Sympathize with the plight of actors who have to keep 8 million things straight — for example, Hoa Xuande and Robert Downey Jr. of the upcoming HBO series The Sympathizer. Xuande plays the Captain, a North Vietnamese spy who is spying on South Vietnamese who then must live in America, still pretending to be South Vietnamese — and then starts consulting on a movie about the Vietnam War. A lot to keep straight, right? But that’s not to minimize the role of Downey, who plays four separate antagonists. Whew! The series, based on the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen, is co-showrun by Park Chan-wook (Decision to Leave) and Don McKellar (The Drowsy Chaperone). Other cast members include Fred Nguyen Khan, Toan Le, Nguyen Cao Ky Duyen, and Sandra Oh. The trailer leaves us unsure about when the show is really coming out (it just says 2024), but maybe that’s a tactic. Spies never let you know too much.
Everybody’s Playing Several Roles in The Sympathizer
