 According to Sam Kashners "Vanity Fair" article about the making of  this movie, Sal Mineo (qv) claimed that both his director,  Nicholas Ray (qv), and his costar, James Dean , encouraged him  to play his character Plato as being homosexual and in love with  Deans character Jim. Mineo said that Ray encouraged him to use his  own bisexuality to inform the portrayal, and that Dean told him to  "Look at me the way I look at Natalie [Wood]." He also asked Dean  what it was he wanted the most and he replied, "a drivers license."  He then told Dean to "look at him like he is your license." The  article reports that Mineo "later commented that he had portrayed  the first gay teenager on film."