nemeses who cotton to his real motives. One person who doesn’t like Tom from the jump is Dickie Greenleaf’s (Johnny Flynn) “author” girlfriend Marge Sherwood (Dakota Fanning). While Tom believes that she’s simply jealous of the close connection he and Dickie share (before Tom eventually murders the man), she remains the character closest to unraveling his complex game… all the way through the Ripley finale.
“Listen, I just think Marge sees Tom gets one look at him and just doesn’t trust him. You know, for whatever reason, I think it’s just really as plain and simple as that,” Dakota Fanning told Decider during a recent interview. “I don’t think it’s a lot deeper than she just doesn’t trust him and she doesn’t trust him around anything to do with her or her life or her or Dickie or anyone.”
“I think it’s just based on kind of a gut feeling, you know, at the beginning, and then, you know, you get to see how the mistrust changes and ebbs and flows throughout the eight episodes, which was so juicy to get to dive into.”
What Fanning is referring to is the fact that by the end of Ripley, Tom has convinced Marge to essentially be his friend. She pals around with him in Venice, calling him “Tommy” to his chagrin.
However the illusion is almost shattered when Marge discovers that Tom has Dickie’s beloved ring in his possession. She confronts him in a taut scene where it appears Tom is planning to use his ashtray to once again eliminate a person in his path to freedom.
“To film that scene, I mean, the intensity, how tense our bodies were…just the intensity of the walk and the angles…You’re exhausted,” Fanning said. “We’re just standing there pretty still the entire time, but I was like exhausted as if I’d been running all day. Like that’s how it felt.”
“You could feel the tension when we were filming and I’ve seen it and could feel it there, too.”
Just when it seems Marge is going to piece everything together and tell Tom she knows that he murdered Dickie, she reveals that the ring is actually proof that Dickie died by suicide. It’s a reprieve for both Marge and Tom, allowing both characters to move on. Because of that, Fanning wasn’t entirely sure if Marge truly believed Tom’s con or just went for the easy exit out.
“I don’t know whether she chooses to believe him in the end because it’s easier and she needs to move on, or whether she really believes him. And I don’t even think it matters,” Fanning said. “You know, it’s kind of like the book has to close and she closes it. For whatever reason, it just, that’s the way that it is. And that’s what Tom’s hoping for.”
“I think it’s just the brilliance of Tom, you know? He almost can’t be outsmarted. You know, he has a way around everything.”
