In the spy miniseries “The Sympathizer”, Robert Downey Jr. appears in several distinct roles. But why does the American actor lend his features to several characters?
The mini-series The Sympathizer is an event in more than one way. Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning adaptation is a co-creation by Park Chan-wook, the South Korean director of Old Boy and Mademoiselle. This spy story set at the end of the Vietnam War features Hoa Xuande, while Robert Downey Jr. lends his features to several different characters.
Robert Downey Jr. power 4!
This process used by chameleon actors such as Peter Sellers and Mike Myers explores a new facet of Robert Downey Jr’s acting talent. Awarded at the start of the year with the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, the latter delivers this this time a quadruple performance in the roles of CIA agent, professor, elected representative of Congress or even filmmaker.
Why was Robert Downey Jr. given four roles in the series? The decision was made by Park Chan-wook and program co-creator Don McKellar when the series was being written. In order for each character to embody a different aspect of American society, the South Korean filmmaker arrived at “to the conclusion that the same actor would be needed to play these characters so that the audience could clearly grasp this idea.”
“We wanted these characters to be different, but without falling into the cartoonish side” added Don McKeller to our colleagues at Hollywood Reporter. “We wanted to explore the man behind it all, because in a way all four of them are connected.” Credited in the series as an actor, Robert Downey Jr. was also involved as a producer.
Four entirely improvised roles?
This double role gave him greater freedom of play, and allowed him to indulge in numerous improvisations on set. A working method considered confusing but nevertheless rewarding for his playing partner Hoa Xuande. But the performance of “RDJ” was not limited to improvisation according to screenwriter Don McKeller:
I think that when people talk about improv, there is an impression of a selfish act but that is not the case, and I also told him that I want to defend it, because people will believe that he improvised all his dialogues, but in truth he followed the script in its broad outlines. And some of his craziest lines seem improvised, but were actually written into the script.
Episodes of the mini-series The Sympathizer can be found every Monday exclusively on Prime Video, via the paid Warner Pass subscription.
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