The makers of Robert Downey Jr’s historical black comedy drama The Sympathizer have offered an insight into the casting of the Oscar-winning actor in four different characters, revealing that co-creator and co-director Park Chan-wook came up with the idea.
A 35-second-long video shared by Downey on Instagram shows the makers elaborating why they decided to cast the actor in different roles. Downey also appears in the short video which he posted along with the caption, “Projections of The Captain. Watch a new episode of the @HBO Original Limited Series #TheSympathizer tonight at 9pm ET, exclusively on @streamonmax.”
The Sympathizer is based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name by Viet Thanh Nguyen, who is also an executive producer on the show. Nguyen appears first in the video talking about Chan-wook’s idea. “Park Chan-wook had this terrific idea to cast one actor to play most of the roles of the white guys,” the author said.
Chan-wook said, “The reason why it made sense was all of these characters, they are various faces of imperialism that invaded Asian countries.”
Downey, who is also an executive producer on the show, talking about his roles said, “These characters poke fun, while speaking to many of the larger truths of the era.”
“The four characters that Robert plays are projects of The Captain (Hoa Xuande). There is a reason behind it that they all share similar features and therefore the similar actor,” added the actor’s wife and executive producer Susan Downey. She also hinted that there is a ‘great little surprise’ by the show’s final episode.
Set during the Vietnam War, the story follows a North Vietnamese spy, the Captain who flees to the USA but continues to spy on the South Vietnamese refugees there. Downey plays four characters – CIA agent Claude, graduate school professor Hammer, South California congressman Ned Godwin and amateur filmmaker Niko Damianos.
Streaming since April 14, four episodes of the seven-episode series have been released so far. The Sympathizer is available to stream on JioCinema in India.