Dickie is a much more hollow and conservative and uninteresting character, but that's the irony to me. That's why it was great to cast Matt Damon, who appears much more suited to play Dickie Greenleaf than he is to play Tom Ripley, because he has all the gifts you could hope for. So I tried to make certain that there's not a pathology attached to homosexuality. Also, it's quite evident to me that Ripley is looking for love wherever he may find it. Of course, I struggled against the film being reduced to that headline.
People talk about a gay serial killer.
Well, a serial killer is somebody who lives to kill in some way and derives pleasure from it, but Ripley is an entirely reactive character. He finds himself in a position where he feels he has no choice. In some ways, the story is about trying to understand what prompts somebody to act with such extremism. His fear is not to be identified as gay, but to be identified as worthless. His fear is to be rejected for who he is, not for some sexual proclivity.